Fremont Rescue

January 2 & 3, 2005                Hellroaring Canyon Avalanche

Avalanche expert triggers a slide & dies
Fremont & Beaverhead counties launch massive rescue effort

By ELIZABETH LADEN
Island Park News

ISLAND PARK, ID. — An avalanche expert and back country skier met his nemesis in an avalanche he reportedly triggered on Mount Nemesis in the Centennial Mountains some 30 miles from here on Saturday, January 1.
In a tragedy wrought with irony, Bozeman resident Blake Morstad, 24, an editor/writer specializing in navigation systems and avalanche awareness for the Bozeman-based Backpacking Light on-line magazine, may have not practiced what he preached when he set off the slide that killed him and seriously injured another skier in their party of five.
The skiers were near terrain where avalanche warnings have been issued more often than not all winter. Their mishap triggered a massive, costly, and risky response from some 40 members of Fremont and Beaverhead county search and rescue units, Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center’s Air One, and Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls. Hours after an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the injured skier with Air One, an Air Force helicopter evacuated the injured man and flew him to Bozeman for treatment.
It took nearly one day for members of the ski party to ski off the mountain to a phone to call for help, and another day to move Morstad and the injured skier off the mountain, largely because of snowy weather and rough terrain. The avalanche happened around noon Saturday. The call was placed almost a day later, and the helicopter picked up the injured skier late Monday morning.
By Tuesday afternoon, Beaverhead County Sheriff Bill Briggs continued to withhold all but Morstad’s name, pending an onsite investigation. Backpacking Light had already launched a section on its site to honor Morstad,
Morstad held a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Montana State University, where he studied avalanche engineering in a highly respected avalanche research program. His wife, Adele “Addie” Morstad, is expecting their first child this spring.
Morstad and his party had booked the camp site on Mount Nemesis in the Hellroaring Creek drainage operated by Tim Bennett of the West Yellowstone-based Hellroaring Ski Adventures. The site contains tents with wood heat and is located in Beaverhead County. Fremont County Search and Rescue usually works the area in winter, because they can reach it much faster, said Fremont County Search and Rescue Commander Brett Mackert in a phone interview Tuesday.
According to reports from rescue workers and avalanche experts from the Gallatin Avalanche Center in Bozeman, the five skiers were spiraling their way up a southwest facing 34-degree slope, traversing one at a time and going up a bit higher each time. Morstad triggered the slide at the top of the final run, and the snow caught two other skiers.
“The fact that three skiers were on the slope at the same time in those avalanche conditions shows that they were not taking precautions,” said Doug Chabot of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center in Bozeman. Chabot also noted that he does not think that the party tested the snow for safety. If they had dug down through the layers, they would have found it to be unsafe, he said.
Chabot said that his service does not record avalanche conditions on Mount Nemesis, but he skied to the slide site because of the fatality. He noted that the skiers had the proper gear for avalanche terrain — probes, shovels, and transceivers.
Morstad’s cause of death was “blunt force trauma,” according to Beaverhead County Coroner Ron Briggs. The second skier suffered a severe compound leg fracture, and the third skier in the avalanche was unharmed. Snow depth at the top of the avalanche was two and a half feet, with five feet piled at the bottom,
Survivors brought the injured man and Morstad to the campsite, and two in the party skied out for help. Rescue workers on foot, snowmobile, and helicopter were unable to reach the victims on Sunday.
In a phone interview, Bennett said he has held a special use permit from the Beaverhead National Forest to operate Hellroaring Ski Adventures camp on Nemesis Mountain for three years. Another West Yellowstone business held the permit before that. Bennett said that he had rented the camp site to the group, but was not acting as their guide and not with them during the slide. However, he said he had seen them that day and warned them that “conditions were scary.”
Bennett said that at least two members of the group were Emergency Medical Technicians and all had had avalanche training. He said he had guided Morstad to the area last year, and was satisfied that Morstad was competent, although he did not always appear to be listening to advice.
According to Bennett, people can bring expertise, experience and equipment to an outdoor experience, but still act recklessly.
“This is not the first time someone has died in the mountains,” he said. “Mountains are dangerous, and that is part of their appeal. For people like these (Morstad and his party), if the mountains were safe, they would lose their appeal and people would seek other adventures. It is part of their nature to want to put themselves on the edge.”
When asked why the skiers did not use their expertise to evacuate themselves from the mountain, Bennett and Mackert both speculated that the weather was too bad and the terrain was rough. Bennett said that the injured skier was in pretty bad shape, and it probably made more sense to leave him there until a helicopter could fly him out. Mackert noted that the rescue could have occurred sooner if the skiers had had cellphones so that they did not have to ski out to call for help. He said he was able to speak with one of the rescuers who was in the tent with the injured skier.
Mackert said that it would be difficult to estimate the financial cost of the rescue operation in terms of man hours. Fremont County volunteers used 600 gallons of gas, he said. He said that Search and Rescue does not bill for their services. The group is worried that people would not call them if they charged, and would call untrained friends instead. “And that could cause more problems.”
He noted that the group always welcomes donations, but more often than not does not receive them from people they help.
Mackert said that the group participated in six search and rescue operations in mountains near Island Park the week after Christmas, and they are all tired and hoping for a break.
Fremont County Search and Rescue is considered to be the best-trained group of its kind in Idaho and takes part in more operations than all the other units in the state combined.
Backpacking Light’s Editor, Ryan Jordan, posted a tribute to Morstad on the Web site that includes these thoughts:
“Blake Morstad left an indelible impression on every person he met. He never had a critical word to say about anyone, appreciated every God-given circumstance that he was faced with, and loved his wife, family, and friends with a passion and level of maturity that one does not see often from a 24 year old man. Blake left an honorable legacy of compassion, friendship, honesty, and integrity that wise men three times his age would have been proud of. The last time I saw Blake, we prayed together. I asked God to use Blake for a higher purpose as a husband and father. I have no doubts that God is answering those prayers, even in the face of tragedy.”

January 11, 2005           Black Canyon              

4 stuck snowmobilers

Beaverhead SAR worked together with Fremont SAR on this difficult rescue

The skiers cut a trail through the snow which triggered the avalanche

Snow depths were over 6 feet in spots, making snowmobiling in to the victims extremely difficult

Hillside view of Avalanche

Fremont Search & Rescue

Malmstrom Air Force Helicopter  Rescue airlifts the injured skier to Bozeman