struggling to stay on top. I saw him go under and was awed by the size of the avalanche crown; I was instantly on Tarek’s heels moving as fast as possible sinking past my knees in the snow with each frantic step. Everything went white as the avalanche hit the valley floor. A frigid blast of air, snow and tree debris pelted our backs as we blindly ran away from the powder cloud. As the cloud settled, Tarek and I found ourselves only 10 feet clear from being buried by the avalanche. I’ve never considered myself much of a competitive person, but at this moment I ‘heard’ the starting gun and knew this would be the race of our lives. People were yelling for the rider, but there was no way someone goes down in a slide that big and stays on top without an airbag. No one put me in charge, but I started barking orders anyway. We quickly had three teams working, one searching from the bottom up, one searching from the top down and another making a 911 call. A fourth team remained on the sideline in case the search team triggered another slide.
We had wisely left snowmobiles out of the deposit zone giving the top-to-bottom search team the advantage of covering more ground quickly. On the way to the top we passed over avalanche debris that literally filled a valley – if someone were to be buried there they could easily be 30 feet deep with little hope for survival. Within 90 seconds we stood at the top, strapping in and discussing the search plan that broke the path into thirds. Three of us rapidly descended the first 100 feet only to stop in shock for a second to marvel at the avalanche crown that measured 5 to 6 feet deep and propagated 200 yards out of the chute across the mountain side. No wonder the valley was filled. Dropping from the slab, over the crown, onto the avalanche bed surface spoke volumes of why this had popped where it did – it was ice on a 43-degree angle slope. We searched while
snowboarding in our lanes, which enabled rapid straight lane searching versus the typical zigzag back and forth. Tarek and I knew where the guy would likely be due to the tree terrain trap that lies below the chute. We both converged on an avalanche transceiver signal, following the flux line right to it. A quick pinpoint search revealed that he was shallowly buried. I wasn’t waiting for a shovel. I started wildly clawing at the snow and shouting, “We are coming for you!” As shovelers converged, I was very lucky to uncover the snowboarder’s face, but it was blue. Morale
hit bottom and some thought he was dead. I sharply corrected them, saying this is what people look like after being buried in an avalanche. Truth be told, I made that up simply because I wasn’t willing to accept that we didn’t reach him in time. The search felt fast and efficient – it had to be less than 10 minutes. Shovels began excavating as I leaned in searching for a pulse, and while doing so, I could hear his lungs struggling to clear some loose snow. He was breathing! continued on next page
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WINTER 2013 | MOUNT BAKER EXPERIENCE
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