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Three die at Mammoth

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biffnix
Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:00 am Reply with quote
Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 184 Location: Bishop, CA
Damn. I took the day off yesterday to go snowboarding after the big storm. It was a bluebird day, the top hadn't been opened in days, so there was the potential for an epic day of steep-n-deep. And the top did, indeed open up shortly after 11am. First run, headed over to Scotty's (chair 23 wasn't running, so hiking it was a sure way to get fresh tracks). Second run, over on Dave's run. Third time up, I noticed on the way up that some poor soul was getting CPR in the rescue sled, *while* they were being skied down. I've never seen that before. When I got up, I hiked over to Drop-Out chute, and when I got back in the gondi, they unloaded us halfway, and said the top is closed until further noticed.

I was bummed, but then I saw the lift operators crying. Man. I walked over to chair 3 to see what happened, and it turns out that four ski patrollers were working by the fumarole (volcanic vent that leaks gas) off the back of Chair 3, when the snow around the vent collapsed, and two fell in. Two attempted a rescue. Only one lived. The other three were overcome by deadly gas.

What started off as a beautiful day turned into a really tragic one. Three guys, all at once. They died so I could have some fun sliding down snow on a piece of wood. Damn.

Joe G.
Bishop, CA

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bfg1971
Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:12 am Reply with quote
Joined: 06 May 2004 Posts: 3915 Location: ohio
Bummer, that's a bad day.
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ollieonadime
Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:37 am Reply with quote
Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 546 Location: Do you even know what a WAWA is?
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif.


Three members of a ski patrol team died Thursday when they plunged into a volcanic fissure at the Mammoth Mountain resort, a resort spokeswoman said.

Four patrol members were inspecting the mountain after heavy snowstorms, fencing off the gap in the rock, when they fell 21 feet into the volcanic vent.

Spokeswoman Joani Lynch said one of the patrol members survived the accident on the 11,053-foot peak in the Eastern Sierra.

Rescue efforts were conducted by other ski patrol members and local firefighters and paramedics.

None of the victims' names were immediately released.

The mountain, about a six-hour drive north of Los Angeles, is popular with skiers from Southern California. The peak towers over a dramatic landscape in a volcanically active region.

The region has been quiet of volcanic activity for six years, said Dave Hill, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park.

The accident was not related to any volcanic activity, he said.
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Upland_Yo
Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 6:31 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 2025 Location: 3600 Feet
RIP - shitty shitty day indeed.

Everyone is talking about around here. We have the vent issues as well in Oregon and this shows how bad it can get. I was with a buddy three weeks ago and we came over a ridge and he went 12 feet straight down into a vent. He was fine but if I wasn't there to help him out it could have been worse.
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knowskateboarding
Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 4:35 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 14 Nov 2001 Posts: 2813 Location: Monster Island(NYC)


Damn, I've never heard of that. That sucks.

We were hiking the Grizzly Gulch in Utah once when a friend lagged behind and we lost track of him. 20 minutes later he came up and said he was walking and all of a sudden started sinking and thought he hit his knee on a rock but the snow kept falling around him. He was dangling from a big grate over a mining shaft.
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