Skier survives avalanche

JOHN DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

HATCHER PASS -- An avalanche Sunday afternoon in the Arkose Ridge area of Hatcher Pass buried a skier on a steep slope, but two skiers nearby were able to dig their friend out and get him off the mountain safely, Alaska State Troopers reported.

State Park Ranger Pat Murphy said Jason Jeffers, 25, plunged nearly 800 feet, riding the avalanche over two vertical cliffs and extremely rough terrain before coming to a rest on the mountain.

Chad Emswiler, 25, called Palmer Emergency Medical Services to report his friend had been buried in a snow slide while skiing down the mountain. The third person in the skiing party was Craig Schurter, 28. All three men were from Anchorage.

Emswiler and Schurter met on the side of the mountain after the avalanche and formulated a plan.

Schurter, who had stopped skiing prior to the incident because he thought the slope was too steep, headed down the mountain to assist rescuers with pinpointing Jeffers' location. Emswiler skied over to the avalanche site and saw a ski skin and an arm sticking out of the snow. Emswiler dug out Jeffers, who was still alive, conscious and alert. His injuries were only minor, Murphy said.

Because the terrain was so steep, EMS and park rangers contacted troopers, who dispatched a helicopter to assist in the rescue.

Arkose Ridge is about a mile up from the Little Susitna River bridge -- not very far back in Hatcher Pass, Murphy said, but there was no way to get snowmachines up the mountain to assist in the rescue.

"We would've been stuck within 50 feet of the road on snowmachines," Murphy said.

Schurter reached the roadway by foot near Mile 9 Palmer-Fishhook Road and gave rescuers information on Emswiler and Jeffers' location. Emswiler told rescuers by cell phone that Jeffers had been dug out of the avalanche and was alive.

The skiers were equipped with avalanche beacons, probes and shovels for their backcountry trip, troopers reported.

Steep terrain and large bunches of alder trees on the mountain prevented the troopers' helicopter from landing and also prevented snowmachines from being dispatched to the area. Instead, the helicopter provided a spotlight on the mountain to assist the skiers in their descent.

Shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday, Jeffers and Emswiler arrived at an ambulance near Mile 9.5 Palmer-Fishhook Road, but declined medical treatment.

Members of the Backcountry Avalanche Awareness Response Team and the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group were also notified and arrived in the area for support. Park rangers, EMS and fire rescue personnel were also on hand to help troopers.

Murphy said he received a report earlier in the day of another avalanche, from two skiers who saw a lone skier ride an avalanche about 1,000 feet. They reported the skier dug himself out and continued down the mountain, apparently uninjured.

"Once the weather cleared up yesterday we noticed quite a few naturally released avalanches throughout the pass," Murphy said. "We had eight inches of new snow Sunday, on top of six inches from the day before, on top of six inches from the day before that. Then on Saturday night it blew hard, even on the tops of the mountains. The combination made for a kind of upside-down layered cake, with the heavy layer on top."

Sunday's avalanche marks the first multi-agency rescue effort in Hatcher Pass this season. Murphy said skiers and hikers should wait 24 hours after a heavy snow or wind in the pass to let the mountainsides settle and allow avalanches to release naturally.

"It's still a pretty bad time to be up there," Murphy said. "There's a pretty good base but we're still seeing a lot of avalanches.

"Most of these avalanches occur during or shortly after a heavy snow or wind, and that's exactly what happened in this case."

Contact John Davidson at john.davidson@frontiersman.com.