2015/03/14 - Alaska - Squaw Creek, near Cantwell

Published 2015/06/15 by Graham Predeger and Wendy Wagner - Forecasters, Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center

On  March  6 to 8th a winter storm brought 2‐3 feet of snow to the Cantwell area. Strong Northerly outflow winds followed the next several days with the most intense wind reported on March 11th. There is no snowpack data available. With this limited weather information and analyzing the photos of the avalanche, it is suspected that this was a wind slab avalanche (1 to 3 feet thick) that stepped down (approximately 1 foot) into old snow near the ground in areas.

Right before the avalanche occurred, the victim proceeded to side-­â€hill a steep 50-­â€60 foot tall slope in a creek bed. He rode from the looker’s lower left to right, making one pass before turning downhill. He then looped back around for a second pass using his same track (lower left to right) until he got to mid-­â€slope and turned slightly uphill, presumably to climb to the top of the slope. His snowmachine became stuck at this point and with two witnesses watching, the victim jumped off of his machine to the downhill side, sinking up to his waist. One witness stated at the moment of boot penetration, the slope avalanched above the victim and propagated as wide as 1500’. The victim and his machine were very quickly at the bottom of the slope (25 – 30 vertical feet) and snow began piling on top of the victim and the machine.

On Saturday morning March 14th, 2015 a group of five snowmachiners began riding from a parking lot near MP 191 on the Parks Highway. All riders were advanced snowmachiners and had at least some familiarity with this region. One member of the party had been riding here for 10 years or more. The objective for the day was to ride in the area of Squaw Creek drainage and access some meadows that the group was familiar with. The victim was the only one in the party of five wearing an avalanche beacon (he also had a shovel, probe and Snow Pulse Airbag) that morning. Although wearing an airbag, it was not in the ‘armed’ position meaning there was not an opportunity to deploy. At least one of the other party members had an avalanche beacon but it was left in the truck; he didn’t recognize this area as avalanche terrain and therefore did not wear it. Three party members (excluding the victim) had shovels and two had probes. No red flags (recent avalanches, shooting cracks or whumphing) were observed during the day. 

Witness 1 watched the victim and his machine tumble in the avalanche and  disappear with a fairly good idea of where he was buried. Witness 1  immediately grabbed his shovel and began digging where he thought the victim was located. It took him a minute to slow down and recognize that he needed to probe first before digging, in case he was digging in the wrong spot. By this time witness 2 was on scene and both witness 1 and 2 began spot probing where they thought the victim was. Within 2 minutes of burial a separate group of three riders (Father, Son and Son’s friend) were on the scene, immediately followed by the other two members of the initial party. One of the initial party noted they could just barely see the tip of the victim’s mud flap on the buried snowmachine. One of the members (Son) of the separate group of three had an older model SOS Analog avalanche beacon. He went into search mode and was not getting a signal (or phantom signals) at which point a member of the initial party grabbed the beacon from him. After this, a definite beacon signal was picked up through an increasing tone on the SOS beacon and someone with a probe struck the victims boot at approximately 2 feet below the surface. Estimated time between burial and positive probe strike was 10 minutes. With a positive strike everyone with shovels (5 shovels for 7 rescuers) began digging. At approximately 1348 hours, during the digging process, a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) was initiated in addition to a cell phone call to 911.

Witness 1 estimated that it took not less than 20 minutes but not more than 30 minutes from burial to having the victim on the surface with an airway. The victim was buried 6 to 7 feet deep with their head down and oriented perpendicular to the slope. The victim was unresponsive and not breathing when pulled from the snow. CPR commenced immediately and the victim had a pulse and was breathing on his own within an hour of CPR efforts. Shortly after this, Cantwell EMS and Alaska Wildlife Troopers arrived on scene and provided patient care. Around 1539 hours a Life Med helicopter was hovering over the site and by 1600 hours was able to find a landing zone about 500 yards away. The victim was then flown to an Anchorage area hospital in critical condition. On March 18th the victim succumbed to his injuries.