Great Powder Isn’t Worth The Danger
On Sunday, Jan. 22 of this year, Scott Hager, Chris and Sam Knowlton and I went on a snowboard outing to 49 Degrees North. The day started off with us getting a couple of good runs in with plenty of powder to go around.
In order to find the best powder, we thought we would have to go over the red rope into the out-of-bounds area. At about 2:30 p.m. we went over the rope near chair-lift No. 1, just off Silver Ridge, hoping to end up in the East Basin bowl area. We had done this many times before, but we had never tried getting there from this direction. We also were not aware that the ridge separates the basin on the back side of the mountain.
We knew we had to stay to the left if we wanted to avoid walking. Sam and Chris and I found an open area of powder to the right and could not resist. Scott dropped left and avoided the ridge, but we had already dropped on the backside of the ridge and were heading away from 49 Degrees North. We ended up on a snowmobile track, which we thought was the track toward the East Basin area. We followed this track about six miles until there was nothing familiar. We hopped the “road closed” sign and continued to walk another two miles. We weren’t quite sure where we were, or how to get back.
We began hiking up the mountain to look for something familiar. The only thing we could see was the tower up behind chair lift No. 4, which seemed miles away. It was getting dark. I yelled, “We are going the wrong way,” so we began to double back.
Sam and Chris lost their boards but didn’t care because they were suffering from hypothermia. This slows the pulse rate and decreases the volume of circulating blood, risking brain damage because of the decreased supply of oxygen-carrying blood.
The sun was going down and we were all cold, hungry and tired. We realized we could not continue, so we started to build a shelter for the night near the “road closed” sign. After struggling with the powdered snow for nearly an hour, trying to build a snow-cave, we saw a flashlight appearing through the darkness.
Scott had made it out and waited for us at the Basin area for 45 minutes. When we didn’t show, he went to the Ski Patrol office for help. We were lost for approximately five hours before being rescued. After a 20-minute snowmobile ride and a five-minute truck drive, we were safely back in the lodge. We underwent rewarming to fight off hypothermia and all of our temperatures were taken. Only Chris’ temperature registered about 96 degrees. The normal body temperature is 98. Sam and I, who were wearing only flannel-quilted shirts over our ski bibs, had body temperatures of 93 degrees, and we probably would have died during the night.
We realize snowboarding is a lot of fun and can be accomplished safely if one abides by the rules of the mountain. The three of us have learned a valuable lesson: No matter how good the powder is, it is not worth your life. We thank the 49 Degrees North Ski Patrol Search and Rescue Team for their excellent efforts in saving our lives. Please pay close attention to our story. Hypothermia is nothing to mess around with.
MEMO: Editor’s note: Last weekend 16-year-old John Neff died from exposure on Rathdrum Mountain. The Lakeland High School student was snowboarding with friends and got lost.