Going to Dig up a Dead Guy, a TR of Sorts

[El Kanone]

The day started out normal enough, just another day at the office, taking four random fun loving folks out to play in the powder snow via helicopter.




I think we did about three runs when we got a call on the radio from the San Miguel county sheriff's office about an avalanche in Bear Creek. My first thought was oh shit I'm going to have to dig up one of my friends. Bear Creek is the name of an extremely easy to access drainage that is right next to the ski resort boundary it is full of amazing ski runs, but also potentially very lethal. We had to first drop off our clients in a safe location, then another guide and myself flew over to the ski resort and picked up a ski patroller and his avalanche dog.



By this time it had been determined that the slide was not in the Bear Creek next to the resort, but a different Bear Creek located about 40 miles south in Dolores County. I was relieved to hear this as it was much less likely that it would be one of my bros. I knew the other Bear Creek from mountain biking so we started flying that way. I was impressed how unfazed the dog, Solo, was with all the commotion of the helicopter. After flying for a while the avalanche area became readily visable in the distance.



The first thing you want to do when you arrive at a rescue situation is make sure it is safe enough for the rescuers so you dont end up with more victims. There was more hang fire above, but I felt that if we stayed below the area that had already slid we would be ok. After talking to the snowmobilers on the scene we determined that there was one burial victim. The group was a total of seven snowmobilers not one of them had a shovel, beacon or probe. The group was on a noll off to the side watching two brothers highmark the slope. One brother was at the bottom while the other was highmarking, at the top of the run as he was turning the slope "cracked" in his words. He was able to finish the turn pin the throttle and out run the slide, but it went down and buried his brother.


They sent one guy to go to an area with cell service and call for help and the rest did a poor job searching with the pathetic equipment they had. While we started with our probes the heli went back for more rescuers. After a little while we hit the snowmobile and a while later we hit the guy with a probe and started digging. When we got to him we started CPR, not a fun expierience especially with the guys brother and girlfriend standing over us. This was a few years ago so we did not have a defibulater on the heli, we now fly with a defibulator on all the helis all the time. After a while of CPR the heli came back with a defibulator, and a sheriff. I was happy to take a step back at this point and let the cop take over. When they first hooked him up he had a very faint pulse, they zapped him a few times, but were unable to revive him and the cop declared him dead. We had a sleeping bag in the heli for emergencies so we zipped the guy into it and rather unceremoniously dumped him into the ski basket and flew the body out and shuttled the rest of the rescuers out. When I got back to our base my clients were chomping at the bit to go skiing and I took them out for a few more runs, I wasn't that into it and probably picked some flat runs.


I found that in this situation the avavlanche dog was not much help, I guess that is because of too many other odors in the area? There are several lessons that can be learned from this. The most obvious is if you go into the backcountry or out of bounds from the resort without a beacon, you need to go get one. This guy was not killed in this slide, there was no signs of trauma, no obstruction to his airway. I am very confident that he was alive and conscious after the slide and probably heard his friends freaking out as they were standing on top of him. If you can afford skis and a season pass you can afford an avalanche beacon. Another thing is to remember your basic protocol, in this case one at a time. If the victim was on the noll with the others instead of under the slope noone would have been hurt in this slide. Also I would like to add one more thing to the basics of getting started in the backcountry you need a beacon shovel probe AND CPR if you do dig up a friend you need to know how to do CPR. A basic CPR class should take about one hour. Lastly no equipment is a substitute for good decision making.
Have a great winter and remember, nothing is uglier then a double pole plant.

[powstash]

sobering experience.

[Art Shirk]

Thanks for the story. Sad as it is. This whole thing sounds so unbelievably avoidable.

[smalls]

informative write-up. thanks. when did it happen?

[H-man]

Thanks for posting your experience.

[Buster Highmen]

Terrain choice: the best avalanche avoidance scheme.

[Greydon Clark]

Terrain choice: the best avalanche avoidance scheme.

My thoughts too. It looks like a photo from Avy 1—lee side of the ridge, steep slope, lots of trigger points formed by the rocks/cliffs.

[brettf]

My thoughts too. It looks like a photo from Avy 1—lee side of the ridge, steep slope, lots of trigger points formed by the rocks/cliffs.

Yup... also looks really fun to ski.

Also looks really difficult to escape from on skis...

Good to start thinking about now.

[iskibc]

Sobering indeed. Thanks for taking the time to post this experience.

[Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo]

Thanks for posting. It makes me glad I skipped skiing last weekend to get CPR re-cert. Digging someone out is often only half the battle.

[skiing-in-jackson]

Ditto: When was this?

Again, aviodable tragedy. Lots of sledders around here think they're invincible because they have a 700 cc sled. Not always the case.

[Spark]

Thanks for posting this. Sad to hear but you can learn a lot from tragic stories like these. I'll always have my gear.

[mmcpheet]

Also I would like to add one more thing to the basics of getting started in the backcountry you need a beacon shovel probe AND CPR if you do dig up a friend you need to know how to do CPR. A basic CPR class should take about one hour.

Thought this part should be reiterated as it is not said very often. Took my CPR class this morning and the guidelines have recently changed to make the process easier to remember. Also a reminder to check and replace gloves and barrier masks if needed (or previously omitted).

[El Kanone]

The date of this event was 3/22/03. I agree very much with the terrain selection comments. When I am teaching avalanche classes I like to tell people that you can have the most dangerously unstable snow pack imaginable and still be totally safe if it is not steep enough to slide and nothing is above you. The problem for people like us is in most cases steeper is better. Also with terrain selection I always look at the run out zone. If a slide path goes into trees you have little chance of surviving, but if it is an open slope you have much better chances.

[El Kanone]

Oh yea, one other thing do any of you have much expierience with avalanche dogs? Seems like the dog was right on top of the guy and never noticed, he was only about 3 feet or so under the snow. Was it from all the other people around? Or was Solo just a slacker?

[Buster Highmen]

Sturbee r00ls. And I'd quibble with the trees in terrain, since that sometimes indicates a safe zone.

[Dromond]

Sounds like a pretty awful experience, but it's good for all to see.

Quite a 30th-or-so post.

[comish]

Thanks for posting.

[Conundrum]

Oh yea, one other thing do any of you have much expierience with avalanche dogs? Seems like the dog was right on top of the guy and never noticed, he was only about 3 feet or so under the snow. Was it from all the other people around? Or was Solo just a slacker?

Thanks for posting this.

I can't tell you much about Solo's slackertude but I have trained some with avi dogs and from what I saw, they would catch burials at 3 ft. We would bury people 3 or 4 feet deep in old slide paths and track them up quite a bit and the dog usually took 5 to 10 minutes to find folks from the top (we made sure the old paths were safe to work in). When I say train, I was the trainee as much as the dog, learning how to work with it. Just wanted to point out that I'm not a trainer and there are people quite a bit more knowledgeable on this than I am. They truly are amazing at what they can do.

Who knows, maybe the real thing is a lot different for a dog just like it is for people. Also, maybe gas and fumes that could throw Solo off were around from the sleds.

[Adamantium]

Oh yea, one other thing do any of you have much expierience with avalanche dogs? Seems like the dog was right on top of the guy and never noticed, he was only about 3 feet or so under the snow. Was it from all the other people around? Or was Solo just a slacker?

i seem to recall hearing somewhere that it's possible that having all those people franticly searching the debris area can make it much more difficult for a dog to find a burial victim, because the odors of the would-be rescuers are all over the place.

[GoldMember]

I have a former coworker who's a sledder that rides with a group all over the place around the PNW. It amazed me when I asked if the group has beacons, probes, etc. He said that none of them did and they weren't worried about it because they mostly rode the groomed trail systems in the area. So, I pointed out to him that the trails are mostly FS roads cut across hillsides, etc. and that he has about $30k invested in sleds, trailer, etc. and yet he hadn't bothered to spend the two or three hundred bucks each for he and his wife to be safe(r) with avy gear. After talking to him about it about five times, he and his group of buddies finally decided to get the gear and take a class and practice. Basically, a lot of people just don't think it can happen to them and then they make bad/ignorant choices and get themselves buried - all to save a couple hundred bucks when they've got way more than that into their sleds. This is a good story to send him the link to just to enforce it again. Thanks for posting it. Great reminder for everyone to be safe this winter; again.

[cardog100]

I've worked w/ scenting dogs for years, and if/when people disturb the scene, and deposit their scent - further complicated by the exhaust fumes from the various sleds present - across the area, the dog's job becomes significantly more difficult. The dogs smell EVERYTHING that's been over around and through that scene.

Picture the footprints of all those present, in the same color. Now you try and pick out the ONE person's tracks from all of the others. Add the time the victim has been buried and the depth at which they are suspended in the debris. Then cut Solo some serious slack.

Good boy, Solo!

[encore]

??? - this thread is over two years old.

Not a good bump for those reading that knew the victim.

[beaterdit]

I've worked w/ scenting dogs for years, and if/when people disturb the scene, and deposit their scent - further complicated by the exhaust fumes from the various sleds present - across the area, the dog's job becomes significantly more difficult. The dogs smell EVERYTHING that's been over around and through that scene.

Picture the footprints of all those present, in the same color. Now you try and pick out the ONE person's tracks from all of the others. Add the time the victim has been buried and the depth at which they are suspended in the debris. Then cut Solo some serious slack.

Good boy, Solo!

You're an idiot.

[FreakofSnow]

??? - this thread is over two years old.

Not a good bump for those reading that knew the victim.

I bet. And for what it's worth I find the title of this thread a bit mobid/offensive (weird for a guy not easily offended). Anywhoo....