Two Rocky Mountain skiers were killed in separate slides so far this season. On December 14, Aspen local Cory Brettman died skiing just out of bounds on Aspen Mountain. The same day, Heather Gross, a 27-year-old Salt Lake City resident, was killed at Snowbird by an in-bounds slide.
Brettman, 52, a husband and father of two little girls, had ski patrolled at Breckenridge and Aspen for 26 years. And Snowbird, more than maybe any other ski area in the U.S., has built the template for snow control. All of which proves (as it always proves in regards to snow, gravity and friction), that you never really know.
The accident report can be viewed at http://avalanche.state.co.us/pub/accidents_co.php?accident=20081214_aspen
Even more reason to be a regular reader of the newly redesigned/upgraded National Av Center website and (put online on Dec. 5.) The bulk of the work on the site has been putting together an online avalanche awareness tutorial.
The tutorial is a thorough avalanche awareness class with easy to understand narrative, photos, diagrams and a variety of short, high energy educational videos. Naturally, the tutorial strongly emphasizes that everyone should take an actual avalanche class in addition to going through the tutorial
Here is the US website: www.fsavalanche.com
For snow reports in Canada visit: http://www.avalanche.ca/HomeCAC
