A second avalanche death on California’s notorious Mammoth Mountain has a grieving mom reliving the heartbreak of losing her daughter all over again — as horrifying details of the young woman’s final moments have been revealed.
Veteran ski patroller Cole Murphy, 30, died in a vicious snowslideat the dangerous mountain in December— less than a year after Claire Murphy, 25, was killed in the same fashion.
Claire Murphy — who is of no relation to Cole Murphy — was found pinned upright against a fir tree, looking straight at the blanket of snow about to crush her on Valentine’s Day last year, her sobbing mother Lisa Apatold the Los Angeles Times.
“It kills me to think of her trapped there,” Apa told the Times.
Claire Murphy and Cole Murphy were working as ski patrollers clearing trails along a steep section of the resort known as the Avalanche Chutes when they both died.
Murphy was a rookie patroller and had only been on the job a few months.
“You killed another ski patroller … you’ve learned nothing!” Apa said she texted a senior patrol manager after hearing about Cole Murphy’s death. She said she urged Mammoth officials to review training and avalanche-control procedures after her daughter’s death.
Cole Murphy was buried during avalanche mitigation work on Dec. 26, asThe California Post previously reported.He was dug out transported to a hospital, but later died from his injuries.
His fellow patroller survived with a serious leg injury.
According to the Los Angeles Times, colleagues took roughly 18 minutes to locate and dig Murphy out after the slide. Avalanche survival odds drop sharply after about 15 minutes of burial.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
