Proper Snow Slope Technique

Demonstrated by Boy Scouts of Utah:

ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=16668613

Almost as good as the time I saw a Boy Scout leader at a boat launch TYING the scouts into their seats in a whitewater raft.

I love the guy saying, "Plant your feet! Plant your feet! Plant your feet!" Elbows and knees, dude.

Next thing you know he'll probably head out to buy a pair of microspikes for his next hike.

hmmmm.......

No Crampons......

No Ice Axe........

No Helmet.......

One two three strikes.......

He's lucky.......

"The mountains may seem like they're safe..."

Love it.

It almost looks like he did that on purpose to demonstrate how NOT to climb steep snow, maybe thinking he'd be able to self-arrest.......with his fists and elbows.

I like how he kind of just jumped ass first onto the slope, but the news reporter said "He got to close to a snow field".

He was clearly trying to cross that snow field where he had seen others go before..... and catch it on video. He was really fortunate for 2 reasons: he did not die and he was not successful which may have lead up to a child following across the snowfield.... I shutter to think about what he may have been up to.

A couple things in addition to digest:

As soon as that partner separation occurred, they should have just called it in (and/or hit the PLB). The time spent to get down to him just to give him the first aid high-five is wasted time that could have been better spent getting resources moving. Someone could have called it in in reality, maybe the report played it off in a different context. Calling for aid right at the start of the accident is completely warranted.

Another one, you can't "will" yourself out of shock. Maybe he calmed his emotional state down as much as he could.

What was that line about God and not needing a rope?

Seams fishy to me...

He does seam to almost just sit down and slide...

Why would they start filming just before this?

How can someone use there nurse training to keep themselves from going into shock? If he was having an acute stress reaction, he could just calm down and it would mimic shock, But short of meds and IV therapy, you cant delay shock by thinking about it...

His friends didn't seamed to shocked by the whole event...

During the end of the video when he is doing the interview, I got the vibe that he was almost showing off what he did and was just an attention seeking media whore.

"Oh my gosh...oh my gosh...is he okay?"

"No...no, he's not okay."

Priceless.

From the outset, it's clear that they shouldn't have been there, then they cut to this shot of the "route" of his fall:

fall route

and I thought "what the fuck?!"

What were they doing up there? That looks pretty serious for a bunch of 16 year olds. Especially with that dude in the lead. Ha!

i recall reading recent stories from the SLTrib and AZ Republic about 3 boy scouts dying this year either in Utah or from Utah. Sad.

'The mountains may seem safe..." ?? yeah, maybe without knuckleheads like you out there leading kids. And he's a nurse, medically trained but not mountain smart at all. Scouting seems to be 5% success and 95% horror life stories on the news.

I wish I could believe that this guy was only trying to get his 15 minutes of fame, but I honestly think he's just an idiot.

Pfeifferhorn above Maybird

Of all the great hikes in the Wasatch this is what he chose?? Seems almost grossly negligent but it's amazing how little appreciation I've seen some hikers show for the dangers of steep snow. The boys are well on their their way to the first aid merit badge though.

More examples of great decision making in this group: this happened late afternoon when thunder storms were pounding the mountains + nobody in the group knew exactly where they where or had a way of finding out.

Seriously? "...his amazing story of survival..." in which "...he got too close to a snowfield..."?

Shame on this asshole and shame on this news crew for not taking him to task.

It's so weird hearing people say, "Oh my gosh" when I can only imagine blurting out f-bombs. He trusted that first step too much it looks like. Should have kicked that step in deeper. The snow looked way too soft.

Woodchuck ATC wrote:'The mountains may seem safe..." ?? yeah, maybe without knuckleheads like you out there leading kids. And he's a nurse, medically trained but not mountain smart at all. Scouting seems to be 5% success and 95% horror life stories on the news.

Woah there. Scouting that you hear about is 5% success and 95% horror stories. Just like plane crashes, you don't hear much about the successful ones, but you hear a lot about the mishaps and scares.

That said, that dude is an idiot. Too bad he is tied into scouting like that, what were the other leaders thinking letting him do that?

Back in Boy Scouts, we did a backpacking trip up to Emerald Lake down near Durango. A bunch of us tried to climb a snow field with no equipment and quickly realized it was folly, so we went around and kept on the rock. Two older guys managed to make the ridge and then plunge stepped down the snow later in the day when it was soft. I think I was 14 at the time. You learn that snow is treacherous pretty quickly.