Snowmobiler triggers avalanche

Breaking the law almost cost a snowmobiler his life on Saturday, February 28.

In the Three Sisters Wilderness Area at Tam McArthur Rim, snowmobile tracks are all that is left to tell a story of a narrow escape from an avalanche that veteran patroller Gabe Chladek from the Sisters Ranger District said was the largest one he had ever seen in the Cascades.

Chladek is no stranger to avalanches, having worked as a ski patroller for Hoodoo Ski Area and spending years on the wilderness boundary at Three Creek Lake as winter patroller for the Deschutes National Forest.

It is illegal for snowmobilers to travel into the Wilderness Area. Most mechanized equipment is excluded from these primitive areas. But the terrain is enticing.

"Tam Rim is a common place for people to go in because the terrain is appetizing for snowmobilers. It's those big powdery bowls and a great place to high mark," said Chladek.

High marking is an advanced riders' technique of scaling a vertical slope at high speed. With just enough momentum left, the rider initiates a turn to come back down, while standing on the uphill side of the snowmobile. The object is to see who can mark the highest, requiring a combination of technique, speed and nerve.

According to Chladek, this is one of the most common ways snowmobilers end up dead or injured. If the technique is done improperly the snowmobile can roll over the rider. If the conditions are right, the rider may trigger an avalanche.

The slopes at Tam McArthur Rim are almost continually wind-loaded avalanche slopes, particularly this time of year when the region is receiving heavy snowfall.

Chladek said that the avalanche danger the weekend of February 28 was fairly extreme.

"There had been a good thaw and freeze cycle with the layer below it so there was a fairly consolidated ice layer with a new snow over the top. It was ready to go," he said.

Law enforcement officers noticed the high marking track up in the bowl from their vantage point at Three Creek Lake.

Gabe Chladek received authorization to go into the Wilderness Area and "clear the area of any victims."

It was immediately evident by the snowmobile tracks that the perpetrator had escaped unharmed.

The slide was 300 to 400 yards wide by 500 to 600 vertical feet. The debris pile at the bottom was six to eight feet deep.

"There was enough rubble pile there to bury seven or eight snowmobilers clean... I mean no problem," said Chladek.

He explained, by reading the tracks, what probably happened.

"It looked like it broke loose above him. When he hit about 40 percent of the way up the bowl, it looks like when he put weight on the bowl, the whole bowl kind of point-released right below the cornice line on top and he probably found himself in the middle of a slab," Chladek said.

"He was probably able to throttle on the moving slab before it was able to liquefy. There were snowmobile tracks riding around on top of the rubble pile and you could see where he had gotten off his machine and walked on foot up around the rubble just to kind of check out his handiwork."

Chladek suspects that the wilderness boundary at Tam McArther Rim is breached two to three times a week. The wilderness boundary at Three Creek Lake is well marked and Chladek claims that if you cross it you will definitely see the signs.

"It certainly happens every Saturday," he said. "We see most of the tracks, but it's real hard to catch people. As far as (Mt.) Jefferson Wilderness goes and some areas in the (Mt.) Washington Wilderness, I suspect that it's happening once every week. In my years doing this I've issued a handful of tickets for this."

Snowmobiling is a growing national pastime. The parking lot at Tam McArthur Rim is at full capacity every weekend. The wilderness boundary, as a result, sees more violators than in the past.

Snowmobile noise in the wilderness area can disturb wolverine habitat at Tam McArthur. It also disturbs cougars, which can displace them to lower elevations, Chladek said.

For extreme cases and repeat offenders there's a hefty fine of $5,000 and up to six months in jail. Otherwise, the standard fine is $250.