Posted on 12/16/2004 2:35:17 PM PST by ambrose
42 years old.
"Boyfriend."
Is boyfriend-in-law an acceptable substitute?
42 years old.
"Boyfriend."
Probably took him 26 years to work up the nerve to ask Clint Eastwood if he could date his daughter.
Can you explain this to me? I'm not a skier. Was the snow so powdery that you couldn't get a foothold and the snow just kept crumbling under you? Was there no way to pack it down to create 'steps' out of the ravine?
Do we have the same brother? Sounds like something one of my brothers would have done.
"Lincoln's Doctor's Dog"
Ghost, the snow in Colorado is extremely fine and dry. In Steamboat Springs we call it "champagne powder." It's so light that it may not even fall back to earth after it's kicked up by the wind, but hangs suspended in the air over the Yampa River Valley in a magnificently beautiful sun-gilded haze. It's also extremely deep. Yes, as you surmise, it can be too deep and dry to pack. If you fall down in such stuff it doesn't hurt and it doesn't feel cold or wet--in fact, you may just laugh. But you can get become terribly exhausted struggling with it if you fall into a hole or a "tree well" (the deep spots underneath the sheltering boughs of a huge conifer, where not as much snow has fallen; there can sometimes be a six-foot-deep pit beneath the larger fir trees).
I too have spent long periods struggling with the snow, and I can tell you that if you ski off piste alone in a serious blizzard and fall down, the Ski Patrol may find your bones in the spring, but mostly likely they won't. A minor accident out there late in the afternoon can be fatal.
If you have a gran mal? seizure it will knock you out and when you come to you will not where you are and you will be too weak to move. The paramedics have to pick you up and transport you to the hospitol for a night or two.
Yikes. I was just at Vail Tuesday.
Thanks for the explanation. Sounds like the only way out is to carry a flame thrower and melt your way out.
Struggling in powder can tire you out REAL fast, especially high up on a mountain where it's cold and the air is thin.
Seizure disorders come in different sizes. Some people are very badly affected and others less so.
The seizure still could not have been the cause of death. The seizure could have caused a fall and he broke his neck, or he lacerated something and bled to death. He could have had hypothermia or frozen but the seizure didn't kill him.
If it's so light and powdery, why can't you just walk downhill until it levels out, even if you sink in up to your chest? Is it heavy enough to be difficult to walk through? I can see how tree wells and ravines would be difficult to struggle uphill against, but it seems like you'd be able to just kick it out of your way on the downhill.
I confess, I was born and raised in Jersey and now live in Washington. I snowshoe out here and now how tough wetter snow can be. I've only ever seen snow this light occasionally in Maine. Never had to deal with it in a situation like this.
If you're not inside of the ski boundries, then it may be a very long haul until you're out of the powder, and you may have to struggle for every inch. I can very easily see someone tiring out trying to get somewhere, stopping to rest, and freezing to death before they realize it.
I literally had to push the snow blocking my path out of the way, and it closed-in behind me as soon as I moved. I can only describe the experience as swimming through a melted marshamallow.
One of the guys I work with has a history of seizures, and he told me that if he ever has one to make sure he doesn't swallow his tongue. This caught my attention, so I checked it out and discovered that a number of people die each year from this. They are out on their own, have a seizure, swallow their tongue, and choke to death before anyone can help them.
LOL Nice one!
I suspect that in this instance, you're correct. These situations are unusual. In this case, the most obvious cause would be seizure and hypothermia.
I have seen status epilepticus and it is usually drug induced, infectious or someone has been off their medications a long time. This was a guy healthy enough to be out snow boarding.
Did he have an underlying seizure disorder. Was he currently on medication and therapeutic.
There is nothing about him being witnessed having a seizure and falling down a ravine.
How do you determine from a frozen body that the cause of death was seizure?
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