# The Human Factor



## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

Seth Lightcap got a broken pelvis last season for not paying attention to the terrain he was was traveling in while riding in Japan. He's put up a pretty good video at Jones snowboards.



Link to the story: Avalanche Awareness: The Human Factor | Jeremy Jones

Well worth your time.


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## chupacabraman (Jul 30, 2009)

Really good watch, thanks for sharing. :thumbsup:


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## lethies91 (Nov 26, 2011)

May I ask what they mean by a Gully?


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## dreampow (Sep 26, 2011)

good reminder before I get out there next week:thumbsup:.


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

lethies91 said:


> May I ask what they mean by a Gully?


A gully is basically a big ditch. They don't use that term in Maryland?


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## roremc (Oct 25, 2009)

I finished my AST1 course today and the human factor was mentioned quite a bit. The guides who were very experienced relayed a lot of stories like the one above. Where people got careless and didn't head the warnings around them. Unlike this guy many of them died.


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## lethies91 (Nov 26, 2011)

linvillegorge said:


> A gully is basically a big ditch. They don't use that term in Maryland?


Does it run up and down the mountain or does it run across. We use the word gully but not in the sense of it being something that's at high avalanche risk. There's not enough snow to have avalanches.


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

Gully's typically run up and down a mountain. The risk is that they are a terrain trap. If an avalanche path funnels into a gully you could be buried deep, very deep. Some people have been buried riding in a gully like a half pipe. The walls above them gave away and caught them roughly at the flat bottom. Instant 10ft deep burial that is very hard to dig a person out of. In bigger gullies, say like the one that runs below the Mines Avalanche paths at Berthoud Pass, could put 30+ feet of snow on top of you.


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## lethies91 (Nov 26, 2011)

thanks for the info. I always enjoy learning more and now I'll know for when I go out west.


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## Tarzanman (Dec 20, 2008)

"Gully" is a standard English word. It probably doesn't see much use in more urban areas where the land has been cleared/filled/etc for development.

One difference between a ditch and a gully (at least the way I use the terms) is that you wouldn't call something big enough to swallow up multiple aircraft or half a neighborhood a 'ditch'.


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## hikeswithdogs (Sep 23, 2011)

Yep classic terrain trap, if your burred in 15+ feet of snow your screwed and your friends won't being seeing your body until spring melt and hope they get to you before the animals do.


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## chupacabraman (Jul 30, 2009)

A ditch is generally a man-made feature, and generally pretty small.
A gully is usually naturally created by flow over that terrain (be it water, mud, snow, etc) and is often used vaguely... be it a ravine, a slide path, a mellow, a large 'ditch', etc - but one thing that is always constant is a gully always has a concave base. Below most large bowls you will find a gully.
Are we really discussing this? :laugh:


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