“Two of us were looking straight down the whole chute, which is almost 1,200 or 1,300-feet long. And we just saw the avalanche gain speed and a huge powder cloud form. So it was going.”
Two Vermont backcountry skiers were nearly buried by an avalanche Sunday on Mount Mansfield. WCAX did some excellent reporting on the incident but their video wont embed so PLEASE WATCH HERE.
Here’s how it went down from the perspective of Aaron Rice and Cyril Brunner:
“On his second turn the whole thing kind of fractured” -Rice
“When I turned around I could see that the whole slope had just gone behind me, and all I saw was my friends who are just staring at me and staring at the slope go down.” -Brunner
“Two of us were looking straight down the whole chute, which is almost 1,200 or 1,300-feet long. And we just saw the avalanche gain speed and a huge powder cloud form. So it was going.” -Rice
“I flipped from this relaxed East Coast mode to like, oh, this is avalanche terrain, like we have to get out of here now.” -Rice
….the pair had a ton of experience in the area and were able to side step the avalanche path before it hit.
“I would have probably been thrown through some trees. I would have certainly gone over a hundred-foot waterfall and been buried in a significant amount of snow and I wouldn’t be here today.” -Brunner
Stowe Mountain Rescue’s Doug Veliko reminds us that avalanches do happen in Vermont and says the current snowpack is unconsolidated. Please stay safe out there Vermont backcountry skiers, avalanche can and do happen.