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beyond_gravity
Aug 30, 2008, 1:50 AM
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Registered: Jan 2, 2002
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http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2008/08/29/athabasca-avalanche-deaths.html
does anyone know anything more about this? I'm assuming what avalanched was probably either the traverse to climbers right on the regular route above those big cravesses, or some of that serac hanging off silverhorn came loose.
A snow avalanche seems so unlikely at this time of year...although I do remember driving a picking though about 2 feet of windslab, then suddenly loosing it into sugar snow benith. This seems unlikley to release though.
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time2clmb
Aug 30, 2008, 2:46 AM
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Registered: Apr 26, 2007
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Check the ACMG mountain conditions report. There is info in there along with a pic.
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gargrantuan
Aug 30, 2008, 7:47 PM
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Registered: Apr 1, 2005
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it was indeed a snow avalanche, one that caught the two climbers about 10m from safety. the days previous to the slide were cold and wet, with really strong gusts of wind up to 80km/h. the snow always accumulates in that basin (that is the third avalanche in three years which has caught people) because of the katabatics off the icefield. the snow that falls on the silverhorn and on the saddle above the ramp all gets blown on to the N. glacier of Athabasca and generally stays in 'death valley' (a 25o to 35o basin below the silverhorn and climber's left of the ramp). over the past week more than 30cms of snow fell above 3000m which contributed significantly to the loading.
the two climbers were found in a creavasse (newly opened this year) at the start of the ramp buried in debris. they seriously needed to get 10m more up the ramp to avoid being caught in the slide, they were swept roughly 100 feet. we noticed the slide at about 12:15pm and the wardens were notified at about 15:00 that a party of two were heading up the standard route by a guide in the area. the remainder of the day was spent looking at the slide area through scopes and binos trying to spot tracks, clothing, anything to tell us where the climbers were/are. nothing could be seen. the wardens found the rope at about 20:00h leading into the crevasse but darkness and weather prevented them from extracting the bodies until the following morning.
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