Apr 5, 2008 4:24 pm US/Mountain
Avalanche Partially Buries Boulder Snowshoer
GEORGETOWN, Colo. (CBS4) ―
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Sarah Thompson at the Summit Medical Center Friday afternoon
CBS
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Sarah Thompson on April 4, 2008
CBS
A snowshoer who was partially buried in an avalanche on Friday in a backcountry area near Loveland Pass has survived the incident.
Sarah Thompson of Boulder and Dwight Sunwall of Castle Rock were snowshoeing in an area they say they had checked and thought was safe. They had taken the snowshoes off to hike up to a summit when a snow cornice the size of a bus broke off and triggered an avalanche that was as much as 300 yards long.
"We were probably 20 feet away from the edge and she was beside me closest to the cornice and all of sudden boom she just dropped away from me," Sunwall said.
The Alpine Rescue Team and Clear Creek County sheriff's deputies, a team that included a rescue helicopter, responded to the Ruby Gulch area after Sunwall called for help on his cell phone. The call came in to emergency dispatchers at about 11:45 a.m. and the helicopter crew spotted Thompson and Sunwall.
"She was buried, it sounds like, up to her chest. It wasn't a complete burial," Joe Ben Slivka of the Summit County Rescue Group told CBS4.
Thompson was talking and conscious when rescue crews arrived. She was taken to Summit Medical Center with an injured nose and doctors put stitches in her lip.
"I felt my face bashing on some rocks up there and I remember doing what I could to fight to stay on top of the snow as much as I could," Thompson said. "Sometimes that worked and other times (I was) buried and couldn't breath."
Thompson and Sunwall didn't have avalanche beacons on, a device many backcountry adventurers wear in the wintertime when they are in areas that might be avalanche prone.
"It's very important for people to consider in the springtime that once you get past 10 or 11 in the morning, some bells should really be going off for you going 'Is this safe?'" Slivka said.
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