Accident Reports

Appalachia, December 2004

Skier Dies from Slip Near Mount Clay
(Additional information was obtained from an article by Rebecca Dickson in the Concord Monitor and from Mike Pelchat, manager of the Mount Washington State Park.)

On March 7, 2004, John C., 38, Rob D., 39, and Collin O., 23, hiked to the summit of Mount Washington, then down the Great Gulf Trail to a snowfield on the slopes of Mount Clay. They skied halfway down Pipeline Gully, a narrow 30-foot-wide ravine, until the fresh, powdery snow they found at the top — "great skiing" — petered out into older, hard ice. The three then decided to change to crampons. John C. had one ski and one crampon on when he fell approximately 1,500 feet down the snowfield, sustaining injuries. His companions attempted to rescue him, and in the process, Rob D. fell to his death down an extremely steep slope that ended in a boulder field.

Collin O. called for help on his cell phone at about 4 p.m. Fish and Game contacted Mike Pelchat at the Mount Washington State Park, who was on the summit. He went to find the skiers, taking Ryan Harvey, an intern at the Observatory, with him. They hiked to the rim and spotted the accident scene about one mile away near the bottom of Pipeline Gully. The headwall was a sheet of white ice, so they downclimbed facing into the slope and set up one 300-foot rappel to get over the steepest section at midheight of the headwall. They arrived on the scene at 6 p.m. The National Guard helicopter came in and lowered a rescue sled by cable, which they used to stabilize John C. and move him down to a wide snowfield at the base of the talus. There was nothing they could do for the other skier, who was dead.

Once they got John C. to a lower snowfield, the helicopter went back and lifted him and the uninjured skier to safety. This was the first night-time helicopter rescue in the Whites, made possible by a clear, moonlit night.

Comment: The Pipeline is a "known" skiable gully, described in David Goodman's book Backcountry Skiing Adventures: New Hampshire and Maine (AMC Books, 1999). He does write that the gully leaves no margin for error. Though their errorless descent of the upper portion of the gully suggests that the three skiers were within their limits, the transfer from skiing to technical climbing was not handled effectively — see the first fall by John C. That John C. fell so far suggests that the shift to crampons was attempted in a very exposed spot. The mishap was compounded as the two other skiers apparently attempted to downclimb without roping themselves together and setting up protection (note the rappel the rescuers needed to reach the injured skier).

Also, Goodman's comment about the absence of a margin for error points simply to the dangers of extreme skiing. The change in surface conditions necessitated a shift in footgear that exposed the party to risk that might not have been clear at the gully's top. Such changes heighten the risk where there's no room for slippage.

It is extremely unlikely that rescuers would have been able to reach John C. in time to save him without the use of the cell phone.

—Mohamed Ellozy, Accidents Editor