majid_sabet
Apr 26, 2006, 2:39 AM
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http://www.banffcragandcanyon.com/story.php?id=226833
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Climber survives 3,100-foot slide on Deltaform
Partner dies after avalanche sweeps pair down mountainside
By Dave Husdal
Tuesday April 25, 2006
Banff Crag & Canyon — A 24-year-old American mountain climber’s outstanding physical condition and will to live are being credited as factors that helped him survive three chilly nights waiting for rescue on Mount Deltaform.
The man was seriously injured in an avalanche-triggered climbing accident that claimed the life of his 26-year-old climbing partner on Thursday of last week. Neither man was named by authorities.
The survivor was rescued by park wardens Sunday afternoon only hours after they became aware the two experienced climbers were missing somewhere in Banff, Jasper, Yoho of Kootenay national parks, said Gord Irwin, manager of mountain safety programs for Banff, Kootenay and Yoho.
The two climbers, whose friend reported them missing to Jasper wardens on Sunday morning, had snowshoed into the popular Super Couloir climbing area on the B.C. side of Mount Deltaform in Kootenay. Their vehicle was located off Moraine Lake road, giving wardens a reasonable idea where they might be climbing. The survivor and his friend’s body were located though an aerial search by helicopter at a location above 7,000 feet.
The two were swept off the mountain by an avalanche shortly after finishing their climb up Super Couloir around 3 p.m. Thursday, Irwin said.
“They hadn’t moved much more than 50 feet from where they topped out on the climb and they triggered a slab avalanche,” Irwin said.
It wasn’t that large of an avalanche, but it knocked them off their feet, and subsequently sent them tumbling 3,100 feet -- roughly a vertical kilometre -- down the side of the mountain.
The survivor came to rest partially buried, Irwin said.
“When he came to rest his legs were buried but his waist and upper body were out of the snow. It was all he could do to get himself out of the snow and basically lay there on the snow for a couple of days,” Irwin said.
The survivor had lost his helmet, toque and gloves, as well as his pack, Irwin said.
Despite his situation, the man showed mental toughness that together with his excellent conditioning, allowed him to stay alive as nighttime temperatures fell below freezing.
“Just the will to survive and not quitting,” Irwin said.
The survival story is an amazing one, he conceded.
“This has to be one of the most remarkable cases in the Canadian Rockies in a very, very long time,” Irwin said.
He added the man may well have been able to survive another night on the mountain in the relatively mild April weather, even with two fractured legs.
The survivor’s injuries are not considered life threatening.
While the two men swept down the 11,000-foot mountain by the avalanche were both highly experienced and skilled climbers, they failed to register their route or plans -- something they normally do -- and only provided partial information about their intentions to their friend in Jasper, Irwin said.
Backcountry users are encouraged to register their plans at info centres or warden offices in the parks.
Irwin said climbing routes such as Super Couloir are normally in good condition at this time of year, but added that avalanche conditions in alpine terrain are unusual for this time of year.
“There are still some fragile slabs related to recent storm snow, wind and the presence of a surface hoar layer at higher elevations,” he said.
Mount Deltaform is a mountain with a fatal recent past. Park wardens recovered the bodies of Kevin James and Mike Farrow, two B.C. men in their early 20s, after a fatal climbing accident occurred on the same mountain in spring in 2004. Their bodies weren’t recovered until July of that year.
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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002951453_climberkilled
25m.html
Mount Rainier ranger killed in accident in Canadian Rockies
By Warren Cornwall
Seattle Times staff reporter
PREV of NEXT
THE BORGH FAMILY
Charlie Borgh, who died in an accident Thursday, was in the elite ranks of Mount Rainier's climbing rangers.
When Charlie Borgh went away to college, he left as a skinny, soccer-playing valedictorian.
A few years later, Mr. Borgh had transformed himself into a muscled and talented climber, skilled enough that he joined the elite ranks of Mount Rainier's climbing rangers in his early 20s.
The mountains became the focus of his life — he exercised at least two hours every day with an eye toward them, and he planned his life to revolve around climbing, said his father, John Borgh.
"He was in love with climbing. He wanted climbing to be his life until he died," he said. His son's strength was coupled with gentleness, he said.
Last Thursday, at 26, Mr. Borgh was killed in what Canadian authorities believe was an avalanche while he climbed high on the flank of Mount Deltaform in the Canadian Rockies.
Mr. Borgh grew up far from any mountains — in Minneapolis and Sioux City, Iowa.
He discovered rock climbing as a freshman at the University of Colorado in Boulder. That interest expanded into mountaineering and grew into a consuming passion after he transferred to Whitman College in Walla Walla, his father said.
He was drawn to the mountains by a sense of their purity, the physical pleasure, the challenge and the camaraderie, family members and a colleague said.
Mr. Borgh first volunteered to work at Mount Rainier in 2002, said Mike Gauthier, the supervisor of climbing rangers at Mount Rainier National Park. He quickly ascended the ranks and was named a lead climbing ranger for this year, Gauthier said.
He also served on the prestigious Yosemite Search and Rescue team in California's Yosemite Valley.
"I had so much faith in Charlie and trusted his ability that I was sending him up to Denali for a month just to get more experience," Gauthier said.
Mr. Borgh's climbing companion in Canada, a friend from college, survived the accident, John Borgh said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police did not release the name of the friend but said he suffered broken limbs.
Mr. Borgh is survived by his father and mother, John and Mary Borgh, of Minneapolis; sister and brother-in-law Brynn and Nels Olsen, of Madison, Wis.; and fiancée Kristina Mustacich, of Washington state.
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