Outdoors/Adventure

Man buried in Turnagain avalanche 'knew better than to be there'

The man who was caught and completely buried in an avalanche Thursday at Turnagain Pass said he let his backcountry partner talk him into skiing a run he knew was too steep to be safe, and went home feeling "foolish," but unharmed after setting off the slide.

"It was just a bad judgment call," the skier said. "I knew better than to be there."

The man, a veteran skier in his 50s who said he'd been skiing at Turnagain Pass for "30-plus years," asked Alaska Dispatch News to withhold his name to spare his wife and other family members from being "hassled."

He said he ventured to Turnagain Pass, southeast of Anchorage, with a partner on a "gorgeous day" after having read the avalanche advisory for the area, which warned of "considerable" danger above 2,500 feet, with human-triggered avalanches "likely." Sunburst, the mountain the men skied, rises above 3,800 feet.

'Bad time for it'

The skier said he planned to stay away from Sunburst's southwest face. The slope where the avalanche occurred was estimated at a 37-to-40-degree pitch -- above the 35-degree limit forecasters had warned skiers to stay below.

"I was not going to hit the south side at all," he said. "I knew that it was a bad time for it."

But the man said his partner, who he declined to name, had skied a similar line earlier in the day, and convinced him to climb up above the southwest face to investigate. After reaching the ridge overlooking the slope, he said the two broke some overhanging ice and snow onto the face, "still getting zero results."

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"He actually suggested we go even higher and steeper, and I was like, 'No, I'm not going anywhere else,'" said the man, who noted his partner has "a little less experience with the avalanche stuff."

The man's partner "jumped in and skied it, and it skied fine. It was beautiful powder -- there was no question about that," the man said. "And that slope is a gorgeous slope."

The men were skiing on the first clear day after several days of stormy weather, which left more than 2 feet of snow in some areas of Turnagain Pass.

But the new snow was resting on a weak layer of ice crystals, which can collapse or slide and cause avalanches. It's still present in the snowpack at Turnagain Pass, presenting risks for skiers trying to take advantage of the fresh powder, said Wendy Wagner, a forecaster at the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center.

"It won't go away, and that's unfortunate coming into the Christmas holidays," she said. "Everyone is powder-starved and wants to get out and ski. It's difficult to keep our reins on."

On Thursday, the man said he dropped onto the face and made between eight and 10 turns -- more than were visible in a widely distributed photo taken after the avalanche -- before he noticed that "the ground was starting to get a little bit fuzzy."

"I cut right and started trying to get to the edge," he said. "I was just about to get to what looked like dead surface that I could drop onto and get out of it, when the stuff under my feet kind of broke up, and it sucked me in.

"I saw myself riding down it, knowing this wasn't a good situation, but I kept trying to struggle, and trying to get myself up and out," he added.

Returned to ski more

The man said he felt himself sliding deeper into the avalanche but managed to twist himself towards the surface, and as it slowed down, he said he pushed back against the snow with his head and an air pocket opened.

Once the avalanche stopped, the man said he was buried, perhaps a foot below the surface -- but there was no snow in front of his head. With one arm free, he cleared snow off his chest and his other arm, and his partner climbed back up the face to dig the man out.

Both of the man's skis stayed on. He said he would have kept skiing that day if he hadn't lost a pole in the avalanche.

"Otherwise, yeah -- I would have climbed back up. I just would've skied where it was safer," he said. "And the next two days, I went back and skied, just not as steep of an angle."

The man said he skis between 80 and 100 days each year, almost always in the backcountry and often at Turnagain Pass. He said he'd skied his way off of avalanches numerous times in 30 years of skiing and was once buried up to his waist.

"I've been going out on way more dangerous days than that. You just watch what slopes you ski, and what terrain you climb, and you negate the situation by your terrain," he said. Asked what he'd learned Thursday, the man responded: "Trust my own judgment, and not someone else's."

In a phone interview, Aleph Johnston-Bloom, executive director of the Anchorage-based Alaska Avalanche School, said that "all kinds of people get into avalanches -- it's just really good to learn from them."

"All of us are human and make errors," she added. "That kind of setup is, like, classic: beautiful day, new snow, and someone who's very experienced in the area."

Wagner, the avalanche forecaster, said skiers can safely travel in the backcountry even when faced with significant avalanche danger. But that requires people to stick to safe terrain, she added.

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"If you want to have a fun day in the mountains, you can do that," she said. "But you really have to know where you're going, and stay out from under, or very close to, steep slopes."

It's unknown when, exactly, the avalanche danger will subside. The weak layer that presents much of the risk is likely to remain for the entire winter, Wagner said, unless it's washed away by rain -- but the risk also diminishes as the layer gets buried under more snow.

Wagner said forecasters plan to investigate the Sunburst area where Thursday's avalanche occurred, but so far, they've been stymied by poor visibility and lingering concerns about instability.

Nathaniel Herz

Anchorage-based independent journalist Nathaniel Herz has been a reporter in Alaska for nearly a decade, with stints at the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. Read his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com

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