It has been 11 years since being hit by an avalanche on the North East Snowfields route on Mount Owen in Grand Teton National Park.
Below is a short video I shot this morning. Below that is the article from Men’s Journal Magazine about my experience on Mount Owen.
May you have a wonderful day and may you appreciate the beauty you are and that you have in your life!
Men’s Journal Article from December 1998.
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5 responses so far ↓
1 Matt // Apr 23, 2009 at 7:04 pm
I’d like to develop the skills and experience necessary to ski backcountry at this level someday, but I hope I never have to experience something like this.
[Reply]
Stephen Koch Reply:
May 8th, 2009 at 11:41 am
Matt,
I wish for you to develop your skills without getting in an avalanche! Following are some good links for further information and a brief look at ALPTRUTH, an objective strategy designed to assist back country users in their terrain and trip making decisions based on 7 ‘yes/no’ questions. If there are three or more ‘yes’ answers you may want to reconsider your route/trip choice and not go or take a much more conservative route.
ALPTRUTH
• Avalanches in the area in the last 48
hours
• Loading by snow, wind or rain in the
last 48 hours
• Paths, avalanche paths
• Terrain traps
• Rating, considerable or higher on the
current avalanche bulletin
• Unstable snow: collapsing or cracking
• Thaw instability, recent warming of
the snow surface
92% of all accidents happen when 3 or
more of these elements are present.
Some other informative links:
An Avalanche Beacon Review site:
http://www.beaconreviews.com/transceivers/
Avalanche.org:
http://www.avalanche.org/
Avalanche.ca:
http://www.avalanche.ca/
Avalanche and Snow Dynamics; an Online course:
http://ocw.usu.edu/Forest__Range__and_Wildlife_Sciences/avalanche-and-snow-dynamics/Course_listing
Avalanche First Response Interactive site:
http://access.jibc.bc.ca/avalancheFirstResponse/course.htm
Beacon Searching 101, Probing 101, Shoveling 101, as well as PowerPoint Presentations: http://www.backcountryaccess.com/english/education/teaching.php
National Forest Service Avalanche Center Basics for Sledders:
http://www.fsavalanche.org/basics/sled_index.html
Training for safe travel in Avalanche Terrain:
http://www.avalanchetraining.info/
Take the time to educate yourself through these resources as well as taking an avalanche course. Make sure your winter partners are also educated and can at least make good decisions to avoid getting into an avalanche. Also, if caught, learn how to use your transceiver, shovel and probe! You may have 15 minutes if caught and buried, so your partners are your life line. If you go out for help and don’t perform self rescue chances are it will be for a body recovery. Grim.
Enjoy!
Stephen
[Reply]
2 Jim // May 11, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Hey Stephen,
I was told by a friend that you skied a lot of cool descents in the Oregon Cascades. I just moved to Bend and was wondering which lines on which volcanoes you skied, which ones you liked the best, etc.
[Reply]
Stephen Koch Reply:
May 11th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Hi Jim,
In 1995 I snowboarded the hourglass couloir off the North side of Mount Hood. I am not certain but from what I remembered researching, mine was the first descent of the line. A section of ice was encountered and down climbed. Beautiful, high consequence line.
There are some great websites dedicated to cascade descents…here are a couple.
1. http://www.skimountaineer.com/CascadeSki/CascadeIntro.html
2. http://skisickness.com/
Have fun!
Stephen
[Reply]
3 Coping With Injury // Dec 10, 2009 at 1:30 pm
[...] several movies and had my mother come out for three weeks to help me! Thanks Mom! Also worked on a story for Men’s Journal about the [...]
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