Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 143 posts

Re: Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek

#41

Post by chair6 »

Snowboarding (resort and backcountry) is my preferred diversion from computers and 'real' life, and I was riding at Stevens the day before Tunnel Creek slid. This is a very meaningful presentation of a tragic event, and very real example of the risks involved in getting out in the snow.

For those of you more interested in the avalanche / snow-science side of things than that this doesn't render properly on your mobile device, check out http://nwac.us. Specifically, here is their initial analysis of the Tunnel Creek incident: http://www.nwac.us/media/uploads/documents/accidents/2011_20...

Re: Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek

#42

Post by [deleted] »

sillysaurus wrote: post #33

In case it's helpful, here's a screenshot of what this article looks like on an iPhone (Chrome): http://i.imgur.com/B1ZkO.png It won't let me zoom out or zoom in. The only way to read the article is by dragging back and forth repeatedly. Technical/debugging note: everything was fine before the top header image fully loaded. I could zoom out and zoom in before that image showed up, so therefore that header image is so…

[deleted]

Re: Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek

#43

Post by grecy »

I'm an avoid back country snowboarder (split boarder) in the Canadian Rockies, and now further north into Coastal Alaska and I've spent many seasons as ski patrol, and taken numerous Avalanche training courses.

After my first 4 day course, the message was very clear:

"You are now the least knowledgeable people that should be in the back country".

I kept thinking "I know just enough to know I know nothing".

Reading this article it was very hard not to angry. Severe lack of training and practice caused deaths.

* 16 people is a huge no-no.

* The fact that someone in the group (a Liftie!) didn't even have a beacon should be a HUGE warning sign.

* Hitting the slope at 11:45 seems wrong to me - the day had warmed by then allowing the snow to consolidate.

* No clear route identification or plan

* The didn't dig a snow pit to assess avalanche conditions on the slope they were about to hit - my personal number 1

* Multiple people dropped in at once - the biggest no-no of all!

* They saw evidence of big slides on the way down, but kept going anyway!

* Waiting for those above by just standing around waiting in the potential slide path.

* Calling 911 immediately shows a lack of experience and understanding. Those buried have ~13 minutes before their chances of survival drop to essentially zero - help is not coming to save them. YOU MUST SAVE THEM.

* Calling 911 to report a body is a freaking waste of time and could cost others' buried their lives. KEEP SEARCHING AND DIGGING!

I hate to say it: They were asking for it, and a lot of them knew better.

Please, please, please, never go into the back country without training. Even a weekend course will be great. Don't let your friends or those more experienced than you convince you it's not needed - anyone that says that is not worth going with, because you are risking your life with people that don't know what they're talking about.

EDIT: If you want the first-person avalanche experience, watch this video. I go snowboarding here all the time. Turn the sound way up to really feel it. This person was saved by well trained back country ski partners. http://vimeo.com/6581009

Re: Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek

#44

Post by [deleted] »

mscarborough wrote: post #25
scottcha wrote: post #20

As an owner of an Avalanche Safety app mobile shop I'd say its amazing to get some of this innovation in to articles like this. Getting users to think about the judgement and impact of the choices they make when they are seeking this rush is a very challenging. Breaking the mold to make a possibly more impactful presentation is exactly what Avalanche education needs.

I completely agree. As a person that gets 50+ days skiing per year, and loves powder, you have to PAY ATTENTION. Those powder runs look great until you understand how wrong it can go. And people, don't jump into tree runs to avoid anything. It's plenty fast in there and if you are too slow, you're dead. It's OK to ask for a ride down from the lifties.

[deleted]

Re: Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek

#45

Post by subsystem »

codewright wrote: post #35
subsystem wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's great, but I can't help to get flashbacks to the mid '90s multimedia era. If someone would have shown me this as the future cutting edge back then, I probably would have been disappointed.

Taste matters. 90s multimedia rarely had it.

I think most of the encyclopedia CDs, like Microsoft Encarta, were quite tasteful. At least for their time. A blast from the past: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ4ptApL-k4

Re: Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek

#46

Post by jameszol »

What a stunning tribute to the story.

Every part of this was precisely, beautifully and expertly planned to have a profound emotional pull to see the story through to the end. It worked. While I was reading, I felt the emotion from the words + the animations + video + audio.

I love the format, design and style. Simply brilliant.

Re: Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek

#48

Post by sharkweek »

arscan wrote: post #10

I think this works because the little videos in the breaks actually do a great job of complementing the content of the article (and happen to be pretty). There was a link yesterday on HN that used a similar technique, but the breaks were static images that didn't really add anything to the content of the article [1]. Sure, they're pretty and novel, but I thought the breaks did more harm then good for somebody actuall…

Pitchfork (the music review site) employs this technique for their "Cover Story" features, some are better than others. I personally enjoy the "alive" feel of the stories:

http://pitchfork.com/features/cover-story/

Re: Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek

#49

Post by EdwardBeckett »

nikkisnow wrote: post #23
MichaelApproved wrote: post #18

Trying to read this story was really frustrating on an iPhone. I had to keep swiping left and right because the zoom was locked to about double the width of my screen. It's a shame because, from the sound of the other comments, it sounds like a really nice layout on the desktop. It's a shame they destroyed the mobile experience.

On linux, whether it's Chrome or Firefox, none of the videos play. Really great experience but would love to see the videos. When I get home, I'll have to pop open my Mac to get the full experience.

Looking good here ... Squeeze 64, KDE, nVidia GTX 570 ...

Re: Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek

#50

Post by ISL »

grecy wrote: post #43

I'm an avoid back country snowboarder (split boarder) in the Canadian Rockies, and now further north into Coastal Alaska and I've spent many seasons as ski patrol, and taken numerous Avalanche training courses. After my first 4 day course, the message was very clear: "You are now the least knowledgeable people that should be in the back country". I kept thinking "I know just enough to know I know nothing". Reading th…

The group was composed of well-trained and knowledgeable skiers. I'd disagree, in whole or in part, with points 3,4,5,6,8,9,10, but HN isn't the place to quarterback an accident. Each point above is well-founded, but may not apply in this situation.

I think that the main reason that Mrs. Saugstad is doing so many interviews is to spread the word about avalanche and snow safety education. Snow is a counterintuitive medium. If you're headed into the backcountry, you owe it to your friends and family to take a class and learn. (Snow science is super fun, too.)

Post reply on HN