In the winter of 1996, Jason Torlano was the guy most of us in the Yosemite Valley knew of for having been knocked out cold at the outdoor ice rink and taken to the medical clinic by ambulance not once, but three times.
BC Banter: Snowless on Turnagain Pass, Sentencing in Wolf Creek Avalanche Death, 22 Inches Fall in Tahoe, RASTA Glade Project Open for Comment
Warm temperatures have brought rain in place of snow so far this season at south central Alaska’s Turnagain Pass. Now, more than two weeks past the typical opening date, the Pass is closed to snowmachining due to lack of snow. Recent wet snow, followed by cool temps, has increased avalanche risk, and a December 14 storm “created the first documented weak layer of snow this season,” Chugach National Forest Avalanche director Wendy Wagner told Alaska Dispatch News.
Video: Avalanche Expert Bruce Tremper on Risk
“I will never be as confident in my avalanche skills as I was when I was in my early 20s,” Bruce Tremper says with a short chuckle and teeth-showing grin. Tremper has held the position as the Utah Avalanche Center Director since 1986 and is the author of Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain and Avalanche Essentials. In this video, he admits that overconfidence and ego played strong roles in decision making in his earlier days and motivated him to get too close to dangerous cornices and ski terrain he wouldn’t descend today.
Buffalo, N.Y. Receives Colossal Snowstorm, Protect Our Winters Visits D.C., Black Diamond Issues Whippet Recall, Japan’s new backcountry project
This week two storms—combined with the lake effect off the Great Lakes—pummeled the Northeast. Artic winds blowing over unfrozen Lake Erie pulled a wall of moisture into the sky, converted it to light, fluffy snow and dumped more than 60 inches along a 130-mile stretch of I-90, extending from Erie to Buffalo. Roofs collapsed. People were trapped and needed rescue, and cars were abandoned.
BC Banter: Big Storm in the Northeast, Aspen Mayor Pushes Uphill, CAIC Hosts Benefit Bash, Wintery Western Weather
It was high fives all around when Philippe Bouchard and four others chased fresh snow over two days in Murdochville, Quebec. The small mining town of Murdochville, located on the Gaspé Peninsula in northern New Brunswick, receives 500 inches of annual snowfall and got its first bramble-deep dump last weekend. Additional snowfall is expected throughout the coming week.
