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Fortunately he is ok! Big ol boy and Thrillhead rider Nate Russel was caught in a slide yesterday. They were doing Radio Beacon col. in the Forest lakes area above Rollins. I'm not sure whether it was a sluff slide or an avy

Got the story from jesse this morning, I believe he was filming the whole deal. He said Nate had a severely dislocated shoulder and was in intense pain for a big part of the day. The slide happened around 1 or 2pm, he wasn't reached by S&R until 7pm and didn't get to the hospital in Boulder until close to 9pm.

I would have probably been right behind Nate if my girlfriend hadn't showed up from Denver the night before and scratched the plans. Sure glad everyone is ok!! I saw it on the news yesterday afternoon and didn't figure it out till this morning after talking to him. Not sure if Schralptowner was there or not but maybe he'll chime in with more.

Whewww, real glad everyones ok!

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=90728

I was wondering if it was someone from the board.

Was it a wet slide or a slab avalanche? If you know this. I had plans to go out on Sunday, but high altitude temps led me to believe that stuff was just going to stay icy. So I bailed out on riding and went climbing instead.

Glad to hear he's ok, I am sure he got the scare of a couple of lifetimes.

Sketchy. Sounds painful but coulda been worse i'm sure. Now that we know he's ok,lets all pray for a quick recovery and that he buys my bike that he picked up on friday.

Keep it safe.

Was this a wet slide or are you guys still getting fresh snow?

Heal up and glad it wasn't worse!

Damn! That sucks to hear.

NR was killing it this season, sounds like he'll be out of action for a little while. But riding with him out here in UT (or watching him ride crazy shit while I took the safe route or sat with Ellis and vegged out is more like it) and hearing what all he's been getting in CO it sounds like he'll still have a hefty segment in the next Thrillhead flick. Dude charges fer shizzle.

Get well NR.

UB

Yeah the kid is ok. It sounds like Gilpen Country S&R is a big junkshow though, go figure when its volunteer based. I was supposed to go and shoot on slope with them but opted out at 5am due to sore back from soccer and not wanting to get stuck on "Russels Island". It sounds like it took them all day to get out to the line and NR dropped around 2:15ish. I am not sure how far down in the shoot he was when it began to move on him but as he was trying to stay ahead of the debris he was reaching back pushing off the moving snow and some how popped his anterior part of the shoulder out. He did not get barried and was ok besides the severe dislocation. We are all psyched the kid is ok and in good spirits. Spring smoo is in full effect and all better be careful out there. Willy called me this morning and told me he went for a little ride on a 2 ft slab this weekend in MT. You boys and girls better check yourself before you wreck yourself.

And yes, NR will have a super sick segment this year. I was organizing all of the clips from the season 2nite and he has got it all. (pillows, airs, pow, big mountain, and huge CRASHES). Last year he did not have much but this year he made it happen.

MF Peaches

Glad to hear he's ok. I had planned on a saturday excursion, but weather was crap. Guessing it had to be a wet slide with all the warm weather we had last week, and lack of very much new snow from friday/saturday. Was mtn biking on sunday, and it was plenty warm and sunny at 2pm.

Glad he's OK. Dislocated shoulders are no fun, but it coulda been a lot worse.

I was in the area of the accident both Saturday and Sunday, and I doubt it was a wet slide. On Saturday, it was full-on winter conditions at the divide, with temps in the teens and wind chill below zero. On Sunday, it was quite a bit warmer, but it was very windy and cool up high and none of the hard snow surfaces where I was softened up at all.

The strong winds took the small amounts of new snow from Thursday and Friday and loaded up lee slopes in the area with wind slabs up to a foot thick or so. Below is a photo I took on Saturday just a short distance from Radiobeacon, at 11,900 on a 30-degree slope with an ENE aspect. I did numerous hand shear tests and the wind slab always sheared fairly easily off the hard frozen crust below.

Thanks andy. That is kind of what suspected, but it's so late in the season it's just unusual. Then again, it's an unusual year...

Ya, thanks for the info Andy. So how was the skiing/snow? I was guessing fresh pow would be hard to find for saturday.... wanted to go up for spring turns on Satruday, but saw the wintery conditions and mtn biked instead.