*** Mount Washington Avalanche Fatalities ***

Tue Mar 26 17:06:32 1996
Message : #1686532396    From: CaptQueege
Address : captqueege@aol.com
Group   : Usenet.rec.backcountry
Subject : Re: Mt. Washington avalanche???
Org.  : America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
fsbds2@aurora.alaska.edu () wrote:

>Would someone please post the details of this weekend's Mt. Washington
>avalanche.  Thanks
>Brad

Here's one article:

PINKHAM NOTCH, N.H. (Reuter) - Two Massachusetts men were killed
Sunday when they were buried under a dozen feet of snow by an avalanche
that swept over an area known as the 'Gulf of Slides' on Mount Washington.

"They were hiking to get up to the top of Gulf of Slides so they
could ski down," said Randy Leclair of the Appalachian Mountain Club, which
assisted in the rescue effort on the 6,288-foot-high mountain, the highest
in the East.

A third member of the group escaped the avalanche and tried to dig out
the other two before national and state rescue officials were called in to
help search in high winds and subzero temperatures.

Leclair declined to identify the dead pending notification of their
families.

The three ignored or failed to notice seven-foot signs warning of a
high risk of avalanche. Search and rescue members of the Appalachian
Mountain Club said winds of more than 100 miles per hour at the top of the
New Hampshire mountain, known for its nasty winter weather, and more than
8 inches of recent snowfall triggered the avalanche.

The two deaths brought to six the number of people who have died on
the mountain this season, Leclair said.

"Almost every single accident that happened this year could have been
preventable," he said.

3-24-96
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