Avalanche, ski accidents claim 3 lives

Avalanches near the Hungry Horse Reservoir killed one man Saturday and endangered the lives of several others.

West Glacier resident Bruce Lee Jungnitsch, 53, was trapped in the avalanche while riding a snowmobile near Hungry Horse Reservoir, the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office reported.

There were three avalanches Saturday afternoon near the reservoir.

Jungnitsch was with a group of seven snowmobilers 12 miles up Beta Lake Road when the avalanche occurred. Three people were buried in the snow, but two made it out alive. All were wearing avalanche receivers.

A special high avalanche danger warning was issued by the Glacier Country Avalanche Center late Friday, Jan. 7 between the elevations of 5,000 and 7,500 feet in the Mission, North Swan and Whitefish Mountain Ranges. Recent snow and rain accumulation followed by warming temperatures created unstable snow conditions.

Eric Peitzsch, a U.S. Geological Survey avalanche specialist who works with the avalanche center but is not affiliated with it, said that avalanches just don’t happen without warning.

“There’s a certain recipe, adequate terrain — a slope — a weak layer of snow and a slab on top,” Peitzsch said. “Heavy, wet snow on top of lighter snow can be a recipe for an avalanche. (The area was) still getting notable precipitation through Saturday and strong winds.”

Also Saturday afternoon, two people were trapped in snow when an avalanche occurred in the Lost Johnny area. Both of those people got out of the snow safely, the sheriff’s office reported. No one was caught in the third avalanche, which was reported at Doris Creek.

Stan Bones, an avalanche specialist with the Flathead National Forest, said he’s waiting to talk with the people affected by the weekend avalanches and that it’s yet unknown whether the avalanches were triggered by the conditions or by humans.

“In that area the moisture flow was enhanced, in Noisy Basin, Jewel Basin and Lost Johnny,” Bones said, adding that there were a number of avalanches between Lost Johnny, Strawberry Lake and Columbia Mountain.

“This was an established avalanche path,” he said. “Avalanches happen there on a regular basis.”

An avalanche investigation is pending.

Peitzsch said the most important thing for people recreating in avalanche corridors to do is be aware of the situation.

“To avoid an avalanche, you have to stay out of avalanche terrain,” he said. “But those are fun places to recreate, to ski, ride, snowmobile and snowshoe. Education is a huge component to traveling safely in the backcountry. Avalanche classes, the observations you’re making as soon as you leave the car. Listen for the ‘whomp’ noise of the weak layer of snow collapsing. Education is huge, and making keen observations. These are tools to stay safe in the backcountry.”

The Flathead National Forest issues avalanche advisories for Northwest Montana every Tuesday and Friday morning through April. Advisories include information about snowpack conditions, weather forecasts and hazard evaluations. To check advisories, visit www.glacieravalanche.org.

TRAGEDY STRUCK Whitefish Mountain Resort again last weekend when a snowboarder and skier were killed in separate incidents at the ski resort.

A 29-year-old snowboarder reported missing at Whitefish Mountain Resort on Saturday was found by ski patrol, unresponsive in a tree well around 7:30 p.m., according to the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office. Scott Allen Meyer, of Kalispell, was transported to Kalispell Regional Medical Center and pronounced dead after his arrival. Meyer was snowboarding alone, but had gone to the resort with friends, according to the sheriff’s report. He was reported missing at 5 p.m. after he failed to meet friends.

Meyer was found inbounds in an off-piste area to the skier’s right of T-bar 2, east of Big Mountain’s summit. Ski patrol, North Valley Search and Rescue, Flathead County Search and Rescue, Flathead Nordic Ski Patrol and the Flathead Mountain Rescue Team joined the sheriff’s office in search efforts.

Meyer worked as a probation and parole officer for the State of Montana.

The resort reported on Saturday 10 inches of new snow overnight and 30 inches in the past five days. At 10:30 a.m. the temperature was reported at 19 degrees at the summit with clear skies and good visibility.

Meyer’s accident is the second tree-well related death on Big Mountain in the past two weeks and fifth since 1978. On Dec. 29, 16-year-old Niclas Waschle, an exchange student from Germany living in Columbia Falls, was found unconscious in a tree well, also near T-bar 2. He was taken off life support four days later at KRMC.

Tree wells are an open pit at the base of an evergreen tree that grows deeper as the snowpack around the tree rises. Accidents often happen in tree wells when a skier or snowboarder falls headfirst into the pit or hits the tree and falls in. According to a report by the Northwest Avalanche Institute in Washington, most of the documented cases of deep-snow suffocation at ski areas involve people falling headfirst into a tree well.

ALSO ON Saturday at Whitefish Mountain Resort, a 68-year-old skier was found unconscious in the middle of Ed’s Run, resort spokesperson Donnie Clapp said. Richard T. Swope, of Whitefish, was taken by ambulance to North Valley Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Two resort employees found the man at 12:55 p.m. on the ground in the middle of the slope near the junction with Hellroaring. One of the employees found a faint pulse on the victim and immediately started CPR. Ski patrol arrived at 12:58 p.m. and took over life-saving techniques. A portable automated external defibrillator was on the scene at 1:01 p.m., but no shock was advised.

A paramedic and two nurses skiing the area stopped to help, too, Clapp noted.

The man wasn’t skiing near any trees and there was no evidence that he hit anything, Clapp said. The victim was a season pass holder.

“This has been a very sad and tragic two weeks for all of us at Whitefish Mountain Resort,” said Winter Sports, Inc. President and CEO Dan Graves. “Losing three lives in two weeks, two in tree wells and one due to natural causes, affects us all deeply, and our thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and families of the victims.”