SummitPost.org

A massive avalanche near Revelstoke has killed three and injured numerous people during the Big Iron Shootout on Boulder Mountain.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Search ... story.html

Very sad. Especially unfortunate due to the fact that the article says they had plenty warning of high avy risk.

Yes it is but these are extreme snowmobilers with modified machines going for an adrenaline rush. They interviewed one guy who, after rescuing his friends, stated he'd be right back out there if they let him.

Brad Marshall wrote:Yes it is but these are extreme snowmobilers with modified machines going for an adrenaline rush. They interviewed one guy who, after rescuing his friends, stated he'd be right back out there if they let him.

Does he have any respect? Jeez!

Hotoven wrote:

Brad Marshall wrote:Yes it is but these are extreme snowmobilers with modified machines going for an adrenaline rush. They interviewed one guy who, after rescuing his friends, stated he'd be right back out there if they let him.

Does he have any respect? Jeez!

Guess you'd have to know these folks to answer that question. Take a look at this video from 2006 and you tell me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4suGjQS9gf0

The BBC News also has the story
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8567372.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8566798.stm

Wow, what a nightmare. According to the news the avalanched snow and debris was up to 30 ft deep in places. Must have been a monstrous deep slide. My condolences to those affected.

Just watched that YouTube vid... My assumptions have been confirmed. I just don't see too many of the dirt-bike "Bro types" studying snow. Maybe now they will... it makes dirt look like pre-school.

Dingus Milktoast wrote:Some people are just too stupid to live.

DMT

I always thought I was one of them. Can't believe I'm in my 60s.

Something I think about from time to time as I cycle around NYC. The difference between an ugly accident and a rude gesture can be a fraction of a second. Someone that doesn't have quick reaction times simply isn't going to survive. Same thing in the mountains. It is, as you say, Mother Nature selecting between those that think they're fast enough and those that really are (fast enough).

Sad deal.

Thankfully, most of the people that would have been there did heed the warnings on the conditions.

I'm not too sure about the stereotypes, or what dirt-biking has to do with snowmobiling.

Anyway, here's a little different take on the deal. Not sure if it's better or worse, or good or bad. Just different.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/entertai ... story.html

John Duffield wrote:Something I think about from time to time as I cycle around NYC. The difference between an ugly accident and a rude gesture can be a fraction of a second. Someone that doesn't have quick reaction times simply isn't going to survive. Same thing in the mountains. It is, as you say, Mother Nature selecting between those that think they're fast enough and those that really are (fast enough).

Couldn't agree more.

Reaction times for rational cerebral responses are not all that correlated to reaction times for emotional, amygdallic responses.

The kinds of reaction-time tests you can take on the internet only test your rational reaction time.... In other words, it tests the amount of time it takes for you to observe, interpret, and rationally decide to react.

However, the sort of reaction that matters in sudden survival situations (like jumping out of the way of a car) is purely emotional and never gets rationally considered, as the amygdala intercepts stimuli that have been (evolutionally or experiencially) learned and triggers an instant reaction before the stimuli can even be forwarded to the cerebral cortex to be processed rationally.

Thinking you're fast means bupkiss. Surviving repeated close-encounters actually proves something.

Dingus Milktoast wrote:
That which did not kill me...

DMT

.....only defers the inevitable.

Brad Marshall wrote:Guess you'd have to know these folks to answer that question. Take a look at this video from 2006 and you tell me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4suGjQS9gf0

What's up with the nearly perfect correlation between videos of XTREME SPORTZ and horrible, shitty metal hair music?

CAA Preliminary Report on Boulder Mountain Avalanche Accident

http://www.avalanche.ca/Default.aspx?DN ... 3138567eba