Avalanche!

The winter of 2000/2001 for the mountains of southeastern Montana was low in snow, but high in danger. Because of the infrequency of snowfall and bad combinations in snow crystal type and temperature, the stage was set in late march for the possibility of some seriously hazardous and unpredictable avalanches... if it snowed. And it did. Several storms came in late march and early April putting well over two feet of snow on top of the weak and variable snow pack below.

A few days after all this snowfall no one knew just how dangerous it was, because the snow conditions varied so greatly throughout the mountains. On this day in early April, there were three major avalanche incidents leaving two dead and my friend Mike badly injured. Mike set off and was caught in a huge avalanche, which ran over me as well. But thankfully, I was uninjured, and Mike was able to hold on for three hours, as he waited to be rescued.

Mike and I headed out of the south boundary of the Bridger Bowl ski area to drop off the backside of the area, and of the Bridger Mountain range. We planned to ski out Truman Gulch and walk out dirt roads to ultimately hitchhike back home to Bozeman. Mike and I had been working on a ski film all winter, and we planned to get one of the finer shots of the season in Truman Gulch. As we dropped off the ridge we saw just how pristine and perfect the snow appeared in the main bowl. It also looked dangerous. I skied down first to set up the tripod in what I thought was a safe spot. Right off the bat, I set off a pretty big avalanche, catching the tail end of it on tape. I skied down where the avalanche had gone, as to avoid being caught in a new one. The avalanche was big, but I didn't think a similar one would have the power to reach me where I set up to film. Mike started skiing above me as I filmed. The avalanche tore out immediately, but it was of the same nature as the previous, and I thought Mike would be able to escape.

Shortly after it ripped, as Mike barely got ahead of it, the ground rose up in front of him as the avalanche dug down another two feet deeper than the previous one. Now the slide was huge, and as the wave rolled over Mike, I realized it was fast, powerful and coming straight for me. Without thinking, I left the camera and tripod and grabbed on to a tree 15 feet away, and managed to hold on for two big waves that rushed over me. The camera kept filming as the slide ran over it, and it is clobbered and the screen goes to black. After the slide passed I thought my chances of finding Mike alive were none. But right away I hear him yelling to me from about 40 feet. He got caught on a small tree, the last small tree before 500 feet of wide open space followed by a 100 foot frozen waterfall.

There were several factors making us very lucky. First, Mike broke his femur, a few ribs, and cracked his hip, yet suffered no internal bleeding. It took 3 hours for me to get help and a helicopter to him. If he had punctured his femoral artery, common with a broken femur, he would probably have died in under two hours. Second, Mike snagged on the last possible tree, any further and he could be buried under up to ten feet of heavy avalanche debris and tossed off the 100 foot cliff. Thirdly, I was able to hold on to the tree, and the tree didn't break. Fourth, there was actually a third person, an ice climber, climbing the 100 foot frozen waterfall. He was just getting off the ice to pack up and go home when the avalanche rushed over the edge and on top of him. The snow carried him out to the side and buried him up to his neck, leaving one arm free. He used his one arm to dig himself out, and walked away unharmed.

After, giving Mike all my warm clothes, I hiked straight back up the mountain, down the ridge and off the other side into the ski area which was long since closed for the afternoon, and encountered the mountain manager plowing snow at the top of a chairlift. We initiated the rescue. When I got to the base of the ski area, I learned that there was another avalanche victim buried just ten miles to the north of us in the Flathead pass area. Immediately after airlifting Mike out of Truman Gulch, the heli-pilot flew directly to Flathead pass in what proved to be a futile effort to rescue. That man died before his partners could dig him out.

Earlier the same day, about 40 miles to the south, another man was killed in the mountains near West Yellowstone Montana. He was snowmobiling when the avalanche came down on top of him. All in all, it was a day of adrenaline and anticipation for all involved, and fortunately Mike and my instincts and reactions were just enough for us to evade the ultimate consequence. Now Mike is walking and hopes to be back to normal by September.

What I have on film is Mike skiing and the avalanche letting loose from under and all around him. I followed Mike on camera all the way to when he is consumed by the snow, and then I took off for the tree as the camera watches the avalanche tear through some trees and then into the camera. We have a seasons worth of “extreme” skiing on tape as well as interviews, Mike in the hospital and other avalanches after they ran. I filmed the area of the slide the day after the incident, giving a great perspective on the place it occurred and the scale of the slide. I hope this isn't too much information. It is hard to keep it small, because I remember clearly every little detail.

-- Nick Baldwin

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