Avalanche Center stresses safety

By LAURA BEHENNA

Bigfork Eagle

The last thing most people imagine on a day of backcountry skiing or snowmobiling is meeting an untimely death.

But that could happen if outdoor fun-seekers don’t watch for snow conditions that could lead to a deadly avalanche, Stan Bones of the Glacier Country Avalanche Center said March 14 at the Bigfork Rotary Club’s weekly meeting.

The avalanche center is a cooperative association of the Flathead and Kootenai National Forests, the National Park Service’s Glacier Park office and the National Weather Service in Missoula, Bones said. A civil engineering technician with the Flathead National Forest, he has been working on avalanche safety for 25 years.

“Our charge is to promote avalanche awareness and safety in western Montana,” he said.

Each year avalanches kill an average of 30 to 35 Americans, Bones told the group of about 20. Population growth, more recreational opportunities and advanced ski, snowshoe and snowmobile technology contribute to increasing avalanche fatality rates in recent years, he said. Avalanche incidents involving snowmobiles have been on the rise during the past five years, while this year more skiers have been hurt when the snow slides.

“The majority of these accidents are totally preventable,” Bones said. “These are not God-given facts or something that’s inherent with traveling in the backcountry that you simply have to accept, or stay home.

“Time and time and time again, after you’ve seen an accident and if you talk to the people involved, quite often you get a sense that they kind of knew something was afoot, and they just basically made poor decisions.”

Bones showed a film titled “A Dozen More Turns,” a documentary made by Montana State University graduate student Amber Seyler about a fatal avalanche in the Centennial Mountains near Cooke City on Jan. 1, 2005. The avalanche killed 25-year-old Blake Morstad and critically injured his friend Sam Kavanagh, who lost one leg below the knee and nearly bled to death before he was rescued. Both men and their three companions were experienced skiers and had been well-trained in avalanche awareness and safety.

Doug Chabot, director of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center in Bozeman, said in the film that avalanches become likely when a dense slab of snow forms on top of a weak, unstable layer on a slope of about 30 degrees or steeper. A trigger, such as new snowfall, strong wind or a human on skis or snowmobile can cause the slab to break off the weak layer and roar down the slope. Most avalanches happen on slopes angled at 37 to 38 degrees, Chabot said.

“You don’t want to fall into the trap of thinking you’re any smarter than nature, or that you’re any more capable than the other guy of not triggering an avalanche,” Kavanagh said.

Now healthy, Kavanagh walks, bicycles and skis on a prosthetic leg and works as an engineer in Bozeman. His friend Blake Morstad’s widow, Addie Morstad, gave birth to the couple’s only child a few weeks after Blake’s death. The tragic ski trip was to have been Blake’s last hurrah before taking on the responsibilities of fatherhood, Kavanagh said.

“A Dozen More Turns” is available for free viewing on the Web at www.backpackinglight.com and www.lifeonterra.com.

It’s possible to ski or snowmobile safely even when avalanche danger is high, Bones said; however, you have to take care to stay on lower, less-steep slopes, and it’s safer to stay among trees than in open bowls.

“Slope angle is your number-one criterion” when judging avalanche risk, Bones said. “Most people can judge avalanche terrain by looking at it.”

Former Bigfork fire chief Rick Trembath, who has worked for the Big Mountain Ski Patrol, warned that less-steep slopes aren’t guaranteed to be stable. “You can ski for five years on one slope and get a false sense of security,” he said.

An online course in basic avalanche knowledge and other educational resources are available on the Glacier Country Avalanche Center’s Web site, www.glacieravalanche.org. Bones also recommends the American Avalanche Center’s Web site, www.avalanche.org. Both have links to other helpful sites, including all the current avalanche advisories in the U.S. and Canada.

Glacier Country Avalanche Center also has a telephone hotline with avalanche condition reports at 406-257-8402. Web site visitors may sign up for emailed avalanche alerts, too.