ESCAPING DISASTER: Mt. Waddington Avalanche

View of the slide from the bottom

Since the piece about our avalanche experience ran in Powder this past month, I’ve had quite a few people reach out and ask me about what went down. Here’s my take along with some new photos and the only video taken on that day in BC.

The Mt. Waddington region of The Coast Mountains in BC has proven both elusive and deadly over the past couple of years. Two years ago we were kicked out by Mother Nature after a series of slides but were lucky to escape with one blown knee, a couple of lost skis and lessons learned. Only a few miles north of where we were skiing Tommy Bruhner was not as fortunate losing his life to the same layer of instability that sent us packing.

After dreaming night after night about getting back to the zone to ski some of the biggest terrain in the world and pulling much of the original crew together for round 2, we were poised to walk away with a long list of first descents and the ultimate big mountain lines. I was wrong.

Everything started as it should have. The sky was blue and we had all agreed to play it extra conservatively with some mellow warm up runs and simple film lines to start the trip. After digging a pit and skiing the same aspect of the slope that we had decided to film we were in the heli buckling up when all hell broke loose.

I remember looking up after hearing someone yell “avalanche” and seeing nothing but a massive cloud of debris and cloud coming down at us. The entire mountain had cut loose and it was racing straight for us. Everything else happened in only a few seconds. A couple of us had turned around hitting the pilot on the shoulder screaming at him to take off and pointing at the slope above. Our guide John Buffrey was still outside on the other side of his entry door loading the basket. Just when he looked up the slide had made it to a bench above and it really was our last hope for slowing or stopping the slide.

When the slide crested the bench and came roaring at us, there was no doubt in my mind that we were getting hit. My only hope was that the impact wouldn’t kill all of us. John had given up telling us to take off without him but somehow, just as the airblast hit and the cloud was upon us, our pilot pulled up without enough power while John jumped in holding the door shut as we spun out of control as the slide missed the skids by inches. Without seeing anything, I assumed that we were OK but I was so turned around that I didn’t realize that we were doing 360’s with our nose pointed directly down at the ground. Cinematographer Dustin Handley was up above from the Barbie angle and said that we emerged spinning out of the cloud a couple hundred feet off of the glacier. There was no question from his perspective that we were going down.

With steel nerves and uncanny flying abilities, our pilot did the impossible and pulled the helicopter back into control.

(This VIDEO was the first dialogue after lifting out the cloud.)

There’s no way one could have scripted how dramatic this experience really was. With Stian Hagen holding on for his life above and Jane Mauser buried and then spit up after the second slide came through, 8 of us were as close as it gets to our last day in the mountains. Sometimes these experiences teach you about being prepared, making better decisions and being more cautious but this one taught us that close calls and sometimes tragedy go with the territory and it’s something that you accept when you engage the mountains, especially the big ones.

Adam Clark, John Buffrey, Billy Poole, Dan Treadway and I were in the heli. Stian Hagen and Jane Mauser were above. Miraculously Jane only suffered a dislocated shoulder.

Note the tracks to the right