Search continues for missing doctor

When Jack Marcial’s youngest son was brought into the world, it was at the hands of Dr. Jonathan Torgerson.

The procedure did not go smoothly. Shane, the child, spent 28 days in intensive care with internal bleeding. Torgerson took care of Shane the whole time with a careful and conscientious hand, and Marcial said he was a big reason his family survived the ordeal.

“Jon did really well with him,” Marcial said. “[Shane] could have died, my wife could have died. They did a great job, and Jon had a big part in it.”

The success of a physician depends in large part on doing the same thing over and over again without losing the attention to detail that came with the first try. Small deviations from the norm that’s been established through years of experience can have big consequences. The same could be said for backcountry skiing on a familiar mountain.

It’s been 24 years since Shane’s birth, and Marcial and Torgerson, both now 62, nurtured a friendly relationship over the past quarter century. During that time, Torgerson worked as an emergency room doctor at North Valley Hospital in Whitefish and later as a geriatric doctor at the facility in Columbia Falls.

They didn’t talk a lot, but Marcial retained an enormous amount of respect for Torgerson. Their kids went to school together and sometimes the two men connected on the slopes.

“I skied with him, rode the chair with him,” Marcial said. “An avid skier, and a really, really nice guy.”

Last Saturday, Feb. 17, Torgerson set out alone to run a familiar route down the Canyon Creek drainage just out of bounds off the Flower Point area at Whitefish Mountain Resort. The hours that followed brought one of the most severe storms of the winter season. He hasn’t been seen since.

A search coordinated by the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office involving local volunteer search and rescue crews stretched to four days Tuesday with no success. Teams from the Flathead Avalanche Center, members of North Valley and Flathead Search and Rescue units, and the Flathead Nordic Backcountry Patrol scoured the backcountry where Torgerson was last seen.

The vicious storm that spanned the first hours of Torgerson’s disappearance has made searching difficult and simultaneously wiped out many visual clues that could lead crews to wherever Torgerson ended up.

On Monday and Tuesday, the weather cleared and it allowed helicopters from Two Bear Air look through the 350 or so acres that are considered part of the active search area, including areas of the canyon known locally as Kona and Big Trees.

The helicopter was aided by teams of skiers combing the thickly forested, steep canyon walls from the ground and snowmobiles tracing the groomed route where many skiers hike out farther down the slope.

Both the land and air teams were equipped with technology that would help them seek out an avalanche beacon, technology Torgerson was believed to have been wearing. They were also looking for Recco reflectors, a technology that is embedded in many ski jackets that is intended to be detectable in backcountry conditions.

So far the search has been fruitless, but Flathead Sheriff Chuck Curry has vowed that it won’t be called off until a recovery is made.

The top of the Flower Point chairlift has become a congregation point for an increasingly diverse team of highly trained people hoping to lend a hand. Some are professionals, others are volunteers. All have demonstrated a steely determination to keep going until they find Torgerson.

Marcial spent 10 years working for a search and rescue crew out of Crested Butte in Colorado, and said he is aware of the enormous effort searches like these entail. He is also hoping they’ll soon find his friend.

On Monday night, Marcial went to the shuttle that was transporting teams out of Canyon Creek, just as darkness was taking hold. He thanked them for their efforts.

The teams were back at the top of Flower Point at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, where nearly 20 skiers resumed their search, hoping to find any signs of Torgerson’s location.

People who would like to write a card or note to the Torgerson family can drop it off at either of the reception areas at North Valley Hospital at 1600 Hospital Way in Whitefish, the North Valley Professional Center at 1675 Talbot Rd., in Columbia Falls or the main reception desk at Kalispell Regional Medical Center 310 Sunnyview Lane in Kalispell.

Powdered Soul’s Youth Scholarship Program has designated a tree in Depot Park in downtown Whitefish in front of the gazebo as a prayer/hope tree for the Torgerson family. There are supplies at the tree to write a prayer or note of support and hang it from the tree.

According to the nonprofit group, the Torgersons were the first donors to the scholarship program when it opened.