Spring avalanche kills Victor man

From: Jackson Hole Guide

Reminds all slide season not over

“This is the worst time of year,” said Ken Johnson of Mountain Rotors, the helicopter service that has worked many avalanche rescues. “The snow is so heavy. It’s like cement.”

Rescuers found Kevin Marriott, 22, of Victor under six to eight feet of densely packed snow at 1:46 p.m. Four hours earlier, the wet snow slide carried him 700 feet off the southwest ridge of Taylor Mountain on the Idaho side of the pass. They worked feverishly to revive the snowboarder, administering CPR and pumping oxygen into his lungs at the site of the avalanche.

He was declared dead at St. John’s Hospital shortly after 5 p.m.

Teton County Sheriff Roger Millward said spring conditions can lead to some of the worst slides. As the sun rises higher and beats down on snow fields and chutes, the snow pack loosens and can slide with devastating effects.

But with the Bridger-Teton national Forest’s Avalanche Hotline closed down for the season, back-country travelers have only their knowledge and awareness to keep them safe.

Marriot and two companions, Harlan Hottenstein, 24, and Clay Curley, 24, both of Victor, started up the mountain at about 9 a.m. Less than one hour later, Marriot triggered the slide when the cornice of snow he was standing on broke.

“We were walking in single file, and Kevin was in the lead,” Curley said at 2 p.m. in the Coal Creek parking lot, which rescuers used as their base of operations.

“The cornice broke about six to eight feet behind him. He fell and I watched him ride the slide. I was yelling at him to start backstroking.”

Millward said when the cornice broke, Marriott fell about 100 feet. The slide then carried him over an 80-foot rock ledge and pushed him about 500 feet further down the slide chute.

Hottenstein skied out to the Coal Creek lot and hitched a ride to a nearby house where he called Idaho authorities. The Teton County (Wyoming) Sheriff’s Office received the call at 11:12 and dispatched rescuers to the scene.

Curley stayed behind, searching for his friend.

“I was yelling his name, looking for any articles of clothing or debris. I found his hat, but that was all.”

Before his voice trailed off, he said, “It was hard. We didn’t have transceivers…”

He searched almost an hour before the first team of rescuers arrived on skis. Chuck Rogers of Mountain Rotors transported some searchers with equipment to within a quarter mile of the accident site, while others arrived on snowmobiles. By 1:30, more than two dozen rescuers were working with probe poles and search dogs, scouring the jumbled debris pile at the toe of the slide.

Within five minutes Bear, a black lab belonging to Teton County Search and rescue members J.C. and Dick Weinbrandt, zeroed in on the spot where Marriott lay buried. A few minutes later Bob Pfaltz’s German Shepard, Malachai, confirmed the find, and the teams started digging.

Marriott was found face down in the snow wrapped around his snowboard. EMT’s opened his airway while diggers continued to extricate the rest of his body. Millward arrived with a toboggan and the rescuers carefully loaded the victim, took him down the rest of the slope to the helicopter and off the St. John’s Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

The three men were aware of avalanche danger, but felt the snow pack was safe.

“It’s always on your mind, but it was frozen solid,” said Curley. “We weren’t punching through anywhere, not even on the south faces.”

Gary Poulson, coordinator of the forrest’s Avalanche Hotline, suggested conditions had little to do with the accident.

“What happened at Coal Creek was not preventable by a forecast,’ he said. “The guy just walked out onto a cornice.”