Mass. hiker falls into Tuckerman Ravine crevasse; rescuers get no response (update 2)

Alex, Norman, Brad and Seth April 10, 2011

PINKHAM NOTCH - A Massachusetts man fell into a deep crevasse on Sunday on the northern flanks of Tuckerman Ravine, and after his hiking party heard no response from him, rescue workers who were lowered 50 feet into the crevasse were unable to reach him.

Norman Priebatsch of Boston was hiking with three others on Sunday on Mount Washington. While above treeline. Priebatsch fell, sliding over a rock band and falling into the deep crevasses around 3:30 p.m.

This is a wonderful photo of Norman
doing what he loved.
How tragic that he died doing this.
 My prayers to the family.

The search for Priebatsch was suspended at 11 p.m. Sunday evening, after a snow ranger from the U.S. Forest Service was lowered about 50 feet into the crevasse and had no contact with him. At that point, visibility was restricted to about 80 feet, and the crevasse was filled with ice, running water, and undermined snow.

Authorities say the recovery effort will be resumed when a safe entry situation exists.

Source: unionleader.com




Priebatsch was an executive at Ambergen in the early 2000s, working at the Waltham biotech as CEO and chief operations officer while it incubated at Boston University's Photonics Center. He left to pursue a career as a serial startup founder, which has included at least two companies. Priebatsch's LinkedIn profile lists him as co-founder of Adeptrix Corp., a genomics mass-spectrometry startup, and Tinnix Inc., a medical smart phone app developer focused on tinnitus.

Located in the White Mountains National Forest, 6,288-foot Mount Washington is known for unpredictable weather.

Update: A White Mountains National Forest Snow Ranger Jeff Lane on Tuesday confirmed an earlier report that responders are now presuming Norman Priebatsch dead, and have shifted their operation to a recovery mode.



UPDATE 04/03/2012 (16:50)
Hub entrepreneur Norman Priebatsch — who fell into a deep snow crevasse atop New Hampshire’s Tuckerman Ravine on Sunday — is presumed dead, authorities said this afternoon.

“We’re looking at it as a recovery effort,” said White Mountain National Forest snow ranger Jeff Lane.

Priebatsch’s 23-year-old son Seth, the Hub tech wunderkind who runs Cambridge startup Scvngr, witnessed his father’s tragic fall, authorities said.

The search for Norman Priebatsch, 67, of Back Bay was suspended late Sunday “due to unsafe snow conditions” and “has not resumed,” said Tiffany Benna, public affairs officer for the White Mountains National Forest. Benna said the elder Priebatsch was with his son and two others at the time.

Snow rangers continue to monitor the conditions in the Tuckerman Ravine basin where Priebatsch went missing.

Lane said he was lowered about 50 feet into the crevasse and he could see about 30 feet below, where a stream cut under the snow.

Lane said Priebatsch must have fallen into the stream, otherwise he would have been visible at the bottom of the crevasse.

The conditions are trending about a month ahead of schedule.

“Things are melting and there’s running water coming down and undermining the snow,” Benna said. “Ice is coming off in big chunks. It’s in an avalanche kind of field site.”

The elder Priebatsch is a seasoned skier who frequented the White Mountains with loved ones, said his childhood friend, Peter Suzman of Newton, who grew up with Priebatsch in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“He is a very energetic man, both in work and play,” Suzman said.

Priebatsch’s son, Seth, is the CEO of Cambridge startup Scvngr, a multimillion-dollar gaming company that is in the midst of moving to new offices in Boston. Scvngr plans to hold a paintball game for charity at its Cambridge headquarters later this week before the company moves out and the building is redeveloped.

Reached this morning, Seth Priebatsch declined to comment.

Norman Priebatsch attended Harvard Business School and is the founder of audio technology company Tinnix as well as Adeptrix Corp., which has a novel method of decoding DNA, according to his LinkedIn profile.

On Sunday, the day the Priebatsch family traversed the mountain, the daily avalanche warning from the U.S. Forest Service was listed as “low.”

In a blog posting for the Mount Washington Avalanche Center, Lane noted the ever-present risks associated with the whims of the weather: “... there may be lingering pockets of unstable snow from the past week’s snowfalls. ... With the frozen surfaces comes the potential for very dangerous sliding falls.”

Obituary Link: http://ow.ly/a4J7p

Latest story update April 10, 2012: http://thoughts-drp.blogspot.com/2012/04/officials-explore-tuckerman-crevasse.html

For the latest updates on Mt. Washington State Park CLICK HERE