Tough day near Tahoe today....
 

Hearing about a couple inbounds slides at Alpine Meadows and another near Donner Pass. One fatality near Donner, one ski patrol heli'd out at Alpine, and one other very lucky dude unharmed there too. I'll find some links here in a minute....

EDIT:
Ok looks like fatal slide was INBOUNDS at Donner Ski Ranch. Ugh, not good.

Ski patrol buried:
http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20121224/NEWS/121229941/1066&ParentProfile=1051

Donner Ski Ranch:
http://www.news10.net/news/article/222487/2/Snowboarder-killed-in-Donner-Ski-Ranch-avalanche

::VIBES::

Sucks, to say the least. News says the boarder was buried for five hours before being found. One of his mates was saying they went to the ski patrol when their friend didn't show up after their run, but sp didn't start a search for three hours.

BTW (on edit); not dissing ski patrol. Just reporting what I'm seeing on CNN. Sp guy said they did an initial "courtesy search," but they deemed conditions were too hazardous to mount a full search. Which begs the question; if sp thought inbound conditions were so hazardous, why were they letting skiers and riders out?

Wow, I guess 4' of snow isn't necessarily a good thing. Tahoe Tribune reports a ski patrol buried at Alpine's Sherwood Bowl when a controlled explosion set off a larger than expected slide. He was found within 8 minutes and airlifted out.

At Squaw, a slide at KT22 took out three people. Fortunately nobody was seriously hurt. Crazy, all this shit happening inbounds! Though at Alpine, Sherwood was closed at the time.

Snow doesn't like rapid changes. 4ft of snow in such a short time is most definitely rapid change. Unusual even for Tahoe. Vibes to all the people involved. Sad day.

My avatar pic is from the top of Quail Face, 55 Chutes, just after a 3' dump, but it was late February with a solid base. I was a bit apprehensive, but we were staying right near Homewood, and I heard the bombs going off all morning before we went out. That made me feel a little better about dropping in...I might cartwheel down the hill, but at least I figured I wouldn't get buried. I did neither. Great rush! Got me ready for Kirkwood!

I actually had the Quail face rip lose on me in 93 I believe. Tahoe had been getting tons of snow for weeks. Someone had died on Quail face the week before. They had just blasted it. Same thing for me. Gave me quite a push.

Sadly I just read this morning that the ski patroller died from his injuries. Two avalanche deaths in the US, both from inbounds incidents. Unusual to say the least. RIP Bill Foster and thank you for making the slopes safer for all.

Patrol who was buried and lifted out died. The slide was higher and wider than it had ever been, according to the stories.

^^This. RIP. :(

Sucks. Especially on Christmas Eve!:thumbsdown:

Wow how sad. RIP :sad: