Coronet Peak Avalanche

LATEST: A snowboarder caught in an avalanche near Coronet Peak skifield in the South Island this afternoon has died.
The man was found unconscious around 7pm - more than two hours after the slip - and medical staff attempted to resuscitate him. He was airlifted to Queenstown Lakes District Hospital at around 8.10pm but was unable to be revived.
A companion, believed to be a family member, sounded the alarm shortly after the avalanche at 4.40pm, mobilising rescue and emergency services, including ski patrols from nearby skifields, an alpine cliff rescue team and dogs.

The man was located using an electronic search device approximately two hours after the avalanche, police said. Rescuers had to dig two and half metres through snow to recover him.
He was the second person to die in an avalanche in the South Island's mountains in just over a week.
Police said two snowboarders, including the deceased man, had been in the area of the avalanche, known as Dirty Four Creek. It was graded a class 2.5 avalanche.
NZSki, which operates the skifield, said the avalanche happened outside its boundaries.
There had been several avalanches in the back country areas of Coronet Peak recently, spokeswoman Alexa Forbes told Radio New Zealand.
The death will be referred to the coroner, police said.
No further details would be released till other members of the family had been advised, police said.
The NZ Mountain Safety Council says the Queenstown region has been at a high avalanche danger for the past 12 days.

"The Mountain Safety Council recommends staying out of the backcountry in these circumstances," said the council's Acting Avalanche Programme Manager, Gordon Smith.

"The snow pack is unstable and avalanches are releasing under light triggers. The avalanche danger remains high and with the weather forecast predicting more heavy snowfalls for the Southern Alps over the coming days,
the avalanche danger, if anything, may increase," Mr Smith said.
On July 24 a large avalanche in the Southern Alps' Rugged Range killed an Australian heli-skier and temporarily buried two others.
- The Press and NZPA

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2712599/Missing-man-killed-in-avalanche

Holy Sh*t. Pretty shocked about this to be honest. It was just outside the boundary of Coronet Peak (left of the 6 person lift)

RIP to the poor guy.

robinph

There was a load of dynamite being dropped in The Remarkables today as I guess they were being extra careful.

I saw another report which said something along the lines of some "electronic device" being used to locate him, which I guess was probably a Recco type thing as they are in so many jackets and sallopets now. Might get myself a transciver at some point though before they take us up on the heli ski trip just to be a bit more familiar with the things.

@Greengates

If you're going heli-skiing, they'll give you one, but if you love going off piste big style then get one, think they are 500 - 1000 NZD.

They found the guy by a signal on his mobile phone but the poor guy was pretty much screwed 5 minutes after the avalanche occured.

I got stuck today up in Coronet Peak trying to be too adventurous, went up the 4 seater and skiied over to the 6 person and then was coming down that last trail @Greengates, took trail off to the right and ended up going about 300 metres outside the perimeter by fluke and got stuck in powder up to my waist. ****ing disaster, had to take the skis off, hold them in one hand, poles in the other and took me half an hour to walk back up the 300 metres because the snow was so powdery. Disaster and absolutely nobody near me either, couldn't see the main trails because there were hils seperating me, I didn't know it was not skiiable because there was no boundary thing, absolutely wrecked me walking those 300 metres through that powder.

robinph

robinph wrote: »

There was a load of dynamite being dropped in The Remarkables today as I guess they were being extra careful.

I saw another report which said something along the lines of some "electronic device" being used to locate him, which I guess was probably a Recco type thing as they are in so many jackets and sallopets now. Might get myself a transciver at some point though before they take us up on the heli ski trip just to be a bit more familiar with the things.

Check this out Re: Remarkables

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/queenstown-lakes/66990/boarder-has-ride-life-outrunning-avalanche

robinph

Heard about that one, and my trainer said last week that a couple of his mates were witnesses to it and were off chatting to the police afterwards.

We did that hike up yesterday as well and were taken down those chutes. Please ignore my unstylish skiing in this video, it was very very steep down there and I was being a bit of a wuss yesterday on some things. But it is worth watching until near the end, mostly to just see that there were others less successful than me at getting down it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSFO2k6yxLQ

Right at the bottom of that chute is the Lake Alta that was mentioned in the article. It's now frozen all over again, but the avalanche had smashed the surface of it which apparently very rarely happens due to the thickness of the ice.

robinph

Just had the first part of a training session with the ski patrol/ avalanche control people before we go off to the Remarks tomorrow to play with tranceivers, shovels and probes.

They said that the Recco stuff is basically only of use for finding bodies and they had actually found the body for the guy on Coronet on Monday using the big Recco device which detected his mobile phone.

Snowie

Its a shame, tho awareness of not to go back country on your own it just is not safe... No matter how inviting it looks. you need some one else with you to!

If your going to get a beacon get the mammut

linky http://www.backcountry.com/outdoorgear/Mammut-Pulse-Barryvox-Avalanche-Beacon/MAM0047M.html