FATALITY ARTICLES

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

From: The Snowy Torrents
WEATHER CONDITIONS
Several inches of snow had fallen from April 20 to 25 in Grand Teton National Park, but more significant than the snowfall were the unseasonably warm temperatures. The freezing level was abnormally high, creating wet snow conditions that did not refreeze at night, even at high elevations. Normally, by April the snow surface is frozen hard through the morning hours, allowing safe ascents on most of the peaks. In 1979, however, the snow was wet and weak on the high peaks.

ACCIDENT SUMMARY
On the morning of April 25, Tim Drew, 24, and Jerry Lucus, 22, signed out at Park Headquarters to climb the Grand Teton by the East Ridge route. The "Grand" is a majestic 13,700-foot peak that offers a serious challenge to mountaineers. The East Ridge of the Grand is one of the most difficult routes in the park. It abounds in avalanche slopes, and only the strongest parties under the best of conditions should attempt it. Drew was the more experienced climber and had made an unsuccessful assault on the East Ridge earlier in the winter. Lucas was an experienced rock climber but had little experience on snow and ice.

They spent the night of the 25th in a tent at the base of the East Ridge. Their plan was to reach the summit and return to camp before nightfall the following day. Early on the 26th, they left camp with only light packs. They quickly climbed the first 2,000 feet of the ridge. It was probably around noon with clear, sunny skies when the men traversed a snow slope beneath the Molar Tooth, the first prominent rock tower on the ridge. The snow was soft and the men were postholing into it. They were apparently close together and walking unroped when they triggered a wet-loose avalanche. It carried them 200 feet down the steep snowfield and another 1,000 feet down a steep, south-facing couloir. They came to rest 20 feet apart on top of the snow just above the Black Dike Couloir on the southeast side of the Grand Teton. They were both dead from injuries suffered in the fall.

RESCUE
On April 28, a friend of the climbers called Park Headquarters and expressed concern for them. The following day, rangers scanned the area by telescope. They saw tracks in the snow below the Molar Tooth but could not see the avalanche from their location. On April 30, air searchers saw the same tracks, and although the upper mountain was obscured by clouds, they also saw a great deal of avalanche debris. That same afternoon, searchers in a helicopter spied the two bodies in the snow. The following day, May 1, rescuers flew to the site and evacuated the bodies. Drew had died of a skull fracture; Lucas had suffered massive chest injuries.

AVALANCHE DATA
The avalanche was a WL-AO-3 and was triggered by the two men traversing the 40-45º snow field. The slope faces east and lies near an elevation of 12,500 to 13,000 feet. The snowpack was weakened by unusual thawing conditions at such a high elevation. Numerous wet slides ran throughout the Teton Range during the warm weather.

COMMENTS
The climbers erred in their stability evaluation. Under normal conditions, they would have been walking wearing crampons on hard, crusty snow. But the warm weather had thawed and weakened the upper layers of the snowpack. Once the avalanche was triggered, they were helpless to perform a self-arrest in the slushy snow. The East Ridge is overall a dangerous route; under these conditions, it was extraordinarily dangerous.