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Show Pond. The road in this area ran beneath a short but steep and corniced slope. Because of darkness and poor visibility due to storm conditions, they were working by the headlights on the tractors. Around 10: 30 p. m. the driver of the second tractor realized that he had not seen N. F.' s headlights in front of him for several minutes. Going forward to check, he found that a heavy snow slide had moved down the hill, crossed the road, and completely covered the tractor and operator. There was no indication of the location of either N. F. or his tractor. The second operator immediately returned to the F. A. A. service garage, four miles down the road, to get additional help. It was 2: 00 a. m. before other men and equipment could get back to the slide area and begin searching for the missing man. At 2: 30, searchers, using a probe, found the tractor; the seat was under about four feet of snow. N. F.' s body was found a few feet away from the tractor. Attempts to revive him failed. An autopsy revealed that he had died of suffocation. COMMENTS Darkness, poor visibility and no realization of the potential danger led to this accident. The victim might have survived with a canopy on the D- 7, for the top would have offered protection and would have been above the snow surface. No. 65- 4 GEORGETOWN CANYON. IDAHO 30 January 1965 ACCIDENT SUMMARY On 30 January, 1965, the management of the El Paso Natural Gas Company requested a gun crew from the Idaho National Guard at Preston to take avalanche control measures above their plant in Georgetown Canyon. An earlier attempt by the same gun crew on 10 January failed to produce any slides or noticeable settling of the pack. By the 30th the avalanche danger in the area was significantly higher; during the previous two days thirteen snowslides occurred below the plant site. From 24 January to 30 January there had been a continuous accumulation of heavy wet snow on top of an early season pack of deep powder snow. Snow depths were estimated at sixty inches with drifts of more than one- hundred inches. In preparation for this second control attempt, all vehicles and personnel were removed from the plant area. The natural gas and electric service were turned off. Shortly after 2: 00 p. m. the gun crew began firing the 105 mm Howitzer. A series of five shots produced a noticeable settling of the snow. Then a sixth was fired. At first it appeared that a small slide was generating in the shell's impact area. Almost instantaneously, 122 |