Another avalanche advisory issued

More details have emerged about the avalanche that partially buried a man near Lookout Pass Ski and Recreation Area on Wednesday.

Kevin Davis, director of the Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center, said three skiers, whom he believes were from Spokane, went skiing out of bounds down the Montana side of the Lookout Pass Ski and Recreation Area around 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

The lead skier triggered an avalanche about 2 miles east of the ski resort, Davis said.

“They had avalanche safety gear with them, and they had some backcountry experience and avalanche training,” he said, adding he doesn't have the skiers' names yet. “The skier was able to deploy an avalanche air bag which kept him at the surface of the snow during the avalanche.”

Davis said the other two skiers quickly came to the aid of the first skier, who was partially buried with a compound fracture of his leg.

Davis said the skiers initially had cellphone coverage and were able to call for help, but they also had avalanche beacons that were activated. Those beacons transmit a signal to several rescue agencies when activated, he added.

Still, Davis said, it took rescuers two hours to reach the skiers via a helicopter from Two Bear Air of Whitefish, Mont.

It was a multi-agency cooperative effort led by the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office.

“Two of the skiers were airlifted out,” Davis said. “But the helicopter couldn't get back up there for the third skier, so he had to rescue himself.”

Davis said the third skier managed to ski his way off the mountain.

“It was a difficult night for a lot of people,” he said. “There was really bad weather combined with the dark. I still can’t believe they got them out of there.”

Davis said two of his forecasters have been investigating the avalanche and they should have a full report on the incident by sometime next week.

Davis plans to sit down and talk with the skiers sometime next week as well.

“I wanted to give them a little bit of a breather before I do that,” he said, adding the injured skier is still in the hospital.

As for the current avalanche conditions, Davis said he expects the danger will remain high throughout the weekend. Davis said avalanche danger went from low to high extremely fast after the last snowfall.

The series of snow storms that swept through the region last week dumped 16-20 inches of heavy snow on a very weak snowpack. That, combined with winds that pack the snow, make it very unstable and prone to avalanches. The wind causes slabs of snow to shift and slide.

In his avalanche advisory on the Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center website, Davis writes “Expect windloaded snow on multiple aspects to increase avalanche hazard. A 50 percent chance of a trace of new snow (Friday). The outlook calls for a strong chance of 4-9 inches of new snow this weekend with increasing W/SW winds, and rising temperatures. This will keep the avalanche hazard HIGH for the outlook period, Saturday and Sunday.”

Davis said the new snow could pose serious problems.

“This snow may come with westerly winds that will create a denser and deeper slab,” he wrote in his advisory. “Triggering windslabs may also trigger the deeper storm slabs responsible for the Basin slide on (Wednesday). The main problem is too much heavy snow too fast and you need to wait a day or two for weak layers to stabilize but that may not happen this weekend.”