relay pk story - avy hunters by atwater
TRANSCRIPT
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the v l n he
huntersMONTGOMERY M TW TER
There was a time when only a handful of hearty
souls experienced the joy of solitude among the
awesome heights and glitter of snow-covered peaks.
A few decades ago skiing, a development of man's
inborn desire to slide, had not advanced beyond a
swish and a long walk back. But the advent of
lifts, Head skis and stretch pants not only
created a vastly increasing army of enthusiasts
who look upon the white slopes and brisk air as
a friendly challenge, but also precipitatedserious new risks to lives and property.
Besides being something white, cold and beautiful,
what is snow? Its crystalline particles combine in
intricate detail to produce a cover restless with
the forces of pressure, temperature and gravity.
Never in repose, snow is continually being pushed,
pulled, pressed, warmed, chilled, ventilated
from hack cover)
He served as winter warfare instructor and
advisor during World War II participated in the
Kiska Campaign and the Battle of the Bulge,
then retired from the army because of physical
disability, with the rank of Captain.Joining the U. S. Forest Service in 1946 he
distinguished himself as a specialist in avalanche
research, control and winter recreation, working
until 1956 at Alta, Utah, where he founded the
first avalanche research center in the Western
Hemisphere. Snow and avalanche research at
Alta eventually produced all the modern
techniques of avalanche control now in use
throughout the Americas.
In 1956 Monty Atwater married the former
Joan Hamill and spent several months in Europe
visiting avalanche control and research centers
in Austria and Switzerland. Upon his return to
the United States, he was transferred to
Squaw Valley, California, to plan and execute
avalanche control for the Olympic Winter Games
of 1960. Following the games, he opened aresearch station at Squaw Valley and developed
the avalauncher, the first avalanche control
weapon designed specifically for the purpose.
He retired from the U. S. Forest Service in
1964 and since that time has been a consultant
on snow and avalanche problems for ski areas and
industrial concerns from South America to Alaska.
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CHAPTER 2
~ w
» «
on ultant
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SNOW P~OBLEMS CONSULTANT 3
techniques, plus the infinite variety of human nature. It is amazing, for
instance, how different in character two corporations can be. A corporation
is simply a collection of people working together. When the corporation is
large and the number of people is great, one would expect the individual
differences to cancel out. But it is not so. I have dealt with companies that
were emotional, others that were calm, and still others that were just plain
stuffy. Like individuals, they can be open-minded or suspicious, humorless
or gay, opinionated or merely ignorant. They are just as much a part of
the snow consultant's job as the snow.
In selecting the incidents for this chapter I have tried to pick those that
not only were successful but are also illustrative of the weird things that
can happen to a consultant on snow and avalanches. By 1948 49 the Winter
of Avalanches, I had acquired some reputation. This was not difficult to
achieve, since I was one of only two practicing professional avalanche men
in the Western Hemisphere at that time, the other being Noel Gardner in
British Columbia. An article had been written about my exploits. A per-
ceptive official of American Telephone and Telegraph Company read this
article, which amounted to a photograph and one sentence of text in a now-
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4 THE AVALANCHE _
I had the kind of meeting that was to become familiar enough in
years but was a new sensation at the time. Privately until now, I labe
the official panic party. At least twenty officials of the giant corpo
had gathered, from every part of the country. They were in that state
unreasoning shock I have already described in narratives of the Leduc
and Portillo disasters. To me, an avalanche accident involving one
and a driver who was promptly dug out alive and only slightly hurt
warrant so much fuss; the project boss and I could go out there tog
see what happened and why, and take the necessary steps to see that
didn't happen again. It was my first demonstration of the special im
of an avalanche accident, a stunning side-effect compounded of surp -
violence, mystery, and apprehension that the mountain is going to rear
and strike again at any moment.
The AT T officials presented me with a written list of questions thatwas expected to answer on the spot. Some of them were meaningless,
I couldn't answer any of them without looking over the scene of the aces-
dent. At that time I hadn't perfected the technique of the rambling
highly technical discourse on avalanches which doesn't convince anyone
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SNOW PROBLEMS CONSULTANT 5
wouldn't even have to think about it. This demand required a more elab-
orate remedy. Prowling about the mountain on skis, I found an alleyway
about fifty feet wide that was free of avalanche hazard. By good fortune,
the top end of it was practically at the door of the microwave station. It
lay on the fall line, straight up and down hill. An interesting piece of infor-
mation, but how to utilize it? A picture sprang into my mind of the barge
tows that served as lifts at Aspen in the days when today's famous ski area
was the playground of the Tenth Mountain Division. I recommended to the
telephone company officials that they do the following: Build a barge, or
snowboat, big enough to haul whatever was involved in manpower and
equipment. Attach it to a double drum winch, to haul it up the hill and
back down again. Eventually, replace this crude but effective rig with a
modern aerial tramway that would provide the all-weather access they
required for repair and maintenance of the station.
They did this. As result, a nationwide audience witnessed the signing of
the Japanese peace treaty on TV. It was, I believe, the first TV network
broadcast on a national scale.
In my report to the company I mentioned the fact that the power line
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6 THE AVALANCHE HUNTERS
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SNOW PROBLEMS CONSULTANT 207
That had an ominous ring. The air over the Sierras hadn't exactly been a
velvet carpet. We cinched up the seat belts. Other passengers did the same.
There were no more curious glances at our costume. People in skiing kit,on an airplane, were not as commonplace then as they are now.
Suddenly the plane staggered, exactly the wayan animal does that has
just been shot between the eyes. It stopped flying. It felt like something
dropped into a vacuum. Pieces of loose gear began to bang and clatter. I
don't know how long this went on, possibly thirty seconds. To me it seemed
that we fell for hours and miles. Finally the pilot revived his aircraft and
got it flying again. He pointed its nose to the sky, turned on all the power,
and headed back over the Sierras. Over Reno, that night, the low-level
turbulence was severe.
Eventually we got to Mt. Rose by other means. We climbed the moun-
tain. There was one interesting moment. I wanted to bomb a slidepath
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208 THE AVALANCHE HUNTERS
that was beyond the range of my throwing arm from any protected posi-
tion. With Wiese belaying me from behind a rock, I ventured out into a
grove of trees which should give me some protection. I tossed the bomb.
The avalanche came down through the grove. I began to climb the nearest
tree. Wiese, unable to see anything, felt the tension on the rope and, rightly
assuming that I was in a slide, clamped down like grim death. I climbed;
he held. I got nowhere. The avalanche rose to my knees, to my hips, to
my chest. Then it stopped.
That summer the power line was moved to the other side of the canyon.
MT ALYESKA AND THE
MENDENHALL GLACIER 96
Snow and avalanche consultant jobs tend to be of the panic-party type,but not always. The Mt. Alyeska and Mendenhall Glacier assignments in
Alaska were more like a busman's holiday, memorable not so much for the
accomplishment as for the incidentals. The festive atmosphere was provided
entirely by Joan Atwater.