Solo Backcountry Skier Buried Up To Head in Avalanche
By Rocky Thompson on March 2nd, 2010
A man skiing by himself a couple miles out of bounds near Crystal Mountain in Washington was caught in a slide and buried up to his neck. It would have been a cruel irony if he hadn’t been able to reach his cell phone. As luck would have it, his cell wasn’t broken in the slide, and he could still get service that deep in the backcountry. A ski patroller responded in about 20 minutes, and instead of simply shoveling over the guy’s head, he dug him out and sent him to the hospital.
The victim, an experienced skier, was in stable condition and talking before he was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. He promised he would spread the word about the dangers of out of bound skiing.
Yeah, I’m sure he made all kinds of promises while stranded in the snow. I know I would have.
Good Article. Most skiers who ski Crystal are “experienced skiers”, but lack the common sense about avalanche danger. I can’t tell you how many folks I know who think nothing about skiing out of bounds, into the park, ski touring (the new popular thing to do in the winter) from Crystal. The more people do it and talk about it, the more others want to try it. They haven’t a clue, and I’m surprised there aren’t more deaths. Given the conditions that day, the guy shouldn’t have been there. Period.