Mat-Su

‘Not just one thing’: Report breaks down Hatcher Pass avalanche that killed popular ski coach

PALMER — A report on the Hatcher Pass avalanche that killed Randy Bergt describes the kind of life-or-death decisions backcountry travel sometimes involves — and the mistakes even experts can make.

Bergt, a popular Anchorage skier and coach with decades of experience, died the day before Thanksgiving on Marmot Mountain. He was known as a careful skier who didn't take chances.

Bergt was with two friends, Dave Pettry and Peter Smith, also seasoned backcountry skiers from Anchorage.

Forecasters with the Hatcher Pass Avalanche Center interviewed the two men for hours and spent weeks investigating the avalanche before releasing a final report Thursday.

Bergt, 60, split from the group and ended up on a slope with wind-loaded snow that gave way and swept him down into a steep ravine, according to the report by avalanche forecasters Jed Workman and Allie Barker. The actual avalanche was relatively shallow, the forecasters found, and possibly survivable if the slope had fanned out gently.

The forecasters said the factors that led to the slide included existing avalanche hazard, a run that ended in a "terrain trap" like the ravine, a lack of group communication, and his partners losing sight of Bergt.

The report makes it clear the trio knew the risks and took the right precautions. They regularly checked conditions at Hatcher Pass for avalanche forecasts and carried safety equipment.

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Emotions are still raw for Bergt's friends and family. Bergt's memorial service was Thursday evening. Hundreds gathered at the Kincaid Chalet.

Smith, 62, described his ski buddy as anything but reckless.

"I'd want him to be remembered for his expertise and for his love of life," he said in an interview Friday.

A chain of small mistakes led to the avalanche, Smith and Pettry said.

"We've been crushed ever since," Pettry said Friday.

Equal-opportunity killer

Bergt's death jolted the outdoors community, where he'd served as a mentor and inspiration for decades as Service High School ski coach and dedicated ski race volunteer.

[Anchorage ski community shocked by avalanche death of local legend Randy Bergt]

Bergt and Pettry discovered good snow was scarce in Hatcher Pass on separate trips the weekend before, but Pettry mentioned powder in the President's Ridge area.

So that's where the trio of longtime ski partners headed Nov. 22.

All three carried beacons, shovels and probes, though not helmets or airbags, deployed if wearers are caught in a slide.

Each man basically had a lifetime of backcountry travel in avalanche terrain. All had taken avalanche training classes. Bergt was a ski patroller at Alta Ski Area in Utah for more than a decade.

"The mountains don't care who you are," Barker said Friday.

Gauging risk

The report indicates the men were certainly aware of the avalanche problem.

Pettry said they were aware of a warning of "considerable" danger at higher elevations but also knew it expired two days before their trip.

Observations in Hatcher Pass earlier in the week also indicated signs of potential danger such as "remotely triggered avalanches, one human triggered avalanche, whumphing and shooting cracks on Southwest aspects," the report states. High winds gusted to 51 mph, loading snow onto southwest to northeast slopes at upper elevations.

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Wind can increase the probability of avalanches by piling heavier snow onto weaker unstable layers.

The descent

The men didn't see much good snow on the wind-scoured slopes as they climbed from the base of the ridge, according to the report and information from Pettry. They stopped about halfway up the mountain and decided to descend, looking for safe routes with good snow.

They talked about the wind — it had blown in an opposite direction from usual, scouring a bowl the trio often skied, Pettry said.

The three men had skied together so often that they didn't have to discuss every decision, he said. The assumption that day was they'd go down the path they came up, as they always did when conditions were sketchy.

Before they could reach a consensus, Bergt moved toward a southwest slope, according to the report. Winds that week, forecasters say, had loaded those slopes with snow.

As the report put it: "David and Peter both had misgivings about descending the route Randy chose. Randy's route descended into a significant terrain trap. It would also have required re-climbing the descent route to exit."

That terrain trap would allow avalanche debris to pile up deeper than it otherwise would have.

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'The biggest mistake'

Pettry offered a more nuanced explanation.

Bergt, maybe intrigued "by that beautiful sunny sparkly" side, made three turns away from the group, Pettry said. "And he stopped … I said, 'Randy, you're just gonna have to come climbing out of there.' "

Bergt replied that he'd just circle around a knoll and come back.

Pettry never saw his best ski buddy again.

Later, he said, tracks showed Bergt must have seen a "patchy wind slab" of unsafe snow on the other side of the rock and dropped lower to avoid it.

Then, Pettry said, it appeared that Bergt started looking for other ways down. Five to 10 more turns, and he got to a bench and started across.

"You could tell by his turns he was being careful and thinking about options," he said.

Bergt got to the side of a gully, and saw a less steep hump he skied to as a safe zone, Pettry guessed, based on tracks. That was his last chance to come back to his partners and ski out.

But instead of putting on "skins" used to climb in skis and starting what probably would have been a 30-minute hike, Bergt crossed the gully and triggered the avalanche, Pettry said. Tons of snow hanging above the gully collapsed, burying the lone skier.

"He just made one mistake right there that turned out to be the biggest mistake," he said. "It's not like he was a risk-taking guy. I'm amazed this happened. Everyone is shocked."

Out of sight

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Once Bergt vanished around the corner, his friends tried to get to a spot where they could see him.

Smith and Pettry came around a knoll and saw there had been an avalanche.

"It was just over and done and quiet," Pettry said.

It was 2 p.m.

Pettry and Smith started yelling for their friend.

They got no answer.

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The rescue

Pettry and Smith switched their avalanche beacons to search mode and began what would be an urgent 15-minute descent down the slide, the report states.

The angle steepened, ending in small vertical drops. Smith descended on skis. Pettry, entering a rocky chute, removed his skis and slid on his butt, arresting his descent with his feet.

They picked up Bergt's beacon signal at the base of the slope and found him quickly with an avalanche probe.

Bergt was face down, buried in dense snow 4 feet deep.

The men dug him out and turned him over. By then, Bergt had been buried for at least half an hour.

"There were no signs of life," Workman and Barker wrote. "Peter and David began CPR and continued for an estimated 30-40 minutes."

Aftermath

Two bystanders called 911 after they saw the avalanche and heard Smith and Pettry calling for Bergt, the report found. They hiked up to the two men from the road that leads up to the top of Hatcher Pass from Palmer.

Alaska State Troopers and Palmer Fire and Rescue arrived. With light fading and potentially risky avalanche conditions, rescue groups decided to wait until at least the next day — Thanksgiving Day — to recover Bergt's body.

The next day, Bergt's brother as well as Smith and Pettry and several friends arrived to bring him out.

Workman and Barker, starting their investigation at the avalanche site, told the recovery group the official rescue was delayed because the agencies were worried avalanche risk could endanger rescuers.

The group decided to go in and get Bergt.

The forecast called for increasing high winds, Pettry said Friday. The concern was winds could derail the official recovery plan to use a helicopter with a cable.

"That could mean he could end up there all winter," he said. "That was not a good option."

Bergt's brother, with Smith and Pettry, removed his body from the burial site using several spotters in safe zones, the report says.

Once Bergt's body was in a safer location, the rest of the group joined them to take him out of the mountains one last time.

"You run out of luck, is what it is," Pettry said. "No matter how skilled you are, you take a calculated risk. You just have to be careful. And follow protocol as much as you can."

Zaz Hollander

Zaz Hollander is a veteran journalist based in the Mat-Su and is currently an ADN local news editor and reporter. She covers breaking news, the Mat-Su region, aviation and general assignments. Contact her at zhollander@adn.com.

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