Avalanche
Two snowboarders were swept away by a wind slab avalanche on Mount Shasta, California, on Saturday, April 27, prompting a lengthy ground rescue by Siskiyou County Sherrif’s Office and U.S. Forest Service.
According to the press release by the Sheriff’s Office, the avalanche was triggered by the two boarders as they were climbing left of The Heart in Avalanche Gulch at around 13,00 feet on Mount Shasta. One of the snowboarders was carried for approximately 800 vertical feet down the slope, sustaining serious injuries. Neither of the boarders was buried and the one closer to the slab was able to self arrest and self rescue with an internal knee injury. Siskiyou County Sherrif’s Office (SCSO) received an emergency call at 12:21 p.m. from the boarder who was swept 1,000 feet down. He had broken his femur and was stranded at 12,200 feet.
SCSO Dispatchers notified the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Climbing Rangers of the incident, and requested assistance from California Highway Patrol’s (CHP) Air Operations to attempt to extract the two men. However, strong winds and poor visibility inhibited the helicopter’s ability to safely land near the climbers, so the SCSO Search and Rescue (SAR) Team mobilized, along with USFS Climbing Rangers and a group of professional mountain guide volunteers, to begin an extraction operation on foot.
While the ground team made their way up the mountain, CHP helicopters managed to take advantage of a brief weather window and delivered USFS Rangers and SAR team members to an area near treeline, 3,500 vertical feet below the injured climbers. Rescuers reached the injured men at approximately 6:20 pm, and began treating them for their injuries. The climber with the injured femur was by this time exhibiting signs of frostbite and hypothermia and required a highly technical evacuation down the mountain, while the climber with the injured knee was eventually able to self-rescue and snowboard back to Bunny Flats trailhead.
Over the next four hours, the rescue team descended the remaining 6,000 feet and reached Bunny Flats trailhead at 6,950 feet by midnight. Thankfully, both men survived, and no members of the rescue party were injured during the operation.
It is worth noting that the two climbers caught in the April 27 avalanche were highly skilled mountaineers with extensive experience on Mount Shasta. Still, the men found themselves on a wind-loaded aspect that gave way, and carried one of them almost 1,000 feet down Avalanche Gulch. Their ordeal, and the 11-hour rescue process that followed, are reminders that no amount of experience makes one immune to the hazards encountered on Mount Shasta, and that ever-changing mountain conditions can turn a rapid-extraction operation into a time and resource-intensive process.
“The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the Mount Shasta Avalanche Center & Home of the Climbing Rangers for their swift and skillful response during this incident, along with CHP – Northern Division Air Operations, Mount Shasta Ambulance, outfitter mountain guides, and our dedicated Siskiyou County Sheriff Search and Rescue team for their efforts.”
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