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Jan 7, 2006, 8:37 AM
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By Angus M. Thuermer Jr. Jackson Hole Daily
January 06,2006
An avalanche on the east face of Taylor Mountain on Thursday afternoon swept more than 2,000 vertical feet down the steep slope killing Victor skier Laurel Dana.
The avalanche on the 10,385-foot mountain just west of Teton Pass also involved skiers Greg Von Doersten and Freddy Botour, who both survived.
Numerous skiers and snowboarders witnessed the avalanche at approximately 1:30 p.m. and several rushed to locate the victim with transceivers and probe poles. They found her, uncovered her from three feet of snow and cleared her airway within 20 minutes.
But resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. A volunteer Teton County Search and Rescue crew and others brought her body to the trailhead at Coal Creek at 4:12 p.m.
A stunned and haggard Von Doersten met friends at the parking lot there and described the grim details of the event, including watching Dana being overwhelmed by the avalanche.
Dana, 43, is the second avalanche victim of the season in Teton County. On Dec. 27 Jesse Humphries, 21, of Riverton, was buried on Togwotee Pass while snowmobiling
Brian Smith was one backcountry skier who saw the event unfold, starting about 250 feet below the summit.
“Three people were on the slope,” he said, describing the view from slopes across Coal Creek from Taylor Mountain. One skied part way down, then a second skied past the first and stopped.
“When the third started skiing, that’s when it broke,” Smith said.
He said he thought the middle skier was knocked down, but not deeply buried. Dana is believed to have been the lowest skier on the slope, but details were uncertain at press time.
Eddie Horney also was opposite the fatal face observing the trio when the avalanche ripped free.
“I saw it overtake them,” Horney said. “It was a huge slide.”
“The avalanche ran full path,” Smith said. “That’s when we took off our [climbing] skins and started skiing down and called 911.”
The avalanche ran approximately a linear mile as it roared down the east face of the mountain.
Several skiers descended to the debris pile left by the avalanche, turned their avalanche transceivers to “receive” and began a search for a signal from Dana’s beacon. Rich Baerwald said he zeroed in on the transmission. Jeff Judkins began poking his probe pole into the snow.
“I made the probe contact,” he said.
Horney began digging with a shovel.
“I got two shovels full and I hit her leg,” he said.
About five people at the site had Dana out of the snow within about 20 minutes of the avalanche and moved her away from the danger zone at the bottom of the face. Resuscitation began.
Sheriff’s department Search and Rescue volunteers rushed to the scene, some ascending to the debris pile, about a mile from the highway, by foot. Sheriff Bob Zimmer helped control traffic as a helicopter landed several times on Highway 22 at Coal Creek to ferry rescue workers, a toboggan, extra skis and medical gear to the scene.
A Jackson Hole Mountain Guide who followed the ill-fated party down a ridge near the slide said he measured the crown of the fracture at 190 cm – slightly deeper than six feet. The crown broke across the slope perhaps farther than 100 yards. The slide started on a northeast-facing slope at an angle estimated to be 40 degrees.
The guide said the avalanche broke on a bed surface of faceted snow 10 cm above a limestone base. Much of the rest of the avalanche ran on depth hoar on the limestone, he said.
The Bridger-Teton National Forest avalanche report called the danger at the Mount Taylor elevation “considerable,” which means that human-triggered avalanches were probable.
“Soft surface slabs up to several feet deep are likely to be triggered by single skiers on steep wind-loaded aspects,” the report said. It warned of large avalanches on major slide paths being released by multiple skiers.
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