Brandon Ford
Avalanche kills snowmachiner
by Hugh Curran, ADN 3/29/94
The body of a 21-year-old Anchorage man buried in an avalanche
while snowmachining with a friend was recovered late Monday night near Powerline
Pass in Chugach State Park. About 75 rescue workers worked late into the
night searching for Brandon Ford, who was buried under an estimated 20 to 40
feet of snow at 3:20 p.m., said Dan Hurihan, chairman of the Alaska Mountain
Rescue Group.
Ford was found about 10:30 p.m. The site is about
five miles from the Glen Alps parking lot, in the same area as a December 1990
avalanche that killed snowmachiner Curt Falldorf. FalIdorf's body was
found under 34 feet of snow after a week of searching.
Some of Ford's
rescuers had earlier in the day been searching for another snowmachiner trapped
in a Sunday avalanche at Cooper Landing.
Alaska State Troopers said the
body of Jeffrey Ransom, 35, of Kasilof, was found shortly after noon
Monday. He and a friend were near Lost Lake when they triggered an
avalanche shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday.
On Powerline Pass Monday
afternoon, skiers John McMahon and Tony Stalion were about a mile away from Ford
and his unidentified friend when they saw the avalanche.
McMahon said
Ford was following behind his friend as the two raced their snowmachines in a
crisscrossing pattern up and down the sides of a steep bowl when the snow gave
way.
"I thought it was weird when I saw them because it seemed like such
a dangerous idea; it just seemed dangerous and senseless," McMahon said.
"One guy shot up to the top of the bowl and started making his turn to come down
when I saw the crack in the snow form. I never saw (Brandon) come up after
that."
McMahon and Stalion then waved down two other snowmachiners in the
area and rode with them to the scene, arriving about six minutes after the
avalanche.
"The guy said his partner was buried in the snow somewhere but
didn't know where," McMahon said.
"There was no sign of (Brandon),"
Stalion said. "We started screaming out the guy's name and poking down
into the snow with our ski poles. They were all we had."
McMahon
and Stalion estimated the side of the bowl was at a 40-degree angle and said the
snow remaining on the ridge's overhang after the avalanche was 6 feet
deep.
Paul Bezilla with Mountain Rescue said conditions have been ripe
for avalanches.
"These are extremely hazardous conditions what with the
weather we've been having for the last couple of months," Bezilla said. "All of
Chugach Park has been under a warning because of it. People should
take
extreme caution with this stuff."
Bezilla said snow in the area has
formed into a hard slab because of strong winds in February. That snow has been
topped with granular snow which, when combined with recent warm temperatures,
creates prime avalanche conditions.
By 4 p.m., a rescue crew consisting
of Alaska State Troopers, Chugach Park Rangers and the Alaska Mountain Rescue
Group began assembling at the Glen Alps parking lot to search for Ford.
A
trooper helicopter started shuttling rescuers to the scene, and by 5:30 p.m.
teams of snowmachiners began pulling carts with food, water and needed equipment
such as 10-foot-long poles, sticks with red flags and transmitters.
Greg
Goodale with Mountain Rescue said the search began by probing the snow with
poles in a random pattern. As more rescuers arrived, they began to line up
side by side, probing the snow in 10-foot intervals.
Volunteer rescuers
arrived throughout the night. A Red Cross van was at the parking lot to
distribute food and coffee.
Ford's family, including his mother and wife,
arrived at the Glen Alps staging area shortly before 8 p.m.
Al Meiners,
superintendent of Chugach State Park, said the slab of snow that broke loose was
9 feet thick at the top of the slab.