Thursday, Jan. 13, 2005 | 10:55 a.m.
At least half the residents who were advised by Metro Police to evacuate Mount Charleston remained on the mountain on Wednesday, with several saying that parts of the mountain were safe and free from the dangers of avalanches.
Also on Wednesday, a team of U.S. Forestry officials and an avalanche expert began an investigation into the death of Allen Brett Hutchison -- the 13-year-old who was swept off a ski lift and buried under the snow at the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort -- and advised the ski resort that possible changes to its avalanche Control Plan may be needed.
Reacting to a Metro Police advisory on Tuesday that strongly urged all residents of the Mount Charleston subdivisions of Cathedral, Old Town and Echo Canyon to flee their homes because of the threat of avalanches, Cathedral resident Gale Daines seemed to have little concern.
"I feel we're safe because we don't believe there are any dangers where we are," said Daines, who has lived in the subdivision of Mount Charleston for eight years.
Metro's advisory was entirely voluntary but strongly suggested evacuation, several residents said.
The authorities on Wednesday also continued to seal off the mountain to visitors by extending the indefinite closure of state routes 156, 157 and 158 to anyone but residents of the Mountain and emergency vehicles. The closure of the state routes began on Tuesday.
"We plan to stay here unless we're told we're in imminent danger or if the roads look like they are going to blocked (by snow)," Daines said, who added that a handful of fulltime residents at the Cathedral subdivision have remained in their homes.
Doug Abromeit, an expert with the National Avalanche Center, said on Wednesday that the threat of avalanches for the residential Kyle Canyon area -- where the Echo Canyon, Cathedral and Old Town subdivisions are located -- is becoming less. He did not provide further details.
Abromeit, along with two U.S. Forestry officials from California, also looked at the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort on Wednesday as part of an inquiry into the death of Allen, the 13-year-old who was killed in an avalanche while snowboarding at the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort on Sunday.
Although Abromeit could release any of the findings of the investigation, he said that the team visited the ski resort, "looked into the accident," viewed the fracture lines of the snow above the resort and spoke with employees about the incident.
"Every time there's an accident, we go in and look at the causes," he said.
The Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort is closed indefinitely pending a full investigation.
Brian Strait, general manager of the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort, said on Wednesday night that after meeting with Abromeit and other forestry officials the resort's avalanche control plan will need "altering" in light of the massive avalanches on Sunday and Tuesday.
He could not provide further details about how the plan will be altered, but he said more detailed information will be released in the next few days.
Metro Sergeant Rory Tuggle, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that about 50 percent of the people who were asked to flee the mountain subdivisions did not leave the area, and while he said that constituted "a lot of people," it was typical of residents on the mountain.
"People up here are used to adversity, and they are well informed of the chances they take," Tuggle said from Mount Charleston. "We can't make them leave."
The main problem, according to Tuggle, doesn't come from the residents who don't follow the police advisories but visitors to the mountain who don't obey the "restricted area" signs and essentially put many people in danger.
"Residents know how to live up here -- it's the visitors to the recreation areas that don't know how to deal with avalanche threats," he said.
He said that the enormous influx of visitors to Mount Charleston recently is the primary reason why the authorities continued to close the routes 156, 157 and 158.
Calling it a "public safety issue," Tuggle said that thousands of visitors come to Mount Charleston during the winter days to play in the snow or sight see. On New Year's Day, for example, 6,601 vehicles traveled to Mount Charleston, he said.
Roads become heavily congested with traffic when so many people visit the area -- so much so that they could cause major delays for emergency vehicles or ambulances during an emergency, he said.
Even though at least one avalanche was reported on Tuesday, no reports of avalanche or injuries came in Wednesday, Tuggle said.
Already, some emergency services are evacuating the mountain. On Tuesday night, the Nevada Division of Forestry fire station evacuated the Mount Charleston Kyle Canyon station because of the threat of avalanche, said Wayne Dailey, fire management officer with the division of forestry.
The fire station personnel are still on the mountain and on call, just at a different, less potentially dangerous area, he said.
Yet none of this deterred residents of the mountain from staying on Wednesday.
The Mount Charleston Lodge, which on Tuesday night had closed for the first time in 31 years, reopened on Wednesday morning to serve residents of the area and any police officers needing a bite to eat or a cup of coffee, said Barbara Orcutt, the owner of the lodge.
"We came back to prepare for the weekend," an optimistic Orcutt said.
She said that the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is often a busy time of the season for the lodge, and despite police statements saying that the road closures might continue through the long weekend, she had customers who were still planning to stay at the lodge during the holiday.
One resident who fled her home in Echo Canyon, however, said that she was determined to stay away from her home as long as necessary.
Claudia Reed, who was staying with her friend Gale Daines during the avalanche warning, said that she had evacuated her home on Monday afternoon when Metro officers first alerted her to the dangers of avalanches.
"I saw a big avalanche some down across the valley, and could see fissures in the snow above us, so I figured it was time to leave," she said with a laugh.
Although she said she heard reports that residents were forced to evacuate their homes in Echo Canyon and were not permitted to return, officials said that the evacuations were always voluntary.
"I hated to leave my house, but you have to do what you have to do," she said. Reed said her biggest worry now is any possible damage to her home.
"You always worry about damage, but you always just hope nothing happens," she said.
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