On Saturday, March 26, 2005 the Eastern Sierra saw its first two avalanche fatalities in almost 10 years according to an Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center press release. The Mammoth Times, identified the victims as William Crljenko, 52 of Swall Meadows, CA, and Christine Seashore, 56 of Darby, MT.
Background
Mt. Tom (13,652 feet) sits as one of the landmark peaks of the Eastern Sierra, just west of Bishop, California. One of its most popular ski descents is Elderberry Canyon, a long glacially carved canyon that swoops from the North Ridge of Mt. Tom near 12,000 feet to the mouth of the canyon at 5,400 feet near the Pine Creek road outside Rovana.
From March 19th to March 25th, the eastern Sierra received 5-8 inches of water with snowfall amounts of 66 inches recorded at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area. Wind loading associated with these storms created extremely unstable snowpack conditions with many skier triggered slides reported from both the backcountry and the ski area.
Accident Report
A group of 7 skiers, comprised of Eastside locals and visitors, climbed Elderberry Canyon on Mt. Tom on Saturday, March 26th. The group planned on skinning the canyon to the North Ridge, where they would ski back down the way they came up. By 1:30 pm they had reached the ridgeline (right around 12,000 feet) at the top of the canyon and were beginning their descent. The first two skiers safely skied a broad east facing bowl-like portion of the canyon, just below the ridge.
The remaining portion of the party waited in a safe zone above as the 3rd and 4th skiers, Seashore and Crljenko, entered the slope. Just after doing so, the entire slope released on them in a Class 4-5 soft-slab avalanche, which took the first two to three feet of snow out of the entire bowl, with crown height ranging from two feet to six feet across a 700 to 1,000 foot wide path. Both skiers were caught and carried down the slope with the large amount of debris about 1,500' before being buried on a large bench-like moraine.
After seeing the slide, the remaining 3 skiers above quickly hurried down to begin the rescue. Upon doing so, they caused a second avalanche, slightly higher and to the north of the first slide. This slide caught all 3 skiers. One was able to escape, one rode the slide, staying on top for roughly 1,000 feet, and a third escaped after a short distance after breaking her fibula.
Once the 4 uninjured skiers reached the deposition zone, a beacon search began. Seashore was recovered within 20 minutes. CPR was attempted, but Seashore did not revive. Crljenko was buried under about 12 feet of snow and because of this, he was not found for about one hour. Although CPR was attempted, Crljenko did not revive.
No crown profile or formal avalanche observations were made at the time of recovery. A large number of natural releases had occurred on all aspects over a wide range of elevations in Elderberry Canyon. It is also important to note the amount of snowfall over the past few days, as well as the strong ridge-top winds which had transported a large amount of snow into the canyon. Just a year earlier, March 11, 2004, a similar avalanche occured here with no fatalities.
Mike Colee phota taken from across the valley from approximately 4,000'