*** Avalanched on Mount Shasta ***

From: Joe Byrnes <joe@sirius.com>
Newsgroups: rec.climbing
Subject: Avalanched on Shasta
Date: 4 Aug 1995 03:31:11 GMT
Organization: Sirius Connections

June 24th was a sunny and warm day on Mt Shasta. From 8,000 feet on the
Clear Creek trail (southeast side) myself and a friend summited and were
decending back to our tent. The glissading was slow since the terrain was
not really that steep.I was looking forward to the one steep section that I
knew lay ahead. When I reached the drop-off into the Clear Creek drainage
(approx.9,000 ft) I let go with a rip roaring sitting glissade. For a few
moments I was having a blast.

Then I got hit from behind with what felt like a wave at the beach. "What
the hell!?" I did a forward somersault and when my head came around I caught
a quick glance of what was happening. A football field sized slab
had let loose and I was somewhere in the middle. "Holy f.... s..." The
tumbling went on. Although I have taught myself over the years of climbing
to never drop my ax (which I still obediently held) this was the time to
jettison it. Off went the ax and now my arms where free to struggle against
the snow.

A little note here on my background would be helpful in understanding the
rest of this story. I've been teaching an avalanche awareness clinic for
about five years. This had the drawback of making me aware of the very real
danger I was in. But it also has the benefit of allowing me to know what to
do. I thought of bailing out of my pack, but it was just a small day pack
and I really couldn't afford to busy my hands with anything but struggling
against the blocks that probably weighed as much as I did.

When I was under I tried to hold my breathe. When I surfaced I spit out the
plug and took a deep quick inhale. This happened only a few times. At one
point I can remember feeling the weight of the snow above and thinking "if
the slide stops now I'm dead." At another point a let out a weak pathetic
yelp of "help". The cry seemed to come from me without any of my own doing
and it was so pathetic that I'm glad there wasn't anyone there to hear it.

Finally, the struggles that so far seemed to be fruitless started to yield
results. I realized that I was starting to be able to control my body
position within the snow. So I positioned myself with my feet downhill
and in a more or less  sitting position. All of a sudden I was up on top and
glissading again; but now on top of a moving avalanche. I made a quick small
prayer that I would stay up top and not be dragged under again. I only
enjoyed this new glissade for a moment before I realized that I was coming
up on the leading edge of the snow mass. "Oh, no, I'm going to go right off
the front edge." Off I went and under I went. But fortunately, the slide was
nearly finished and at the stop of it all I was sitting in blocks up to my
chest only a few feet back from the lead edge.

Having lost my glacier glasses, it seemed awful bright out. But, hey, at
that point the light of day was just beautiful.

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