I'm a Mess!

Good Morning Team LOL (Love On Louis)

I asked Erme to write up his account of the accident and rescue in order to maintain some sort of integrity to the account. See below:

Myself, and Jacki have been fielding questions regarding what happened so she asked me to put together a write up of the events leading up to the accident and rescue. I’ve told some friends and the word has gotten out a bit – but here is my account.

First things first, this wasn’t a case of a poor decision, avalanche risk, or extreme radical terrain. The most accurate way to describe it would be as a freak accident with a horrible outcome.  

Louis and I were skiing on the Mapleton Burn, which is near Provo. It’s a burn area that a few of our friends have skied and one we wanted to return to and shoot after skiing some other burns last year for a Backcountry Magazine story. 

We set out in the afternoon - the plan was to shoot end of day light as it lit up the west and northwest faces. After stashing the car we walked for a few minutes on dirt (the trailhead is low, around roughly 5,600 feet) before hitting sheltered snow on the trail where we began skinning up. 

It was tricky skinning as we got higher, since the snow surface was recrystallized powder with facets below, and we actually pulled the plug before the top since we didn’t want to be out there too late. We actually had to both make our own skin tracks to keep enough traction, working the lowest angles possible and still managed to slip in spots. I asked Louis what our turn around time was with light and for shooting, and soon after he whistled that he was over it and it was time to transition. We shot a couple of photos, working the terrain a couple turns down at a time and then repeating for the next shot.

Louis sussed out the final shot location - a longer section where after I would stop before the slope pitched again into the gulch, and we would cruise out. He climbed up a tree to take some photos, I skied down, and I remember him being psyched on the shot. He then climbed down the tree, clicked in, and skied down to me as I snapped a couple photos of him skiing in pretty light. The terrain, which was a burn forest from two years ago, had only sporadic trees and skied more like ramps with a very open forest feel. The slope angle was around 35-38 degrees, so nothing super steep.

Louis skied towards me and after a couple turns something weird seemed to happen. He made a left turn and something didn’t seem right. He came out of a ski and then the other. He picked up a lot of speed with a tomahawk, perhaps because the ski release came at the end of the turn, and then continued to tomahawk with increasing speed. After the second one, I began to get concerned as he came flipping down slope towards the lone big tree, and by the third he was heading right for it. You can see in my phone camera I dropped the camera then.

He took the fall entirely with his neck and back in a harrowing crunch, and then rolled limp and unconscious just below the tree where I sidestepped to in a couple of seconds. His eyes rolled back, he was groaning, and his head was split open. I thought he was dead.

I immediately called 911 stating we had a backcountry emergency giving my location via GAIA GPS with elevation and a rough location of where we parked before stashing my phone with the dispatch still on the line in my pocket so I could assess Louis. I remember saying we needed the heli.

I then realized that the scalping was just that, and there was no brain matter – whew. And when he came to a bit, another good sign, he wasn’t too combative so it was easy to keep him calm. He was horizontal to the slope and wanting to move, but I kept him there and slid one backpack arm off his shoulder and used his pack – a large one with his camera – and supported it with a ski to keep him from slipping downhill and to stabilize his spine. 

The timing of all of this may get jumbled. But I then got a call from I believe the Sheriff and directed them in from a combination of me seeing them pull in near our car. We were at 7,420 feet on the mountain, and directly above them but far away.  I sighted in the trucks at a clock arm of 12 o’clock to give a better understanding of where we were on the mountain. 

I went through the primary assessment. He was bleeding and I could see his skull, but the bleeding was minor and his ear was slightly avulsed. The gauze rolls I had weren’t enough so I used his jacket hood and hat to cover the scalping along the ear. He was breathing and conscious then. I asked if he could feel me palpating his legs and to wiggle his toes in his boots. He couldn’t feel anything until his abdomen. All of this was relayed to the Sheriff then and I stressed the need to get him out before he goes into shock. I placed my heat bivy sleeping bag on Louis from his feet up, gave him another puffy and then got us settled for a bit. Timing is a bit a skew for me – but I know I called Anna around now to come which was not long after 5:30.

LifeLite was to be heading our way soon and I built a fire, using half of my fire-starter and some twigs and branches - trying to keep Louis calm and warm the best I could. Lifelite came before the sunset, with amble time still before dark and I had to direct them through the Sheriff. He spoke to them via radio, to instruct them to where we were. From the conversation at the time it seemed they thought we were lower. Once they saw us I also told them of a place I thought they could land – across the ramp which was much less steep and of which I could stomp out a landing if need be.  Since it was a burn we also had very minimal overhead hazard from where we were and knowing helis from hut trips I was confident that we could get this done - at least with a long line.

They made a couple passes and then left. The Sheriff told me they weren’t coming and were going to try and drop a sack of goods of which then some rescue folks were hiking up. This was discouraging since I knew how tricky it was to get to this place if they weren’t skiers, and that we might have to spend the night.

I think this is when I called Anna and said bring puffies and get up here, but I’m not sure. 

I then got Louis a bit more comfortable and told him we needed more branches for the fire. I booted around, going to saw and snap some just uphill of him, and then dug a huge snowpit in the snow uphill of him so that I could laterally slide him into it as I tried to get a larger fire going. The pit was my overnight plan, but fortunately we never ended up having to move into it until we back-boarded him. 

At this point he was getting colder and I kept calming him saying we’re going to get out of here and encouraging him to lie still since all he wanted to do was sit up. 

It was dark when the drop sack came from Lifelite and I stuffed heat pads and placed more blankets on him. I asked for more headlamps in case mine died and they sent a ton of those along with flares - which really helped the fire at the time since it was flailing a bit, and I was hesitant to use the other half of the fire-starter before I knew our night situation. I think it was then when the Sheriff told me another heli was en-route and I kept saying that we needed to get him out before he goes into shock. He understood the situation and was really great to work with. 

I then booted uphill to get Louis’ other ski and find more pucker brush to burn, tended to Louis, and then soon after I heard another heli.  

This one was department of public safety. Lance long lined in and I told him I had OEC training and we worked to get Louis on the backboard and hoisted him out – using the snow pit which allowed us to slide him into it with minimal movement. 

Based on phone logs and texts I think this all of this took around three hours. I took Louis’ photo at 5:24 and called 911 5:25. Louis was liftedaround 8:30 and then taken to the hospital from the ambulance which was waiting for him at the trailhead.