Poor Mans Heli

Sad story from yesterday, Andrew Entin from Squaw Valley was caught in an avalanche and later died from his injuries. Stories here and here.  The crown was 4-9 feet!  Articles have pointed to an uphill release due to ski cut after explosives failure, however someone on the scene was quoted off the record as saying

There was no dud. A bomb released the avalanche. Andrew was standing where he should have been and in a freak class four avalanche the safe spot was not safe.

99.44% of the time Ski Patrol gets a bum rap from the younger park rat* crowd as for the most part the rats don’t comprehend that the alpine environment has been tamed by the Ski Patrol long before the rats woke up and had mom cook them breakfast and drop them off at the hill.  Long hours and lousy wages spent putting themselves in the line of fire so the typically underappreciative public can have their weekend of fun.  Next time you go up I urge you to stop into the Ski Patrol shack and say thanks or drop off a 6′er.

RIP Andrew Entin.

*I use the term park rat out of jealousy more than anything because I can’t ride park for shit.

UPDATE:  More info from same person as quoted above.  Not that any of this info can bring Andrew back, but it’s interesting to note as there was a lot of internet chatter (and sources from the Truckee Ranger District) claiming it slid on a December ice layer.

It went on the March 1-2 crust, so all new snow. It ripped out trees and sent debris to T1 to T5 Sibo, and then down to past Mambo Meadows, buring the snowmaking pumphouse and leaving 3m of snow on that, fucking up the top of Squaw One in the process. The crown was freakishly high and that was the reason the “safe” area Andrew was standing was not so safe.  The layer (Dec. ice layer) was another 6′ down.