Jackson Hole news | Jackson Hole feature | Jackson Hole environmental | Jackson Hole sports | Today's News

News story - Feb. 28, 2001

Slide dealths stir debate
Patrollers are fearful that open-gate policy could be terminated at resort.

By Angus M. Thuermer Jr.

Teton County's fifth avalanche death of the season Friday followed by a rash of skier-caused slides has ski patrollers upset at what they perceive as reckless behavior.

Twenty-two-year-old ski instructor Alan Wagner became the county's fifth avalanche victim Friday when he was carried over a 40-foot cliff by a small slide in Granite Canyon. The avalanche provoked a larger slide farther down the slope that carried Wagner some 500 feet and buried him under three feet of snow.

Wagner had left the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort by ducking under a boundary rope. Friends uncovered his face in five minutes but were unable to save him.

His death added to a grim statistic. Teton County alone accounts for almost 20 percent of the 27 avalanche fatalities in North America this winter.

The day after Wagner's death, Jeromey Bell was pinned on a tree by an avalanche in Horseshoe Bowl north of Mount Glory on Teton Pass. On Monday, Jeff Annetts provoked a four-foot fracture and 200-yard-long slide in the Rock Springs drainage after leaving the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and jumping off a 60-foot cliff despite warnings of high danger. On Tuesday, resort patrollers saw signs that a solo skier survived a slide on Cardiac Ridge, just west of the ski area boundary in Granite Canyon.

"Why aren't they getting the message?" asked Corky Ward, Jackson Hole Ski Patrol director. "There's frustrations with the decisions that are being taken right now.

"If these decisions continue, the Forest Service could close the access down, and that would be very disappointing in our eyes," Ward said. "We've tried since 1990 to get an OB policy."

Avalanches are nothing to play around in, said Bell, an employee of Wildflower Bakery who may be a rare survivor this winter. He and a friend skied Horseshoe Bowl once and had returned for a second run when Bell was overwhelmed by an avalanche.

The slide carried him 50 yards and pinned him against a tree. The slide went on for another 800 feet or so.

"I was in a white room, couldn't see anything," he said. "I was slammed into a tree and it was squeezing me."

Bell was pinned, his breath pushed out of his body by the force of the rushing snow. Suddenly, the pressure was off. But Bell was "totally out of breath, struggling for air," he said.

"I was definitely surprised at its force," Bell said. He said skiers should understand that in a slide, they no longer have control.

"It's totally out of your hands," he said. "You're going to get twisted and contorted. You'll be lucky to come up with your limbs in the right place."

Bell couldn't breathe deeply for about three hours. He went to the St. John's emergency room, where he received a shot of morphine. "I don't think you fully comprehend it until something like that happens to you," he said of the danger of avalanches.

Wagner's fatal ski trip began after he completed the first day of the Teton Telemark Freeskiing Competition and then ducked a boundary rope with three friends. At about 4 p.m. the group skied off the north side of Apres Vous Mountain toward a cliff-studded slope in Grand Teton National Park.

Park officials said Wagner approached a steep chute near Caledonia Couloir from a different direction than his three companions. There he apparently provoked the small slide that carried him over the cliff.

Wagner died even though his friends - visiting skiers Zach Giffin, Jeff Giffin and Torrey Rodgers - uncovered his face quickly. They found him using avalanche beacons.

It took another 15 minutes of digging before the companions were able to attempt rescue breathing. One rushed out of Granite Canyon and told ski patrollers of the accident at 5 p.m.

Patrollers and park rangers organized a rescue. A park helicopter was turned back by dark, but patrollers reached the scene at 6:30 p.m. Wagner's friends tried resuscitation efforts for 45 minutes. The ski patrol used an automatic electronic defibrillator to detect cardiac activity. Wagner had no "shockable rhythm," and resuscitation efforts ceased.

The skiers left the area that evening. Park rangers recovered the body Saturday morning.

Resort spokeswoman Anna Olson said the incident shows that gear won't save lives. "They did everything by the book," she said of the friends' rescue attempt. "But it was not quick enough."

The incident occurred on a north-facing slope at about 8,000 feet on a day when the danger was rated at "considerable." "Considerable" danger indicates a condition when human-triggered avalanches are probable. There had been three inches of new snow in the previous 24 hours, 15 inches in the previous three days.

To receive the daily avalanche report, call 733-2664 or log onto www.untracked.com/forecast.

Respond to this article by e-mailing publisher@jhnewsandguide.com