Too Close for Comfort
Written by Rick Tams, with help from Dave Ure
My name is Rick Tams, and I’ve been snowmobiling for over 40 years. I’m writing about this incident and sharing it with you for two reasons. The first is to hopefully bring more attention to avalanche safety and discuss some of the hazards that we face as sledders. The second reason is to recognize and thank the eleven people that literally saved my life.
Photo: Duane Hildebrand
The events in my story took place on April 22, 2007. I’d arranged to take my Dad on a one-day snowmobiling trip into the Forester area near Radium, British Columbia. He’s 71 and also an avid rider, however as a Canadian snowbird, Dad hadn’t had a chance yet this year to get out riding. My cousin and his 17-year-old son came with us as well. The trip from Innisfail, Alberta to Radium was uneventful, and we were unloaded and on the trail by late-morning. We rode up to the cabin at Forester where we stopped and had our lunch, with the thermometer there indicating a noon hour temperature of 48 degrees Fahrenheit. It had been slightly overcast that morning with some flat-light conditions, so when we saw the sun poking out on an adjacent mountainside, we proceeded in that direction. As we rode into the area, we came across a small, and seemingly safe looking bowl, which I immediately began to ascend.
It was not a particularly difficult climb for the M7 I was riding and I knew that I had certainly climbed many areas much more challenging and intimidating then this. At about the half way point up the bowl I decided to turn around, and it was then that I noticed something about three quarters of the way up the hill. It was hard to detect at first but very quickly a large fissure began to form that made me realize that an avalanche was happening. My first thought was to look for snow from a cornice or overhang that had broken off further above and that could start coming down at me. However I quickly determined that the failure of the snow pack I had spotted initially marked the start of a large slab avalanche that I was now positioned directly in the middle of!!
Photo: Duane Hildebrand
Photo: Duane Hildebrand
I estimate that the slab of snow that broke free was about three hundred yards wide, and that I was about a hundred to a hundred and fifty yards from the top of it.
When something like this happens to you, there unfortunately isn’t a lot of time to analyze the situation and chose a game plan from a long list of options. I was still pointed up the hill and moving forward so I decided ….
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Photo: Alan Harder
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