R.I.P. Albert, you will always be remembered
Recently I took an avalanche course from Lori and Randy in Fort Saskatchewan then followed by the field course in Valemount, BC. Since the course and all the recent avalanche activity in the mountains this year we decided to play with a lot of caution. We were very cautious and spent most of the time in the tree’s and meadows, with some playing on smaller slopes after evaluating them. We played all day and were just having a great day. There was a mid slope over to the north east side of the area a few of them went to ride through earlier, that we were informed not to climb by our fallen friend, just play in the lower section that’s it. I seen him playing in the trees and meadows and making his way up the mid slope and decided to tag along, I always ride in two’s in case someone is stuck or in trouble. He never climbed and stayed in the mid slope, then he turned around on the burm to the slope and while he was turning around he was overcome by large avalanche, he pulled his Snowpulse bag and headed east, the avalanche by then was coming from the west, north and east and he was doomed. I pulled my ABS and hit my throttle, as the ground beneath me was disappearing and all I can see was a large wall of snow I started taking off, then bang, my head and chest hit the handlebars, I had a huge wall of snow hit me. Everything went black for a split second then I found myself pulling out of the wall and flying down the hill through trees and everything in my path, I held on for my life. I made it down, then right away every thing came to me that I learned in the course, I quickly opened my jacket to let all the packed snow out and cleaned my face and headed back up, with my ABS pulled and waving my arm to my friends on the slope beside they came to the hill. I took charge, looked at the risk and made sure my sled was faced downhill as well as the others. We started heading up with my Pieps DSP on search I discovered a burial at 55m, then we started making our way up, then it found at 33m then 16m at that time his sled was discovered just the handlebars and the top of the seat, heading in the wrong direction. We kept running up the hill in the exact direction of my Pieps and at 6m we discovered a bit of his Snowpulse bag sticking through the snow, we ran there and started digging him out. This all happened between 5 and 8 minutes of the incident. We got him turned over and commenced CPR that two of us learned through work earlier. Unfortunately he did not make it through this, and he will be in our hearts forever. But through all this I felt very confident about our ability to find him and get him out in a short time, and to be as calm as we possibly could. With the training we had this was invaluable, we knew exactly what to do and this kicked in immediately with out even thinking about it. I would have been totally lost without it. I also remembered once we located the victim, to put click my Pieps back onto send which is very important as well. The only mistake we made that day was we should of read the hill better, we stayed off the slope but we should of not been on the mid area at all, there were terrain traps and trees which took our friend’s life.
We will learn from this and spread the word, even though there are areas that look ok and there are a lot of trees an avalanche can strike anywhere and anytime, and the training we took from Zac’s Tracs was invaluable. Every mountain snowmobiler should have this. RIP Albert.
Regards, Ron Willert Snowandmud.com
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From all of us at Zac’s Tracs we would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of all the riders that we have lost this year. It has been a tragic season….and I am concerned that it is not over yet.
Please take a moment to read this article about Solar Warming. CLICK HERE
It is likely that very large avalanches are in store for this spring.
Mature timber will not necessarily guarantee a safe zone. Avalanches may create new paths this year. CLICK HERE to learn more.
While not all accidents are preventable, many may have been avoided. I keep asking myself what we could do to get the messages across to more people. Should you have any suggestions…please email me at lori@zacstracs.com.
Please take care everyone. Enjoy the snow, but save the slopes for next year.
For those wishing to attend the celebration of Albert Beck’s life, April 3, 2009 please CLICK HERE to be redirected to the Snow and Mud web forum for the details.
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