Trio grateful for rescue after night in snow cave
A snowshoeing trip at Willamette Pass among three friends turns perilous during blizzard conditions
By
Edward Russo
The Register-Guard
Published:
Friday,
Dec 31, 2010 05:02AM
WILLAMETTE PASS — Shivering and wet in a snow cave deep in the Cascades during a howling snowstorm Wednesday night, Roman Anderson of Eugene and his two friends buoyed one another’s spirits as much as possible but they still couldn’t help wondering if they would be found.
To their relief early Thursday, the trio of snowshoers heard the whistles of a search and rescue team that spent the night searching for them north of Willamette Pass.
Aided by cell phone and GPS technology, searchers found Anderson, 30, and Annie Mason, 26, both of Eugene, and Joseph Walch, 32, of Central Point, at 5:07 a.m. about 11/2 miles from the Willamette Pass ski resort.
The trio had spent Tuesday night in the shelter at Maiden Peak, about three miles north of the ski resort. About 3 to 4 feet of fresh snow had fallen before they headed to the resort, and another 11/2 feet fell between noon and 3:30 p.m., when the drifts made it impossible to continue, Anderson said in a telephone interview Thursday night.
“Every step we took, we sunk in snow up to our stomachs,” Anderson said. “We were literally digging a tunnel in the snow every foot of the way.”
The friends had checked the weather forecast before they left on the trip and expected it to snow, said Anderson, a general contractor. “But we had no idea it would be snowing as much” as it did.
About 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Anderson and his companions called Klamath County 911 and told authorities of their predictament.
Anderson, an experienced snowshoer and skier, told authorities he had been trained in wilderness survival and that he and his companions had built a snow cave for shelter.
The cave was about 6 feet deep, 4 feet across and 2 feet high, Anderson said, enough room for the three friends to sit shoulder to shoulder.
The snowshoers also gave authorities their GPS coordinates. Authorities told Anderson and his friends to “stay put and they would be on their way,” he said.
The phone conversations continued until about 8 p.m., when the batteries on all three of their cell phones started to die about the same time. Just before the batteries gave out completely, about 9 p.m., the three sent text messages with their coordinates one last time, Anderson said.
Meanwhile, search and rescue teams from the Deschutes, Lane and Klamath county sheriff’s offices met at the ski resort about 7 p.m. Wednesday, said Deschutes County sheriff’s Capt. Marc Mills.
Thirty-three volunteers from the three counties joined the law enforcement officers, along with people from the ski resort.
The searchers were dispatched on snowmobiles, snow tractors and track-equipped all-terrain vehicles, Mills said, but the machines were able to take the searchers only so far before they bogged down in the drifts.
That put searchers on foot and, with the howling snowstorm so intense, they were able to cover only about 50 yards an hour, Mills said.
The weather improved after midnight, which allowed searchers to cover more ground, he said.
During the night, as temperatures plummeted below freezing, the mood among the friends in the snow cave varied by the moment, Anderson said.
“We kept a pretty good sense of humor, but it went through different phases,” he said. “People got nervous and scared, and everybody was cold and wet and kind of anxious.”
About nine hours after their last communication with the rescue team, the trio heard a whistle from the searchers. They blew their own whistle back and shined their flashlights toward the flashlights of the search team.
“They said our GPS location was within 5 feet of what we told them,” Anderson said.
“We were very relieved because we had not heard from them since 9 o’clock” the previous night, he said. “It was a great relief that people were looking all night for us.”
Mills said the showshoers were found just inside the Deschutes County line. He credited them with being appropriately dressed and prepared for spending the night in the mountains.
“The individuals’ winter preparation and knowledge of GPS coordinates allowed search and rescue personnel to locate them as quickly and safely as possible,” Mills said.
It took about two hours to bring the snowshoers to the ski resort. They were checked by paramedics, and all were in good shape, Mills said.
They were “treated for mild exposure, warmed, fed and given a ride home,” he said.
Anderson said that when they were found “we couldn’t feel our fingers and toes, but were not at risk of hypothermia, and there were no real injuries.”
Mills said the cooperation among the search teams from different counties was exemplary.
Anderson said the experience left him feeling especially grateful for the 33 volunteers “who contributed and got us out safe.”
