The ski mountain has been a war zone lately. We had a huge dump of snow and they couldn't get the road open for a couple days. Part of the crew had to stay up on the hill over the whole weekend with nowhere to sleep and no fresh clothes, etc. I was in town but kept getting calls every two hours through the night with road updates, waiting to go up. Finally they decided to send the whole staff up in helicopter trips, which was pretty rad. We got the place open for a few hours in the afternoon. Then I was back in my cat, 19 hour work day.
The following morning was eventful. Two cars off the road, one upside down full of ski instructors. Then about 11am, an avalanche swept down through one of the bowls. So they stopped everything, took everyone out into the parking lot, and counted heads. Meanwhile they had all the patrollers, two dogs (who also wear avalanche beacons), and two helicopters searching around. It became apparent that it was too dangerous for patrol to operate in there so they retreated and just rode in the helicopter looking for signs. Nobody came forward to say that anyone in their party was missing, so they just hoped for the best and opened the ski area back up.
I skied after they re-opened and stopped at an overlook of the slide. It was pretty massive.
intentional release by explosives after the storm
unintentional slide triggered by skiers
car off the road
one of our search dogs, all tuckered out after digging in the snow
yours truly
video of helicopter commute:
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