Granite burial today?

I've only skied Granite a few times, and have stayed along the skier's left side of the windswept ridge, then skied either the looker's-leftmost yellow arrow or along the skier's right side of the looker's-leftmost chute. Getting onto the more central "spines"/ridgelets is more committing. The looker's-left chute feels more like an open slope in its upper third; the chute gets more pronounced lower on the mountain. I've only skied that side of Granite in spring/summer conditions; the cross-loading is spooky in winter, and it should be hard to catch it with great snow.

Working farther down the windswept ridge can help to mitigate hazard further, but there's no avoiding avalanche terrain on Granite's south side.

Jakes father is obviously hurting, must be awful for him.  There's no point in arguing against his points in the actual newspaper site where he will see them most likely.  Respect his opinion and save the arguements for elsewhere.  The one I sort of agree with is the avalanche danger on Granite Mtn in that SW avi chute.  I'm never riding that, ever, it has to much bad karma for me to even contemplate going anywhere near it, low rating or not.  Its a tunnel creek place for me.

RIP Jake.

Boy, I agree with pretty much everything you said.  Granite's south face is so tempting to me, but really a bad call more often than not.  Also, in a way I have to give a reluctant nod to the gist of a lot Jake's dad's points, even if not technically accurate: the fact is that a 10m burial under wet slab is a tall order for a transceiver search or avalung to offset.  Surviving that really would be nothing short of a miracle.  Most of the high tech gear we have is best suited for shallow burials of loose dry or small slabs.  Obviously it's better to have the gear and a lot of experience with how to use it, than it is to leave it at home.  But, it's even more key to be realistic about the limitations of the gear, and avoid treacherous terrain altogether.

The father is correct in much of what he states. Condolences. 

I agree.

I think most people have heard of the Kubler-Ross model of the five stages of grief . The stages are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. Bill Derry's comments in the Edmonds News express his feelings of anger:

myedmondsnews.com/2014/04/april-18-memor...raduate-jacob-derry/

There is no such thing as backcountry ski safety.

Jake’s beacon didn’t work because he was actually in an avalanche.  In an actual avalanche beacons often don’t work because they are crushed.  Jake’s beacon was crushed and also stopped working because it was ripped off his body.  Beacons are designed to stop working when the straps are removed because they assume you are done skiing.

Jake’s avalung was shredded.  An avalung is also useless in an avalanche because in an avalanche your lungs are compressed and you can’t breathe and because you can’t move your arms to reach it because you are trapped by snow or because your arms are broken.

The probe and the shovel are useless if the beacon doesn’t work and you don’t know where the body is.  In a real avalanche, the snow is compacted and turns to ice.  The search and rescue crew needed a chain saw to get Jake’s body out of the ice.

The avalanche danger on Granite Mountain is permanently extreme.  The entire face is an avalanche chute and there are no trees because of that.  The avalanche forecast for the day Jake died was “moderate”.  That’s about as low as it ever gets in the winter.  The forecast was a mistake. They later changed it to extreme. Backcountry skiers should not trust the forecasts.

Ski movies often show pictures of skiers skiing out of avalanches. These are dangerously misleading.  Those skiers are just in minor snow slides or at the very edge of a slide.  They are extremely lucky.  Jake could ski any mountain but when the entire mountain is moving underneath you there is nothing for your skies to ski against.

There is just too much information out there and too many product advertisements that imply backcountry skiing is safe.  It’s not.

Too many young men have trouble fully comprehending the dangers of backcountry skiing and there is just too much information out there that suggests it is safe.

I don't agree that the avalanche forecast was wrong that day. I think Moderate was the right forecast for the region as a whole that day, but the meaning of Moderate is often misunderstood. NWAC explicitly declined to change the forecast when news of the accident came to light. (See my previous post .) They changed it later as the weather got warmer, as I recall.

But I sympathize with the rest of Bill Derry's comments. He's angry at a backcountry skiing culture that implies that equipment can keep you safe, a culture that uses images of people skiing out of avalanches to glamorize high risk skiing. I suspect that he is also angry at us for being in denial about the dangers. He's angry at us for the way we nearly always deal with the loss of a fellow skier, by bargaining that our better gear, better training, or better judgment will spare us the same fate.

If you've lost somebody close to you in the mountains, you'll probably recognize the feelings that Bill Derry expresses. If not, it's worth making the effort to absorb them.

Do people commonly ski that line into the chute? My eye naturally gravitates to the spines. I tend to avoid big bowls and chutes not only because I find them dangerous but also because they are boring.

When I look closely on the high-resolution photo on NWAC -- I see ski tracks leading right into the top point of the crown -- and that point is pretty close to the wind-scoured rocks on the left most rib.    I'm not sure the "spine lines" you've drawn in yellow would have ensured safety. 

I have a memory of an avalanche from those south slopes of Granite reaching I-90 during the '70s -- I think it is slope to avoid, except under exceptionally favorable conditions.

That looks like a really bad place to get caught. High speed contact with trees(even small ones) is not good, something I experienced first hand recently. I think a lot of people don't appreciate hazards like trees. Any slide in that chute would likely be un-survivable.

When I look closely on the high-resolution photo on NWAC -- I see ski tracks leading right into the top point of the crown -- and that point is pretty close to the wind-scoured rocks on the left most rib.    I'm not sure the "spine lines" you've drawn in yellow would have ensured safety.  

I have a memory of an avalanche from those south slopes of Granite reaching I-90 during the '70s -- I think it is slope to avoid, except under exceptionally favorable conditions.

Donations to K.C. SAR or Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance on behalf of Jake Derry: tilt.tc/LYAG