Coram native severely injured in avalanche

Hungry Horse News

For Sam Kavanagh, New Year's Day 2005 will be remembered for the avalanche that took his friend's life and nearly claimed his.

Kavanagh graduated from high school in Columbia Falls in 1998 and grew up in Coram. Killed in the avalanche was his friend, Blake Morstad, 24, of Billings.

Details of the event emerged late last week.

An avid backcountry skier, Kavanagh and four other friends decided to spend New Year's weekend telemark skiing in the rugged Centennial Mountains on the Montana-Idaho border southwest of Bozeman.

The five snowmobiled in part of the way and then skied the rest to a yurt rented by Hellroaring Ski Adventures on Dec. 30. A yurt is a round wall tent.

They knew the avalanche danger was considerable, but they also had rescue gear and years of experience, Doug Chabot, director of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center, said. Chabot investigated the incident for the Forest. The mountains got about two feet of snow in just a few days and heavy winds.

Two of Kavanagh's friends were also emergency medical technicians.

The group skied Friday without incident.

In fact, a friend of Kavanagh's, Jacob Forke, who is also a Columbia Falls native, skied in and joined the group. He left Saturday before the accident.

About 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 1, Morstad was skiing in an area known as the Pyramid-a rocky slope with intermittent trees in the Hellroaring Canyon.

"They saw no obvious signs of instability and did not dig any snow pits," Chabot said in his report. "They did successive runs on the slope pushing the track higher up the hill each time. They skied one at a time, had rescue gear and a general sense of safe travel procedures."

Morstad was making his run, and Kavanagh and another friend were down slope from him on the uphill side of the trees.

Morstad remarked the snow felt a "little slabby."

He made about two turns and the snow broke free.

It buried Morstad and raced down the slope, slamming into Kavanagh and his friend. The snow caught Kavanagh's ski and broke his leg immediately. His friend somehow rode out on top of it. Morstad was killed.

The avalanche was 800 feet long, 500 feet vertical and was about 120 feet wide.

Kavanagh suffered a severe compound fracture. It took hours to get him off the mountain and to the yurt.

Sam's mother, Kristin, said they had a few pain killers and some Tylenol. They made a splint out of a shovel, some gauze and a Thermarest pad.

But Kavanagh would spend nearly two days in the yurt waiting for help with a compound fracture.

Two friends skied out to get help. Cell phones don't work in that remote location.

Rescuers tried to get to Kavanagh on Sunday by snowmobile and helicopter, but were turned away by bad weather.

On Monday, a helicopter crew from Malmstrom Air Force base made six attempts to land before they successfully got to Kavanagh and lifted him out.

He said thank you to the crew over and over again, Kristin said.

Because of the elevation, even the Huey military helicopter had a tough time taking off and landing, the Great Falls Tribune reported.

Sam, who is an engineer for Morrison and Maierle, in Bozeman, was at home recovering, but he had to be readmitted to the hospital Monday, his mom said.

His wife, Sara Rogers Kavanagh, was taking care of him. She is also from here. The prognosis for Sam's leg remains in doubt.

Chabot said it was just an unfortunate situation.

"They had all their gear. They were sharp guys. It just didn't work out," he said.

An in memoriam for Morstad has been posted on the Web site www.backpackinglight.com.