Click the pictures to expand them.
The Headwall at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort avalanched this morning. Or at least part of it. Reports are sketchy. It might have been a natural slide; it might have been the result of a sweeper patroller setting off a 2-pounder strapped to a piece of bamboo.
The slide impacted the new building that houses the Couloir Restaurant, and a wall of snow wrapped around to the front of the building, burying up to their necks at least three ski patrollers, pinning them to the front windows. At least one was hit by a chair that had been swept up in the snow; another was hit by a picnic table.
No reports on any other victims or injuries. The picture shows a probe line.
Such a slide in such conditions does not come as a surprise. Rod Newcomb of the American Avalanche Institute has long shaken his head at the folly of putting a gondola or a restaurant or anything in the way of what he calls a classic slidepath. And that slidepath has already proved itself dangerous. It slid full track in February, 1986.
From Jackson Hole — On A Grand Scale:
Only a few days after Raymer’s death [Patroller Tom Raymer perished in a slide on Moran Face during a six-feet-in-six-days storm], Kirby Williams fired a shell from the patrollers’ 105-millimeter recoilless rifle that set off an avalanche on the Headwall. Fracturing six feet deep, the slide ran all the way down Amphitheater, ripping out two new restrooms and a warming hut, blasting through lower Tramline, and depositing the wreckage only a few hundred feet from homes at the base of the mountain. The slide was so monstrous that patroller Renny Jackson, pulling into the Teton Village Parking lot on his way to work, got out of his car and began backing away when he saw it coming.
The Resort obviously feels they can adequately control this slidepath. It is notable that the building was not destroyed, which could probably happen in the worst circumstances. If there are no victims in today’s slide, maybe they’ve proven they can at least partially control the Headwall from catastrophic slides. But if there are victims, it would seem they haven’t.
Here’s a report from Planet JH. TetonAT has great pictures. Jackson Hole’s alt media takes the cake again.
I think everyone but the resort was a little skeptical about building a restaurant under the headwall. It seems nobody was killed but it also seems the resort is trying to keep things hush hush.
Keeping things hush hush is never a smart move. When calamities befall companies, they should always be as forthcoming with information as they can, otherwise they look like they’re hiding something.
You’d think every MBA or corporate leader would know this, having studied how well Tylenol bounced back after their cyanide scare in 1982. They were completely transparent about the whole thing, and benefitted greatly. Jerry Blann might consider this.
“If there are no victims in today’s slide, maybe they’ve proven they can at least partially control the Headwall from catastrophic slides. But if there are victims, it would seem they haven’t.”
It proves nothing. The fact that no one died is simply good luck; it’s not predictive in any way.
There will always be some risk, and what we need to know is if JHMR’s risk tolerance is in the same neighborhood as ours. If the resort is not forthcoming about this incident, it will make it harder for us to assess their (and, by extension, our) risk management.
It seems that the photos of the slide on the headwall that were on tetonat,com are no longer there. Was there Pressure from the resort to pull them? Not a very good job of being “transparent” as David suggested. What happened, did happen and hiding evidence of that doesn’t look very good.
Everyone be super careful out there and think about the people around you and your loved ones and how your decisions may impact their lives.
Give a ski patroller a hug, or a cold beer, or simply a heartfelt thank you because they’ve certainly earned it as well as the respect from all of us who ski or ride the resort for their tireless work and putting themselves at risk to help us do what we love to do.