The Kendall Trap

In a January 1, 2017 thread , I promised a detailed document regarding what I call "The Kendall Trap", the confluence of access, seductive terrain, and skier density that combine to form a hazardous environment for experienced backcountry skiers.

Today is December 19, two years to the day after the 12/19/2015 fatal accident on Kendall Peak. This week's weather holds exactly the sort of conditions in which I believe the Trap is most hazardous. For these reasons, I have published a draft of the document today; perfect is the enemy of the good.

Many people will be looking for storm skiing at the Pass in the coming week -- please choose your routes thoughtfully, rule out terrain before you leave the trailhead, deliberately stop to assess hazard when leaving protected areas, and choose routes that reflect the reality that others may be above or below you.

I've created a website dedicated to backcountry safety on Kendall Peak's west side: www.kendallpeak.org . Direct PDF link: " The Kendall Trap ".

I plan several refinements to the draft document. Your comments, in this thread or privately (charlie@charliehagedorn.com), are gratefully appreciated.

Thanks for putting in the time on this. I haven't ski d the pass since I moved across the water in 14 or so but that 15 accicdent really got my attention and I think about it often. Kendall is a complex little mountain and I can imagine it must have grown in complexity with the increased traffic. Hopefully this shows up in people's searches for info about touring there. Granite could probably also benefit from something like this.

Thanks, freeski.

Regarding 'extremely experienced':

From the NWAC accident report for 4/9/10:

Group Profile: All members were snow professionals with backgrounds as ski
patrollers, mountain guides, outdoor educators and avalanche instructors. Each member
had logged over 100 backcountry ski days.

Skier 1: Male. 27 years old. Level II avalanche certified. EMT-B.
Skier 2: Female. 26 years old. Level II avalanche certified. Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC).
Skier 3: Male. 26 years old. Level III avalanche certified. OEC.
Skier 4: Male. 28 years old. Level III avalanche certified. EMT-B.


To avoid debating 'extremely', I'll find a more quantitative adjective/description.

Thanks Charlie. This is great information.

A tiny suggestion: How about rotating Figure 8 so the reader doesn't have to tip his/her head to the right to look at it.

Though peripheral to your subject, I think skiing Kendall Trees on a deep snow, high traffic day provides enormous opportunity for parties to get separated in the steep trees, which could turn tragic if there was a tree-well accident (very easy to happen in that area with deep snow).

After my outing on 12/19/15, I concluded that carrying two-way radios in that zone may be a good idea. It's easy to lose sight of your partner as they descend in the trees, then follow the wrong track and get separated. We were yelling back and forth on a couple occasions that day after this occurred.

Thanks, Lowell.

I'm planning to rotate Figure 8's caption and page so that it displays well both in PDF-form and in print; it will take me a few hours of thrashing with LyX/LaTeX (#academicproblems). I wanted to get it out today .

I've constrained the photo-essay to the terrain above treeline, as it's specific to the location. Tree-wells were the suspected proximate cause of the 12/19/15 disappearance until the accident site was discovered. A tree well note would fit well within the 'coda'.

Radios are amazing (thoughts here ). Susan and I love 'em. With sufficient radio discipline, one can imagine coordinating inter-party movement with them; a topic for the future.

Charlie -- I 100% agree that Kendall contains a number of higher risk areas and that it's growing popularity adds additional risks that were not an issue when the number of skiers on any given day was small.

There are a number of other areas around Snoqualmie Pass and indeed the region that face similar issues from popularity and high avalanche potential.

For example the nearby Red Mtn has killed a number of people in almost the exact same spot

media.nwac.us.s3.amazonaws.com/media/fil...n_fatality_final.pdf

media.nwac.us.s3.amazonaws.com/media/fil...tain_13_apr_2013.pdf

Also the entire "Alpental Valley" has been the scene of many fatalities over the decades -- Popularity and high avalanche potential are big factors here.

So I'm wondering about your thoughts on highlighting the hazards on Kendall vs a more general approach about the need to take into account the presence of other parties in risk evaluation and travel choices.