# Woman Dies on Cat Trip



## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

Sounds like a tree well. That sucks.


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

It was a deep snow immersion. No tree well. Just snow so deep she got buried, couldn't free herself and suffocated. Scary. I guess this has happened one other time with this operation. During a previous owners watch. This is a tough one to pin down.


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## Mr. Polonia (Apr 5, 2009)

tragic news...its just so hard for me to picture how one can suffocate from snow. i just cant compare it to being buried for instance by soil/dirt or quick sand


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## Psi-Man (Aug 31, 2009)

Mr. Polonia said:


> tragic news...its just so hard for me to picture how one can suffocate from snow. i just cant compare it to being buried for instance by soil/dirt or quick sand


When you are encased in anything panic can overwhelm you quickly.


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## roremc (Oct 25, 2009)

Awful news. I can see how it could happen easily enough. If you fall forward on a steep enough slope and the pow was deep and loose you would just keep going.

i thought on cat and heli skiing there was always a guide at the back?


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## Mr. Polonia (Apr 5, 2009)

that is true


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

Probably a lot like quicksand in this case. Once she got under the snow she was probably unable to clear it out to breathe. Add an ice mask once covered and you don't have long. I will try to watch out for the final report on this one. It is scary stuff indeed.


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## baldylox (Dec 27, 2007)

You'll get a small taste of it at Jay, Polonia. Even falling into 3 or 4 feet of snow with your head downhill and loaded conifers overhead is enough to make you nervous. Compare that with BC where you can have 20 foot tree wells and incredibly deep pow and it's easy to see how a person can get into trouble.


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## ScBlack (Dec 9, 2008)

R.I.P guess it can happen to anyone of us..


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## FtCS4 (Dec 30, 2010)

killclimbz said:


> It was a deep snow immersion. No tree well. Just snow so deep she got buried, couldn't free herself and suffocated. Scary. I guess this has happened one other time with this operation. During a previous owners watch. This is a tough one to pin down.


Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like we don't have many tree well deaths here in CO. Most of the ones I have heard of are in the PNW/Canada...


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

FtCS4 said:


> Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like we don't have many tree well deaths here in CO. Most of the ones I have heard of are in the PNW/Canada...


I think we have already had a tree well death here. I know we had at least two last season. I had also thought that tree well deaths were rare in Colorado, but then I found out we are definitely in the top five. Which surprised me, because our snow pack is a shallow one. It rarely gets deeper than 10ft and generally speaking it's not much more than six feet deep. Part of that might just be due to the fact that we have way more skier visits than any other state. So increase the numbers and you increase the likely hood that you are going to have more NARSID incidents.


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## zacm (Nov 4, 2009)

Mr. Polonia said:


> tragic news...its just so hard for me to picture how one can suffocate from snow. i just cant compare it to being buried for instance by soil/dirt or quick sand


snow is a crazy substance...i know when i fall in deep pow sometimes a mouth full of pow can make you choke a little. and light fluffy snow is super hard to get a grip to push yourself up.


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