Avalanche kills two on Mount Washington

[Greg]

Avalanche kills two
on Mount Washington
By LORNA COLQUHOUN
Union Leader Correspondent

SARGENT’S PURCHASE — Two men died and another was injured yesterday morning, following one of the deadliest avalanches in Tuckerman Ravine in recent years.

“This was a major avalanche,” said Fish and Game Lt. Marty Garabedian.

Garabedian identified the victims as Thomas Burke, 46, of West Springfield, N.H., and Scott Sandburg, 32, of Arlington, Mass. The injured man was Richard Coyne, 45, of Berlin, Vt., who has a fractured shoulder.

Burke and Sandburg were in separate groups when the avalanche happened.

Tuckerman Ravine, with its 55-degree bowl on the eastern slope of Mount Washington, is famed for its spring skiing, but this time of year, it is ice climbers who ascend the steep slopes and deep winter came calling early here.

The U.S. Forest Service began issuing avalanche reports about a month ago.

In the daily avalanche advisory issued just after 7 a.m. yesterday, hikers and climbers were warned of moderate avalanche danger, which was expected to move to considerable danger by the end of the holiday weekend. A moderate rating, the second lowest on the danger rating scale, warns that human-triggered avalanches are possible and that climbers should be cautious on steeper terrain.

A “considerable” danger rating indicates that human-triggered avalanches are “probable” and that hikers and climbers should “be increasingly cautious in steeper terrain.” According to Garabedian, the slide was triggered just before 11:30 a.m. yesterday, when an area on the right side of the ravine slid for about 1,000 feet.

A total of seven men were involved. One was able to get out of the way of the avalanche and was not injured. A second man suffered serious injury to his chest and head and was taken to the Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin.

“Bystanders who witnessed the slide were able to get the first (climber) out,” Garabedian said. “They performed CPR on him for 20 minutes,” but were not able to save him.

By then, he said, U.S. Forest Service snow ranger Chris Joosen was on the scene and assembled a probe line, which located the second victim at 1:20 p.m.

In a statement issued by the forest service, a group of seven men had set off earlier in the day to climb the headwall. The avalanche was triggered when one man from a group of three climbers reached the lip of the headwall and triggered a snow slide that caught four climbers below.

The slide carried members of the group approximately 1,000 feet and buried four of the seven members of the climbing party.

According to a forest service account, “Of the four buried climbers, two were fatalities, one person had upper body injuries and one escaped uninjured.”

Garabedian described the conditions as “horrible” and the daily avalanche report noted that the summit of Mount Washington had received just under one inch of new snow.

Cold temperatures and northwest winds brought about “ideal conditions for new loading on the southeast and east aspect” of the ravine.

“(Yesterday’s) avalanche bulletin warned hikers and climbers of moderate avalanche danger that could be moving to considerable avalanche danger throughout the weekend,” according to the forest service. “The avalanche bulletin discussed the site aspects where the climbing group was located and warned of fluctuations from moderate to considerable avalanche danger in those vicinities throughout the weekend.”

Moderate danger is an indication that natural avalanches are unlikely but human-triggered avalanches are possible on steep snow covered open slopes and gullies. All back country visitors are warned to use caution in steep terrain.

“It’s full-on mid-winter conditions,” said Doug Mayer of Randolph, a member of Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue. “It’s easy to forget that in the valley if there’s one or two inches of snow, but 3,000 to 4,000 feet higher, it’s mid-winter.”

He was on Mount Washington earlier in the day, although not near where the avalanche happened. He described the activity in the area as “typical for a winter weekend.”

Source

 

[Greg]

Survivors tell of Tuckerman terror

Survivors tell of Tuckerman terror
December 3, 2002

By Patrick Joy

TIMES ARGUS STAFF

It had just begun to snow Friday as Berlin’s Rick Coyne, Plainfield’s Matt Couture and former Barre resident Tom Burke neared the summit of Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington.

The group of high school friends and Spaulding graduates had been to Tuckerman many times before, and moved steadily up the right-hand side of the ravine. Closing in on the summit, the group encountered a solid section of ice. Burke and Couture started up the frozen face, working steadily with ice axes and crampons. Coyne decided to skirt the ice on the right, not wanting to crowd his partners on the small face. His route proved the quicker one, and he took the lead up the mountain, climbing out of sight of his partners. Couture slid in behind Coyne, while Burke worked the ice alone.

Moving quickly and securely over the steepest part of the route, Coyne found himself in a deep patch of snow as the headwall laid back, deep drifts piled on the more gradual slope.

Coyne says he was nervous. Deep snow can poses serious avalanche danger if it hasn’t bonded well with the underlying snowpack. The avalanche level for Tuckerman on Friday was moderate – the second notch of a five-level scale – and Coyne said he watched the slope intently as he continued forward.

Below him, according to Couture, a miniature “sluff” avalanche broke loose, a couple inches of powder racing down the slope. It wasn’t much, but it struck Burke sharply on the ice and knocked him loose, sending him tumbling a few feet before he regained his grip. Shaken but unhurt, Burke decided to bail out. He discussed the deteriorating conditions with Couture, then turned and began to descend.

Above them, Coyne continued to climb, unaware that one of his partners had bailed and the other was considering doing the same. He worked straight up the mountain, about 30 steps, he says, into the deep early winter snow.

Silently, a crack appeared in the snowpack 100 feet above Coyne, racing out on both sides. The top layer of snow broke away from those beneath it, and what looked to Coyne like the entire bowl of the mountain lurched slowly towards the three climbers.

Coyne screamed in vain to his partners below. But there was no time to move, no time to find shelter. The snow accelerated, and suddenly, there was nothing but chaos.

“The ground just came out. There was nothing under me,” Coyne said, speaking from his home Monday. “I started to swim to keep myself up. That’s what you’re taught. I was able to keep myself up for a little ways, but then I took what must have been about a 100 foot plunge. I hit, and I think I was knocked unconscious for a fraction of a second. I started to feel the snow slow, and then it stopped and I was cemented. It was worse than a vice. I couldn’t breathe.”

All that was visible of Coyne on the surface were two fingers he managed to keep above the snow.

“I started moving my fingers,” Coyne said, his voice cracking. “I got my third finger out and started moving that. Then I felt somebody holding my hand.”

It took two men more than half an hour to dig Coyne from the snow, approximately 1,100 feet down the slope from where the avalanche had begun. His back was broken, his scapula fractured in the fall.

Couture was almost completely buried as well, only an arm extending above the surface.

“You don’t know where you are,” he said. “I felt my hand loose and I wasn’t choking. I just tried to dig my face out.”

Help came quickly to Couture. Another climber in the ravine loosened him from the snow unhurt.

But there was no sign of Burke.

“My back was broken and I couldn’t help anybody,” Coyne said, fighting to keep his voice steady, “(The men who rescued me) left to go look for Tom. My very good friend is gone. Tom loved the mountains. He lived to be on the mountains.”

Burke, 46, was later found dead, several feet below the surface.

Scott Sandberg, 32, of Massachusetts also lost his life, buried by the slide as he stood near the bottom of the bowl preparing to ascend, according to reports. His partner, Richard Doucette, survived, protected by a rock outcropping. According to published reports, both Burke and Sandberg died from massive head and neck injuries.

“It’s sad that these are the stories everyone always hears about, all the tragedy, but not all the good times we’ve had,” Coyne said. “What a special friend (Tom) was. He cared a lot about people. That’s a big part of our life. He left a son behind.”

Sandberg is survived by a young wife and daughter.

Twelve people have died in avalanches on Mount Washington in the last 150 years, and more than 100 have died on the peak from other causes including falls, hypothermia and storms. More people have perished on Mount Washington than any other peak in the country. Sunday, just two days after the deaths of Burke and Sandberg, four more climbers in Tuckerman were swept down the mountain in another avalanche. Three escaped unhurt, but one woman’s head was buried, causing neck injuries, according to a published report by U.S. Snow Forest Ranger Chris Joosen.

“I think with (Mount) Washington, it’s easy to get sandbagged into thinking it’s safe,” said experienced climber Alden Pellett of Hinesburg, who was himself swept over the headwall at Tuckerman on telemark skis years ago. He was carried down the bowl unhurt, but has no illusions about the danger of Washington.

“Wherever there are long, treeless slopes you can have avalanches,” he said.

Burke, Coyne and Couture were experienced climbers. The trio had been climbing together for 15 years. They had climbed to the summit of Mount Rainier in Washington two years ago and Mount Washington was familiar territory for them. None of the men was carrying an avalanche beacon or shovel, but according to other climbers, those tools are uncommon on the east coast.

“You generally don’t see (beacons) up there,” said local climber Jamie Huntsman of Montpelier. “You’re not climbing in many deep snow situations.”

Pellett agreed.

“I can’t remember the last time (I saw someone with a beacon),” he said.

Coyne was upset with articles that he believed painted the group as foolish.

“(One article) made us look like we were ignorant and we’re not. Something like this could happen to any climber,” he said. “Even if you don’t think it could. You just don’t have control over that variable.

“(The article painted us as) just foolhearted people out there waiting to die. But we’ve turned around before. I’ve attempted to summit Washington probably 100 times. And we’ve turned around or not climbed because of risks probably 30 percent of the time,” he said.

This was not the first time Coyne has been in a serious accident. Four years ago, he was struck in the head by a large piece of ice while climbing Mount Mansfield. He suffered serious head injuries and was forced to learn how to climb all over again. But, this time, Coyne is done.

“The sport had a hold on me,” he said “And because it was me that time and I don’t remember it, I kept climbing. But now that it has affected other people I’m done. But I have no regrets about climbing other than I lost my friend, that Tom didn’t make it.”

Couture who was at home Monday said believes he will continue to climb.

“I wish that I had more knowledge (about avalanches),” he said. “This is a sport I love, and I will keep doing it, but I will try to further my knowledge.”

Coyne hopes that people will continue to see the positive aspects of climbing.

“People like Tom, they love the outdoors, they’re good for nature,” he said. “They live a simple life and simple things make them happy.”

Coyne is organizing a college benefit fund for Burke’s son Eli, and said that donations could be sent to the Eli Burke Benefit Fund, in care of the Chittenden Bank, Attention: Marsha Wimble, 292 Main St., Barre, VT 05641.

Contact Pat Joy at pat.joy@timesargus.com or 479-0191, ext. 1166.

Source