Fatal avalanche at Crystal Mountain 2/24/07

More info - Man killed in avalanche identified :

www.thenewstribune.com/news/updates/stor...90262p-5699648c.html

Thanks Larry.  The article said (my emphasis):

The area the men entered is east of the resort and part of Mount Rainier National Park, said Tiana Enger, the resort’s marketing director. It is marked with signs and rope to notify skiers that it is out of bounds, she said.

Of course they mean west of the resort. Typical news blooper.

My condolences to the family and friends of Stanley Quande. Does anybody here know him?

The online report from the Tacoma paper, The Tribune, is a little different that what was printed in the Sunday paper.  The paper version includes:

".... likely died from physical trauma rather than suffocation, [Tiana] Enger said.  Authorities [hadn't] officially declared a cause of death...."

"... 'There is a lot of snow out there settling on a very hard packed layer, which creates conditions for an avalanche', Enger said...."

" ... 'The incident is a reminder that people must have proper training and be able to judge the risk of an avalanche before leaving a controlled area', said Paul Baugher, who heads the ski patrol.  'We do not recommend that our skiers and snowboarders leave the ski area boundary',  he said in a news release."


Edit:  from q13.trb.com/news/kcpq-skier-022507,0,494...ory?coll=kcpq-news-1

"..."I'm not the Medical Examiner," says Paul Baugher, Ski Patrol Director at Crystal Mountain, "but that would've been a very difficult avalanche, based on my experience to survive. So I don't think it was a question of time on how long a person had been buried.""

While talking with crystal patrol today on the chairlift, I learned that the fatality did not occur in kempers but in an area known as park city. Yep,yep,yep. Anyways, thought that I should share that.

I met Stan last New Years Eve. He was a friend of a good friend (who called me with details). Seemed to be a great guy, totally dedicated, passionate skier (still putting a sandwich in his parka on powder days in his 50's!) and pretty knowledgeable. He and D. Curry had skied north back all day and had seen no big releases. they decided to finish the day with a line they had skied several times this season (a ridge-gulley system "Park City" between the better known Kempers and Little Richards). Stan got caught by a 30-40"crown line that released on the January hard layer. He was killed by impacts related to his 1000'+ fall.

I skied Crystal all day Saturday (inbounds) and did not release anything on West Face (same aspect as the accident) but the snow was very, very deep and I could see how an initial soft snow avy could have loaded the pack enough to cause a deeper failure. I did see a release from the banana chutes when skiing eagle crest, but it was a soft snow release.
I will let the experts analyze the incident, but I think it just goes to show that variations in danger can vary greatly from place to place, especially in the middle of a storm cycle.
Let us celebrate the life of a mountain brother who died doing what he loved. He left a wife and two great kids (all great skiers). They love Crystal and spend nearly every weekend in the motorhome skiing the heck out of the place. Our thoughts are with them in this time of loss.

Our thoughts out to the family. I hate to hear about incidents like this. Not only does it make me wonder "who?" and if I know them, but also of the danger of life and our pursuit of it in the most enjoyable way we could want. Maybe that's skiing, maybe that's something else.

"....Up until the 2004-05 season, the ski patrol controlled Kempers because of confusion about the ski area boundary. When the park told the ski area to stop avalanche control on Kempers, Baugher asked the park for permission to permanently close the area....."

Crystal backcountry enticing, deadly: www.thenewstribune.com/adventure/story/6395066p-5703492c.html