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SBrown

So much better than a pro
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Just read an update that the two skiers they pulled out were alive ... which is amazing, sounds like it was 45 min after avalanche happened? But that's hard to say, still breaking news. Don't know "how" alive, either.
 

jmeb

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Kachina is most definitely inbounds. Finding people without beacons in terrain like that is a damn miracle. Hope worse news doesn't surface.

Twitter shoes a probe line across a huge avy path. Yikes.

DxJDGWGUwAA1Xwo.jpg
 

Bruuuce

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Wow, especially scary when it happens inbounds. I guess this is a good reminder that it can always happen anywhere.

Hope nobody is still missing.
 

tball

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Oh my. Those probe lines make my heart sink. Hoping for good news.

From Taos' Twitter feed it looks like Katchina opened for the season two days ago, but was closed yesterday due to poor visibility. These are the conditions posted this morning.

Screenshot_20190117-152504.png
 
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HDSkiing

HDSkiing

You’re Sliding On-Snow; Don’t Over-Think it!
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Local news is reporting that it was on the K3 Chute. That chute (along with others) runs down onto “Easy Trip” a cat walk from the top of lift 4 that takes you to the bottom of the Kachina Peak lift. Wondering if or how much of the slide crossed the cat walk, lots of traffic through there most days, probably why they are uncertain of numbers.

The heavy snowfall around here, along with some high winds have made things dicey. Another storm with high winds rolling through tonight.
 

Mike King

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Well that's a big bummer. Searching around, I found out that the Taos Avalanche Information Center closed in February last year due to a lack of funding, not that it would have any impact on the slide inbounds at Taos. There is a report that the 30 foot probes were not hitting the bottom of the snowpack. A pretty scary situation for patrol.

I hope the victims are not too badly injured and recover (and quickly).

Mike
 

BTaylor

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Yikes! "Taos News photograph Morgan Timms, who was at the scene, said the snow from the avalanche is so deep that the probes, which are as long as 30 feet, would not reach the bottom of the [avalanche] snowpack."
 

SBrown

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Well that's a big bummer. Searching around, I found out that the Taos Avalanche Information Center closed in February last year due to a lack of funding, not that it would have any impact on the slide inbounds at Taos. There is a report that the 30 foot probes were not hitting the bottom of the snowpack. A pretty scary situation for patrol.

I hope the victims are not too badly injured and recover (and quickly).

Mike

Is there such thing as a 30-ft probe? Sounds rather unwieldy.
 

Analisa

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According to this update, the two they pulled from the slide are alive but rough shape (CPR, one taken to the hospital by ambulance, the other by heli, patients set up with IV/intubator).

But the good news is that it sounds like additional search has been called off, no additional victims.
 

EricG

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Wow. This is so unfortunate. It also sucks the local Toas avalanche center closed last year.
 

Jim McDonald

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Best wishes to victimse; :hug::hail: to responders!
 

nay

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Apparently ski patrol had shelled there today as part of standard avy control. What I’ve read says the two were buried for an hour, both in critical condition.

One has to wonder how definitive ‘no additional victims” can truly be, except to the extent nobody else is reported missing.
 

KingGrump

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My brother-in-law and my nephew was on the Kachina lift when the slide happened. They skied down and helped with the probe line. Patrol bought up a ton of probes from the patrol shack on top of chair #4. They were there for about 3 hours.
 

Brock Tice

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I was not there today. Telling my friends and family that keep messaging me about this too. I worry a little bit that they rushed to open the Kachina Peak lift, it was open to hikers for less than a week.

I have recco in my helmet and shell but maybe it's time for a beacon...
 

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