From volume 104, fall 2013

By Troy Leahey

The start zone. Photo by Jim Bay.

This case study details a skier-triggered avalanche that occurred in the backcountry accessed from Revelstoke Mountain Resort (RMR) on February 22, 2013. The party included five young men, all new to Revelstoke. Three members of the party were involved in the avalanche. Two of these were partially buried; the deceased (an RMR staff member) was fully buried despite wearing an airbag. It was a size 2 slab avalanche with an approximately 40cm fracture line, which failed on an early February surface hoar layer.

Analyzing accidents has long been an important part of the CAA ITP program and in other risk  reduction industries. It is easy to be the armchair quarterback after an incident and identify the mistakes people made, but I believe it is also important to identify what was done well in the rescue effort to use as a good learning tool.

My involvement in this accident was on a number of different levels. As a member of Revelstoke Search and Rescue, I assisted Buck Corrigan and Ryan Buhler with the body recovery the day after the accident. I watched and helped interpret a Contour headcam video worn by one of the rescuers during the rescue effort for local members of the RCMP and a representative of the BC Coroners Service. This was a sobering but interesting piece of footage; although the actions of those involved on the scene would be apparent to most readers, the footage required some explanation and interpretation for non-skiing investigators. I interviewed some surviving members of the group for clarification on the location of those involved and their actions for the Coroners Service.

I also led a debrief at RMR for friends and co-workers of the deceased, including the other young men involved in the accident. This debrief was the most challenging public speaking exercise I have ever undertaken. Our company president asked if I could speak about the accident, as staff members and friends in the community had unanswered questions, and answers can help lead to understanding and closure. I wanted to be quite frank about the obvious mistakes made, as they were an opportunity for learning. I also wanted to commend the survivors on their effort and help them recover some confidence and dignity. I focused on the following points in the debrief.

This photo shows the position of the skiers when the avalanche occurred and where they ended up. Their uptrack is in red, the avalanche is outlined in black, and the blue dot is where the victim ended up. Photo by Troy Leahey.

MISTAKES:
• The most obvious mistake was the aggressive terrain choice—the danger rating at alpine and treeline was high. The five males were young, aggressive skiers with limited backcountry experience. This is the demographic we may expect to see on the avalanche fatality list. The deceased had skied in the terrain the day before and felt confident in his decision to lead the rest of the group to that zone. He had spent many days in this area in what had been a mostly stable season to that point. It was also the first major surface hoar cycle we had experienced in the season, and this type of avalanche failure may not have been familiar to a young German in Canada for his first winter. The CAC’s avalanche forecast was bang on—as it usually is—but youth, overconfidence and a desire to ski steep powder caused this glaring information to be ignored.

• Poor group management. The first three skiers on the uptrack were all involved in the avalanche; they were obviously not well spaced out enough and were all engulfed by the slab. Luckily the last two in the group were slower and not affected by the slab failure, and were able to execute a fairly quick rescue. Complacency on uptracks is a common problem for less experienced backcountry travellers. The group of five had been split into the first group of three up front and the slower pair at the back, which leads to a lack of communication and no consensus in the go or no-go decision. The most educated member of the group had been a student of mine on a CAA Avalanche Operations Level 1 course the previous year in Whistler. I spent a lot of time speaking with him about their decisions that day. He admitted to having reservations about the decisions being made, but did not speak up and deferred to the deceased as the leader, since he was most familiar with the terrain.

• Improper use of an avalanche balloon pack. Wear the crotch strap if you are wearing an airbag. The deceased was near the surface with his airbag inflated and clearly visible from 100m away. He had not attached the crotch strap of his airbag. As the overburden of the slab he triggered from mid-slope overran his position in the toe of the debris, the airbag was lifted away from his back and above his head. This caused two serious problems. As the balloons and pack were pushed forward and downhill it lifted the pack, causing the chest strap to catch on his chin and impede his airway. Secondly, the buoyant airbag also pulled the victim’s arms above his head, restricting movement and the ability to use hands to clear his own airway. The Contour video showed quite clearly the victim’s lifeless arms well above his head. The space between the balloon pack and the victim’s back was approximately 40-50cm.

The avalanche path where the victim was caught is on the right. Photo by Jim Bay.

WHAT THE RESCUERS DID WELL:

• The two not involved took a safe route to the toe of the debris and did not expose themselves to any additional hazard. They quickly and efficiently went into rescue mode when they saw the airbag on the surface, and began the excavation by first removing the pack and digging to the head to clear the airway.

• The two partial burials ended up mid-path and were able to self-rescue and do a transceiver search of the slide path down to the victim.

• Group members performed good first aid on the victim. Once they uncovered his head, they immediately cleared an ice chunk from his mouth and pulled him out to a prone position where they started CPR. Considering the environment, they performed excellent CPR with quality air movement as exhibited by the face of the victim in the video.

• The survivor with the most training took control of the rescue effort. He dispatched one of the members of the party to start moving back to the ski area boundary to report the accident as there was no cellular reception on the accident scene. This individual really led the first aid efforts as well.

• After at least a half hour of CPR, they made the decision to try to move the body with an improvised toboggan. They did not get very far as the conditions were very deep, but were able to move the body to a safe location out of the avalanche path. They then made the very difficult decision to leave the body and return to the ski area, as the weather conditions were deteriorating quickly. They left the body in a seated position under a tree with the inflated airbag and flagging tape arranged to mark its position, making our recovery very easy the next morning.

This was an unfortunate accident involving a group of nice young people from around the world enjoying the mountains in Revelstoke. There is nothing ground breaking about this accident other than the question of whether the airbag crotch strap could have made a difference. So why did I write this for The Avalanche Journal on a 30° July day when I’d rather be fishing? On a personal level, it brings back a bunch of vivid images and unpleasant emotions that make me sad. However, on the big-picture level this is an opportunity for others to learn and avoid mistakes in the future. A case study is really a story; this story may be repeated in Whistler, Banff or beyond. Hopefully the mistakes made and the triumphs that occurred in this accident will resonate and help others make better decisions in the mountains. That makes me happy.

Have a fun, safe winter.