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Show closed since 23 December because of mechanical difficulties. Consequently no avalanche control was undertaken in the area, and the avalanche danger was high. Moreover, a bad storm was predicted for Saturday afternoon. Miss M. G. was inexperienced both in skiing and mountaineering, and was making the trip on snowshoes. Her companion, J. had some knowledge Of ski touring and avalanche dangers. At 10: 45 a. m. a volunteer ski patrolman in the Sugar Bowl Ski area stopped the two, inquired about their destination, and took their names. He warned them of the avalanche danger and the approaching storm. The couple continued to the bottom of the chair lift at Mt. Lincoln, where the acting professional patrol leader of the Sugar Bowl Ski Patrol, P. M., stopped them. He asked about their destination and J. H. replied that it was the Benson Hut. He added that the couple had signed out in the trip book at the Sierra Club's Clair Tappain Lodge. P. M. again warned them of the dangers in the area they would be crossing. In spite of these warnings, the two continued their trip. The predicted storm arrived, one of the worst in several years. The snow and a thirty-five- mile an hour wind reduced visibility to less than two- hundred feet. The couple began traversing Mt. Lincoln about fifty yards below the ridge, J. H. in front on skis, and Miss M. G. behind on snowshoes. At approximately 2: 10 p. m. a slab avalanche suddenly broke above M. G., but below the ridge. J. H. shouted instructions to her, and he began to ski down the slope. Although the avalanche caught him and tore off his skis, J. H. was fortunately able to stay on the surface of the slide. M. G. was buried. RESCUE J. H. spent an hour and fifteen minutes in vain search for his companion. Meanwhile, the intensity of the storm increased; visibility dropped to a few feet. After finding M. G.' s pack and snowshoe without locating her, the survivor returned to the Sugar Bowl Ski Area for help. The acting patrol leader formed a search party and telephoned adjacent areas for additional rescue personnel and equipment. At this time it was learned that the pair had not signed out at Clair Tappain Lodge. By 6: 40 p. m. the search party, aided by two snowcats, reached the toe of the avalanche in the East Bowl of Mt. Lincoln. The severity of the storm combined with the approaching darkness made visibility nearly zero. The survivor, exhausted and in shock, was returned to the Sugar Bowl area. The rescue party began a hasty probe which was unsuccessful. A preliminary probe line was equally unsuccessful. At 7: 30 the main search party arrived with food, lights and additional equipment. A longer probe line was formed and M. G.' s body was finally recovered about one hundred and fifty feet above the location where J. H. found her pack and snowshoe. The body was found wrapped around a small tree and one snowshoe was still on her foot. An autopsy showed that she died of asphyxiation. 117 |