*** Avalanche Fatality on Wheeler Peak, NM. ***

From: mwj@beta.lanl.gov (Bill Johnson)
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry
Subject: Avalanche fatality on Wheeler Peak (NM)
Date: 7 Feb 1996 15:15:22 GMT

Posting this because Wheeler Peak (the one in New Mexico) is apparently a
popular destination among r.b readers: According to news reports, a Taos
restauranteur was killed Sunday in an avalanche while XC skiing along the
trail to Williams Lake, on the west slope of Wheeler. His body was found
around the 10,800' level in a sluff that had apparently come down from a
12,000+' subpeak of Wheeler.

I haven't been up there for a while and am having some difficulty visualizing
where this would have been, but it's allegedly "half way" between the lake
and Taos Ski Valley. The victim, Tim Harter, was described in the papers as
"an experienced skiier," who knows what that really means.

Unfortunately, I'm not too surprised to hear this news. That side of Wheeler
has a nasty reputation for avalanches and the weather has been *very*
unstable lately.  Reports said there were several feet of new snow on the
ridge nearwhere it sluffed, courtesy of a storm that passed through toward
the end of last week; before that it had been quite warm and clear, so I bet
there's tons of depth hoar up there. Right now the weather is preposterously
warm and clear, which leads one to expect the formation of more of the stuff
that will cause even more precarious conditions the next time we get snow.

Like the sign says, Be Careful Out There...

--Bill Johnson			   | Any technical seminar that
Los Alamos National Laboratory     | doesn't open with a "Far Side"
Los Alamos, New Mexico USA	   | cartoon probably is not going
(mwjohnson@lanl.gov)	           | to be worth listening to.

          -----------------------------------------------