Another Alpental Accident

In the classic 90s movie Groundhog Day, one man (Bill Murray) keeps repeating the same day over and over again until he learns how not to be a mean, miserable sonofabitch. And, it is funny. At Alpental, we're living another sad day over again, only it isn't funny at all. Everyone who skis or boards, however, could learn something from it.

A man in his 20s fell off the International Cliffs at Alpental on Sunday, sustaining serious head injuries. Considering that his fall was about 150 feet, it is beyond miraculous that he survived. Based on where he fell, a friend of Seattlest who teaches ski school at Alpental thinks the boarder turned right at the entrance to Upper International at Keyhole, and went over the cliffs just above Adrenaline (the run at far skier's right as you come down Upper International). This rider was fortunate that a pro patroller and two volunteer patrollers who happened to be trauma doctors were in the area when he fell.

Seattlest recently wrote about a snowboarder dying at Alpental a couple weeks ago--while local mainstream media reported that the boarder was on a closed run, a couple commenters suggested that this may not have been the case. Regardless, we were duly called out for not being sympathetic in our writeup of the situation, and we hesitated about posting again regarding this incident, especially with the early media reports indicating that he must have been in a closed area to fall where he did. Not throwing salt in the wound, as it were. But we decided to write about it because we are foolhardy in our outspoken concern about people dying on skis and snowboards: in part we want to continue the dialog on this topic with our Seattlest readers, and to say that we're extremely relieved that this snowboarder is alive.

We hope that along with Dan Witkowski, who survived an unbelievable 4 days after getting lost in Alpental backcountry alone two years ago, this very lucky soul will help champion safe skiing and boarding, knowing the terrain (especially if there are any cliffs in the area, which Alpie has plenty of), and the ever-important buddy system.