9 replies to this topic

[heavenly_romer]

Quote

Three Die, One Critically Injured In Separate Skiing Incidents
by George Shirk
Three people, including a 16-year-old skier, lost their lives in separate incidents on Mammoth Mountain last weekend, while another remains hospitalized in critical condition after colliding with a tree.

The first victim, Benjamin David Trees, 16, of San Diego, was fatally injured in the South Park terrain park, near Roller Coaster Express, according to Joani Lynch, Mammoth Mountain Communiciations Director.

In a written statement, Lynch said that "witnesses indicate the skier was carrying excessive speed" approaching a jump, which caused him to miss the landing area.

A Mono County Sheriff spokesperson said relatives and friends considered Trees a "competent to advanced skier" who had been doing jumps throughout the day.

He was immediately transported to an ambulance where paramedics were waiting. He was rushed to Mammoth Hospital but efforts to revive him failed.

On Saturday, 61-year-old Luther Sartor, a dentist from Los Angeles, died in a skiing accident shortly before 11 a.m., according to Lynch and the Mono County Sheriff’s office.

Investigators said they believe Sartor was traveling at a high rate of speed on West Bowl when he lost control and ran into a group of rocks between West Bowl and Saddle Bowl. Ski Patrol immediately transported Sartor to Main Lodge, where paramedics rushed him to the Mammoth Hospital Emergency Room.

The third death occurred on Sunday, when James Albert Ferguson, 63, of Garden Grove, suffered a heart attack in the White Bark Ridge area. Paramedics were unable to revive him. Lynch said that Ferguson "had a pre-existing health condition that lead to cardiac arrest.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Jan. 27, at approximately 4:10 p.m. a 38-year-old skier collided with a tree on Quicksilver, near the intersection to the trail Gold Hill, Lynch said.

Preliminary reports from witnesses indicate the skier lost control and slid into a group of trees. Ski Patrol was notified and arrived on scene within minutes. They immediately transported him to Eagle Lodge where paramedics were waiting and he was rushed to the Mammoth Hospital Emergency Room. The patient was later flown to Washoe Medical Center in Reno where he remains in critical condition.

[cascadeparks]

wow does anyone know whether jackson hole has had any "expirations" this year

[heavenly_romer]

the fatality number has climbed to 5 in the last couple days. Bad tidings up in mammoth :(

[aug]

The black cloud of death seems to have taken up residence in the mountains of California. Hopefully it will not reside there long.

[mikest2]

In today's LA Times

Mammoth Ski Deaths Attract Steep Fines
By Hector Becerra, Times Staff Writer
3:06 PM PDT, October 6, 2006


The death of three ski patrollers earlier this year could have been prevented had Mammoth Mountain officials properly trained employees, posted warning signs and kept to procedures on performing rescues among dangerously toxic volcanic vents, state regulators said today.

Cal/OSHA issued $50,000 in fines and in a toughly worded report cited the ski resort for failing to have enough signs warning about the chasms and neglecting to train employees on ways to gauge the danger. "If standard practices had been followed, this catastrophic event might not have occurred," said Len Welsh, Cal/OSHA's acting chief.

ADVERTISEMENTThe chain of events began April 6 after two employees fell into a 20-foot crevasse over a snow-covered volcanic fumarole. In the ensuing rescue attempt, another ski patrol member died and seven more were seriously injured by the poisonous fumes.

The tragedy occurred during a season when the resort saw more than a dozen deaths of skiers. State regulators said the patrollers had tools to effect a safer rescue and avoid serious injury, but were not trained on how to use them.

Officials at the resort strongly disputed the state's finding, saying the rescuers were not trained to go into the fumarole because procedures called for them to wait until firefighters arrived. Resort executive chief Rusty Gregory said that faced with the mortality of their colleagues and friends, ski patrollers "acted heroically."

"Heroes sometimes do that," he said. "This has truly broken our hearts forever. This was a huge personal loss for us."

[KZ]

That kind of sucks for Mammoth. It's bad enough losing 3 patrollers and several guests during the season then they get tagged with a fine. I think more signs could have helped but they didn't have any idea on how big the crevase was, it was covered with snow. Hopefully this season will be a much safer one.

[SkiBachelor]

Plus, the ski patrol probably knew it was there but didn't think it would collapse on them.

[andyh1962]

KZ, on Oct 10 2006, 03:41 PM, said:

That kind of sucks for Mammoth. It's bad enough losing 3 patrollers and several guests during the season then they get tagged with a fine. I think more signs could have helped but they didn't have any idea on how big the crevase was, it was covered with snow. Hopefully this season will be a much safer one.

I am not going to turn this discussion into an egg throwing contest but a few points are in order. First I have worked for 15 years as a volunteer Ski Patroller (and even a few seasons as paid ski patrol ) so I appreciate the tight, close, teamwork that patrollers have at any area. My strongest expressions of sympathy go out to the Mammoth Ski Patrol and the rest of the Mammoth team. The point of any FINE for Workplace deaths is to make people stop and think about the dangers, BEFORE they act. That means management, supervisors, people on the spot reacting to any emergency need to stop, look, listen and think before acting. Here in Canada a young man, first day on the job (certainly first week anyway) died last summer (at a major ski resort in western Canada ) because nobody took the time to explain to him in detail the hazards of the job. I read these threads all summer and I hear you guys bitch and moan that management cuts your maintenance budgets, pays you too little to attract good workers, generally treats ski hill workers like crap. So link the dots. The point of a $50000 fine is to make EVERYONE stop and think.
Could this happen to me?

This summer I spent 3 months being trained on the safe use and transport of medical Oxygen systems. Both gas cylinder and liguid pressurized containers of Oxygen were handled daily on the job. This coming winter if I have to respond ( as a ski patroller ) to a medical incident anywhere in our ski lodge that is remotely close to a propane stove or a propane furnace, my first immediate response will be to move the patient to a safe area before life saving oxygen equipment is used. Will treatment to the patient be delayed. Yes. But first priority is remove or control danger to oneself and others. Second priority is deal with the emergency. I just have no comment of the actions of the Mammoth patrollers. The point of the heavy fine is to say "Stop, look, Listen and think before reacting. " The caves that the Mammoth patrollers fell into are presumably visible when the snow is melted in the Spring and summer, so the danger area should have been fenced off before the ski season started. (Ouch I hate to throw criticism at a situation I know almost nothing about.) Again my deepest sympathy to the Patrollers and Staff who had to deal with this one.

This post has been edited by andyh1962: 10 October 2006 - 05:39 PM

[Kelly]

As Andyh points out the first thing you should be trained to do is "save yourself". It would seem that this is more of a firemens' training syllabus but it should be basic training to all responders.
As to the article link given there are many more on the internet that allude to lack of training and or lack of any information provided in safety meetings to the nature of the fumaroles.
Also OHSA's web site statement citing an earlier visit to the ski area in 1999 concerning the danger of the fumaroles is interesting. Perhaps this information or the nature of the incident to trigger this visit by OSHA was not passed down from one generation of employee to another.
Ski Area Managements article posted in the breaking news section of their web site has a straight forward article about accident.
In that article signs are mentioned - as I roll my eyes in this typical OSHA statement that at first glance overlooks the complexity and absurdity of surrounding this area in warning signs in a winter environment - I wonder would not a brief pause for thought be given before one approached or entered this area seeing those signs, even if you had missed all those in-depth safety meetings that the area had given each year in their extensive fall refresher training and weekly safety meetings.

[andyh1962]

Ryan B, on Oct 13 2006, 07:56 AM, said:

As Andyh points out the first thing you should be trained to do is "save yourself". It would seem that this is more of a firemens' training syllabus but it should be basic training to all responders.
As to the article link given there are many more on the internet that allude to lack of training and or lack of any information provided in safety meetings to the nature of the fumaroles.
Also OHSA's web site statement citing an earlier visit to the ski area in 1999 concerning the danger of the fumaroles is interesting. Perhaps this information or the nature of the incident to trigger this visit by OSHA was not passed down from one generation of employee to another.
Ski Area Managements article posted in the breaking news section of their web site has a straight forward article about accident.
In that article signs are mentioned - as I roll my eyes in this typical OSHA statement that at first glance overlooks the complexity and absurdity of surrounding this area in warning signs in a winter environment - I wonder would not a brief pause for thought be given before one approached or entered this area seeing those signs, even if you had missed all those in-depth safety meetings that the area had given each year in their extensive fall refresher training and weekly safety meetings.

Thanks for the feedback Ryan. I am going to add another few points to clarify my experience and knowledge on this subject "my right to comment" on underground heat sources. Also this information may help other mountain employees take a fresh look at the hazards on their mountain. Yes even ski hills under 1000 feet vertical have hazards.

I provide ski patrol services at a ski area in Ontario that has several steep runs (approx 45 degrees ) . This ski area suffered a serious mud slide 5 years ago that dumped tons of mud and trees at the bottom of a run. The vertical of the section that liquified and flowed down hill was about 75 to 100 feet of vertical. The cleanup cost over $100000. To fix the drainage problem and prevent mudslides in the future, a large ditch was dug up the side of the shallow part of the run and on a 45 degree angle up the steep part of the slope requiring drainage. The new creekbed was filled with large rocks approximately 6 to 9 inches in diameter. The rock ditch has probably 1 to 2 feet in depth of rocks covering the new stream river bed. I call it a stream bed because water flows all year long even in the winter. It is in fact now an unground river because the rocks cover the stream bed and water flows below the rocks, not on top of them. The reconstruction of this ski run has solved the erosion problem, no further mudslides have occurred since the repairs were done.

The resulting ski run now has a pitch over 45 degrees down beside this rock covered streambed. Skiers have to actively move hard skier right off the main ski run in order to get into the streambed.

The DANGERS to skiers and resort employees (including patrollers): The stream bed is not visible in the winter, it is covered in snow. The snow is of unknown depth because the warm water in the stream vents heat up through the 6 to 9 inch rocks with the stream flowing underneath. Skiers could have a nasty surprise fast stop and binding release if they skied the streambed and hit shallow snow. Damage to skier or snow boarder equipment or injury to person could occurr.

To mark the area of the streambed the Patrol simply sticks 10 foot orange and black stripped hazard marking sticks at regular intervals down the side of this rock garden. People can still ski it but at least they were given a heads up that their chosen route has hazards and could literally rip the bottoms off their skis.
This warning system also tells the Patrollers to be extremely careful when manuvering rescue toboggans anywhere near the streambed. Having your skiis stop dead in a mine field of rocks while running a loaded toboggan would kind of suck. The toboggans have a dead man chain on the bottom leading edge which would engage if the patroller were to fall so injury or danger to a loaded patient is not really an issue.

As Ryan kind of says in his comment above, wish there was a way to pass the "generations of experience" down to the next generation. Large fines from OSHA are intended to help make that happen.