Pacific NW/AK/BC Tree well rescue at Baker

[locknload]

Always have your shovel..in bounds or not if you tree ski. Such a good reminder.

 

[pchewn]

Reminds me why I don't ski trees. I do not have the strength, flexibility, speed, and stamina to rescue myself or others.

 

[tomahawkins]

@Posaune , do you recognize where this took place? Nothing looks familiar.

 

[graham418]

That is quite dramatic .How lucky that the rescuer was prepared with a shovel, and that he even saw the poor guy in the first place.

 

[Crank]

It looks to me like he rescued the tree welled snowboarder just fine without his shovel. He only got it out after clearing the guys head. Yes it probably made it easier to get him the rest of the way out.

I was once caught in a bit of a well, however with harder snow and head not buried. My pack made it a lot harder to wriggle my way out of the situation. These days I never wear one for in-bounds.

 

[Tricia]

That is quite dramatic .How lucky that the rescuer was prepared with a shovel, and that he even saw the poor guy in the first place.

He skied over the guys snowboard, which was the only thing above the snow.
I'm going to watch it again. I'm sure I missed something.

 

[James]

You know there’s a lot of snow when…

You ski over someone buried under the snow.

Was talking to some kids a couple of weeks ago about tree wells after skiing in the woods. In the East it’s theoretical mostly but lots of them ski out west from time to time. It’s still somewhat unreal.

 

[graham418]

Where I ski, tree wells are about 8 inches deep. Not as much of an issue

 

[1Turn2Many]

I don’t want to watch that twice. It would be interesting to ask the rescuer if he’d go for the shovel first if ever again in the same situation. Job well done.

 

[tch]

Q: What happened to rescuer’s original partner? What was HE thinking when rescuer didn’t show up right behind him?

 

[Crank]

Q: What happened to rescuer’s original partner? What was HE thinking when rescuer didn’t show up right behind him?

At the end of the video it looked like you could see him sitting down, waiting a hundred yards or so down the slope where it opens up and flattens out. Not positive but I thought that's what I saw. I was wondering the same thing.

 

[James]

It looks to me like he rescued the tree welled snowboarder just fine without his shovel. He only got it out after clearing the guys head. Yes it probably made it easier to get him the rest of the way out.

Yes, but that was fresh powder. Had it been built up, sun softened wet snow that slides off the tree, much more difficult. Could use the ski as a shovel.

 

[Crank]

Yes, but that was fresh powder. Had it been built up, sun softened wet snow that slides off the tree, much more difficult. Could use the ski as a shovel.

That's what happened to me the time I got stuck. A giant clump of heavy ice and snow crusted to tree I hit came down and landed on my back. I could barely move. Thought I might have been hurt very badly. It took at least 10 minutes for me to be able to first get my pack off and then manage to click out and start getting up and out. I was lying face first but my head was above snow possibly because it was heavy sun baked stuff.

 

[Posaune]

@Posaune , do you recognize where this took place? Nothing looks familiar.

I do not. I suspect this was out of bounds, not in the ski area. There is no place in bounds that would be track free like that in those conditions (unless it was very early in the day) and the few long views available don't look familiar. Possibly down into the creek off of 8? Scary stuff.

 

[Even_Stevens]

I saw another comment stating this was just out of bounds towards Shuksan Arm, so yeah. Probably close to C8.

 

[Slim]

Man this is scary, and lucky!
good reminder for me and my family as we head out to Mammoth in a week, thinking how deep it is there, the treewells must be massive

 

[Posaune]

Luckily Mt. Baker Ski Area requires training and equipment before a person can access the back country from inbounds. If they catch you breaking this rule they will pull your pass for good. I saw a couple of kids who were preparing to leave the area the other day without any equipment and they were pulled up short by an employee before they ducked the rope.

There is a real backcountry culture at Baker that stresses safety. It's needed.

 

[Jenny]

They were on GMA this morning. I heard them say it was OOB and that snowboarder's partner/s had gotten ahead of him. Rescuer was with at least one other person too, but they didn't say where that person was.

 

[Henry]

I prefer skiing trees with 3 people. It's a much better way for everyone to be in sight of someone. And don't ski far ahead. Stop and look back for the skier behind you. Stay close enough together to be able to hike up and help your partner.

 

[Jerez]

I prefer skiing trees with 3 people. It's a much better way for everyone to be in sight of someone. And don't ski far ahead. Stop and look back for the skier behind you. Stay close enough together to be able to hike up and help your partner.

This is excellent advice but hard to do. To get any flow at all you want to link at leat 4 or 5 turns. If the fella behind you falls, you are already too far to climb back up in any reasonable time. Usually best to have the strongest skier in the rear but not foolproof.