HVSC Members caught in Avalanche in Cortina
E-mail from Pete Gray... Saturday January 24, 1:43 PM
EST (2 days after the avalanche)
 I have a few minutes before our last supper in
Cortina.....
Cheryl's account our our avalanche incident on Thursday (1/22) was pretty
accurate, except there were 12 HVSC members skiing together and Al and I
were totally buried.
Donna Etu saw it coming out of the corner of her eye, and screamed, but Al
and I never heard her. Carl did hear her and tried to ski away from it, but
as soon as it was around his skis, he was trapped. He managed to stay upright
and poled as hard as he could. When it stopped, the snow was up to his shoulders
in the back and up to his chest in the front.
Al was in the lead and I was skiing about 25' behind Al. The avalanche hit
us both in the back like a freight train. All I saw was white, didn't know
which way was up and was breathing in snow and coughing. It grabs you like
a vice and you can't move and can barely breathe. I got my hands up near
my face and was able to get the snow away from my face so I saw daylight
and could breathe. My skis stayed on so I couldn't move my legs and my pole
straps were still on so I had practically no arm movement.
Both Al's skis came off, which, I think, allowed him to free himself. He
was able to quickly get to me and, with the help of a passer-by, managed
to dig me out. I discovered one ski pole was bent at about a 45 degree angle,
but didn't break, and the hamstring on my left leg was throbbing.
Nearly everyone in our group was knocked down by the avalanche. We were all
very shaken (scared shitless would be more accurate). Al figured his new
skis were history. A ski police (Carabinieri) arrived with a metal locator
and a rod and they were probing the snow above where we ended up for Al's
skis. For some reason Bob Spinella started probing with his ski poles below
where Al ended up and found Al's skis! The avalanche actually made the local
paper (I'll scan the picture when I get home and send it to you). It shows
about 17 or 18 Carabinieri probing the avalanche area after we left. There
was no way to be really sure there weren't other skiers mixed in with the
the 12 of us as we went down the trail and they had to be sure there wasn't
someone buried under the snow (estimated at 15-20' deep).
Most of the group continued to ski, but my hamstring was bothering me so
much, I made one more run and headed back to the hotel.
22 of us did a tour of a portion of the Sella Ronda the following day and
we had another great day of skiing today (Saturday). Today was a bonus as
the weather reports called for a snow storm all day.
Well, that's about it from Cortina. Our bus leaves here tomorrow morning
at 6:30 AM for Venice. With any luck, we will land at JFK about 3:30 PM on
Sunday.
Regards,
Pete |
HVSC member Mary Ann Jagger is asking people to go to
Vassar Hospital and donate blood.
July Newsletter now online -- includes 2010 Trip schedule &
Proposed Budget
