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Show lying on his mattress and covered with blankets. A little later the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. S. were located 15 feet from their son, covered with 8 feet of snow, and also on a mattress and covered with bedding. Next searchers found the A.' s son, By. A., some 30 feet from the main wreckage of their home. He was under 14 inches of snow. The seemingly impossible search continued, each rescuer hoping that somehow one or all of the three missing victims would be found alive. Around 1600 hours the two S. girls, L. S., 10, and V. S., 7, were found dead under six feet of snow, covered with blankets on a mattress, and locked in each others' arms. This left only seven year old M. A. missing. The Sheriff called off the search around 1730 hours because of darkness and an approaching storm was increasing the slide hazard in the area. On Monday, 22 January, the State Highway Department shot various avalanche slopes in the area with a 75mm howitzer. Another slide was released in the same area by this control work, and it also reached Highway 82. The search continued throughout the day, but turned up only a broken child's wagon, one of the girl's dolls, and miscellaneous household items. Tuesday the searchers continued working through the tons of snow and rubble. Finally at 1010 hours, the body of the seventh victim, M. A., age 7, was located under 12 feet of snow and debris. It was near where his brother was found, but buried much deeper. Thus ended the sad search for nine avalanche victims. A family of five had been wiped out, and, of a family of four, only the parents survived. AVALANCHE DATA This avalanche was a climax, hard slab, size 5, which released naturally, ( though two deer were found in the debris, it is doubtful they would have been high enough to release the slide during such a severe storm.) The fracture line was 10 feet at its maximum depth. The bottom 18 inches of the snow pack was unconsolidated depth hoar. The remainder of the mass was a combination of very hard slab and some soft slab. The avalanche undoubtedly reached very high speeds due to the unstable depth hoar base and the lower layers sliding on top of an ice crust. Indications of the hardness of some of the slabs involved was the fact that after traveling 8,000 to 8,500 feet, large blocks of hard slab 3 feet square and 18 inches thick were still intact. The lower 10% of the slide area is private land. Above this, the land is intermingled National Forest and patented mining claims. This same avalanche has claimed three other lives, but these occurred higher on the mountain. One fatality was recorded in - 1899 and two in 1916. Some of the older residents around Leadville can remember when this same avalanche came across the road and into the flat " around 70 years ago." This is confirmed by the age of the aspen growing in back of the buildings that were destroyed. 75 |