Comments on: The Memory — Avalanche

By: T-son

T-son — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 04:03:26 +0000

I cant imagine what it would be like to bust your femur in half! I wonder how long it would take for the adrenaline to wear off? Thanks for sharing that story.

By: Bondcop

Bondcop — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 05:25:15 +0000

Crazy coincidence. A couple days after you posted this, I got to hear the first hand account from Izo who I met in the jackal hut. Really intense stuff.

By: Don Gisselbeck

Don Gisselbeck — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 03:22:25 +0000

The Brain part cannot be over emphasized. The avalanche that could have killed me http://www.missoulaavalanche.org/wp-content/uploads/gem_lake_avalanche_102409.pdf
could have been predicted by novices.

By: Another Dawson

Another Dawson — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 04:51:27 +0000

Thanks Lou! You were the one who insisted I take an avy class if I was going to get into backcountry skiing and you told that story to the class there in Aspen – must have been about ’84. I was a college intern working on Lovins’ house with the notion that I was done with resort skiing and from then on it was all going to be human powered. Your story at that class was very humbling and I still remember how you segued from the previous lectures on snowpack instabilities such as bed surfaces and loading by saying something to effect of “The problem is, everything you learned this morning about what can kill you is really similar to what can lure you into the backcountry: 2 feet of new on a firm base? Untracked 35 degree slope? Sound like perfect skiing?” And then you launched into your story.
Stories can’t do it all in terms of education but they really can stick with us when they resonate and I’d like to think yours has helped me have 30 years of backcountry safety.

Mike Dawson

By: Lou Dawson

Lou Dawson — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:53:32 +0000

Hi Bob, thanks for chiming in! I’ve sure got a special place in my heart for you!

Yeah, it might have taken Izo longer, definitely not shorter! He probably climbed out of the Bowl in about 45 minutes (up the lower shoulder to looker’s right from bottom), then took ten minutes to get to the parking lot where Hicks was already getting the rescue ready thanks to you. In all, everything happened really fast but I was lying there in the snow for quite a few hours by the time Tom Snyder and the rest of the patrol guys got there with a sled, then it was another hour before they had me packaged and down at the ambulance. I passed out a few times in the sled, which did not impress the ‘trollers as that is a very bad sign when someone is hypothermic along with bad trauma.

One lesson all this taught me was that being a bit more prepared for an accident can go a long ways, especially having communication gear instead of skiing-hiking out for help. It amazes me to see recent accidents where the only way they could get help was for someone to make a long, hard, slow and sometimes dangerous trek to a phone, when some sort of 2-way comm would have allowed perhaps a better (or at least safer for the companions of the victim) outcome.

Also, using a SPOT might not be the best as it’s one-way, and someone will probably still want to go out to a phone. But at least the SPOT might instigate a rescue call-out sooner. Every minute can count in these situations, but time moves like molasses when you shift from fun powder turns to someone lying there in the snow with their life draining out.

I’d sure like to get a copy of that 911 call. It must have been interesting, you trying to convince them of what you saw. I never knew that the dispatcher delayed things by another 15 minutes. Bad on them.

Lou