Reply to 8 Skiers dead after accidental Avalanche in California!

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Reply to "8 Skiers dead after accidental Avalanche in California!"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Nature is harsh. You can prepare and have all the experience and training and equipment in the world but when it becomes man against natural forces - be it fire, water, cold, snow - nature is stronger.

But there is also an incredible amount of reward for spending time in nature and reaping the benefits of the beauty and adventure. Is there a risk - of course. But life has risk and you only live one life. We can all die tomorrow. For those of us who aren't risk adverse, you accept the risk of nature and adventure just like you do every time you get in your car. [/quote]

Growing up without your mom because she wasn't risk adverse and loved nature? I doubt most kids think that's worth the cost. [/quote]

Its a fluke accident. That is why it made the news. Women and yes mothers (and fathers) go into the backcountry and the ocean and other places that have risk - all the time and 99.999% of the time, it all goes well.  Driving a car is still more dangerous. [/quote]

Not a fluke accident at all.[/quote]

Will wait to hear from the survivors about their decision making. I don't believe that the guides, the tour company, and the women were completely indifferent to all the warnings, intentionally ignored all protocols, and deliberately put themselves directly into harms way. [/quote]

They set out on a ski trip on Sunday with warnings of extreme weather approaching. That was a stupid decision. [/quote]

New poster here. I can imagine they felt pressure to participate. Group think is the most dangerous dynamic when assessing risk.  They booked this 9 months ago apparently. I imagine they were excited, spent much energy and time planning it out, and I assume a few of them were pushing harder for it, and the others fell in line and agreed. This happens in all groups.

The biggest lesson is if you feel there’s a risk, bow out - even if it means disappointing your group or losing big money. [/quote]

I guarantee that time-driven anxiety played a huge role in this poor decision making.

These are wealthy women who are executives, busy moms, and advanced outdoorsmen. They planned this long in advance and likely couldn’t accommodate rescheduling. Then they decide to leave (rather than wait it out an extra day or two) likely because people have to get back to their real life responsibilities.

From everything I read, the guide took them on an alternative route back to the parking lot that was less avalanche prone than the normal route. But they still had to pass at the bottom of a few couloirs and were too close to the run out. With the poor weather, they may not have seen how close they were to the couloir run out. It was just dumb bad luck - the couloir avalanched as they were passing by it. 10 minutes before or later they would’ve been fine. [/quote]

I highly doubt this was just some bad coincidence. They absolutely could have triggered the avalanche [/quote]
I assume they were 100 meters spaced to not trigger an avalanche, and to be able to see one start and abort the traverse. [/quote]

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