Replying to Palisades Avalanches
I’m assuming most people heard that there was an inbounds slide on Wednesday which buried 5 guests and sadly took the life of a skier. What I find odd about it is that it happened right under the lift at kt22, which is a very highly trafficked area after a storm, especially on the first day of the lift opening. I’m curious what patrol missed before giving the green light. Unclear if they did any blasting in that exact spot where it popped but I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t. With all the new snow on top of almost zero base / unusually warm early season it seems ripe for an avy. It was a pretty good size slide as well(450 ft long, 10 ft high, 150 ft wide) so seems like it would have been triggered prior to opening. And now, after closing the resort for 24 hours following the death, there was a second avalanche on the alpine meadows side which buried I think 5 more skiers, everyone was dug out and 2 were hospitalized. Curious what people’s thoughts are on this. Do you think patrol fucked up twice? Or potentially getting over pressured from management to get stuff back open? Could just be a really shitty series of events but it’s a rare thing to see, especially two days in a row under these circumstances.
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