Quick action, luck save buried skier
Buried under nearly four metres of snow for several minutes, a skier was fortunate to escape injury after an avalanche Thursday afternoon near Lake Louise.
Calgary realtor Tim Banfield, one of three skiers caught in the avalanche, wrote about the harrowing experience on gripped.com on Friday.
“We were involved in an avalanche (Thursday) skinning up Sentinel Pass. We were still on the way up, our intent was to traverse Mount Temple to scope alpine routes in the area,” Banfield wrote.
A little after 5 p.m. on Thursday, RCMP and Parks Canada safety teams were notified of a signal from a GPS emergency beacon. Parks Canada spokeswoman Lesley Matheson said the size 2.5 avalanche was triggered as a group of three ski tourers ascended a slope on the southeast side of Sentinel Pass near Lake Moraine.
While Banfield notes that luck was on their side in everyone surviving, Matheson credits the skiers for being properly prepared for their journey.
“The skier who was buried was found and retrieved quickly, because the group of three skiers were well prepared and had the right equipment with them,” she said.
“Parks Canada reminds visitors who are travelling into the backcountry that they are responsible for their own safety.”
It was so in this case.
“We are sharing it because there are valuable points to take away,” Banfield wrote.
A 200-metre wide avalanche felled Banfield, carried Maia Schumacher more than 200 metres down the slope and buried another person (whose name has been withheld) under nearly four metres of snow.
Having recently watched a GoPro video circulating on the internet about a full burial, Banfield felt they had about 11 minutes to save their companion.
“We narrowed down the search to approximately a four metres reading,” wrote Banfield, “but it became immediately evident that it was a vertical four metres. We knew the chances of this being a positive outcome were small at best.”
The first problem was their probes weren’t long enough. It took digging down 100 centimetres and continually probing before the hitting the top of a backpack at the full extension of the longest probe.
Then they dug. They would spend close to 20 minutes reaching their companion, who miraculously was still breathing and able to communicate.
“I found her mouth, cleared out the snow but literally all we had was a small hole to her face, now the real work began,” he wrote.
It took nearly two more hours to completely free their fellow skier.
They got lucky, noted Banfield, writing: “Screw saving the weight with a short carbon probe and a small shovel, I knew this was a risk, I won’t do it anymore.”
The trio retrieved a satellite communication device from the buried backpack, and Parks Canada sent out safety personnel.
Eventually, they were all airlifted to meet emergency medical crews in Lake Louise, where the buried skier refused care and was taken home by her friends.
To read Banfield’s full account of the avalanche and rescue, go to gripped.com/news/skier-savedfrom-deep-under-rockies-avalanche.