The red outline shows the area near Ophir Pass Road where two skiers were injured Monday afternoon. A third skier escaped unharmed./Photo by Andrew Temple

Close call in the San Juans

Local skiers survive harrowing slide near Ophir Pass Road

by Missy Votel

Disaster struck close to home this week when three backcountry skiers, including Telegraph photographer Steve Eginoire, were caught in an avalanche north of Silverton.

Eginoire, 33, of Durango, and cohorts Andrew Temple 31, and Alex Spencer, 44, both of Silverton, all escaped alive. Temple escaped unscathed while Eginoire sustained injuries to his legs and face but was able to hike out. Spencer’s leg was also injured in the slide, requiring an emergency evacuation.

The slide, which occurred at around 3:30 p.m. Monday, took place on a steep treed run known as The Tavern, north of Ophir Pass Road.

According to Eginoire, it was the group’s second lap of the day and he was the second skier to go, after Spencer. Eginoire had stopped in the trees below Temple to shoot some footage when he heard the telltale “whoomph” of the slab collapsing. Unbeknownst to Temple, he had triggered a slide.

“I just started yelling ‘Avalanche! Avalanche!’ and he got out of the way,” a recovering Eginoire recalled Tuesday from his home.

Temple made a hard left and avoided getting caught up in the slide. However, his companions were not so lucky. With nowhere to go, Eginoire hung onto a nearby tree but was soon ripped away by the force.

“Then I started to go for a ride,” he said. For the next 30 seconds or so, he was tossed about in what is every backcountry skier’s worst nightmare. “I just started fighting like crazy to stay on top. I would come up, then get buried again, then come up again.”

Eventually, Eginoire hit a tree, the impact of which caused injuries to his legs and face but may have ultimately saved his life by stopping him.

“When the slide finally came to a stop, both my skis were off and one of them was next to me, broken in half. My poles were gone; my backpack had been ripped off,” he said.  

Perhaps even more impressive than the sheer force of the slide was the speed. “I couldn’t believe how fast it was moving; faster than I could ever ski,” he said.

Spencer, who was farther down the slope from his companions, was also caught in the slide, which had torqued one of this knees.

Temple immediately texted a friend in Silverton, who alerted San Juan County Search and Rescue. He then joined Spencer.

Once the three skiers reconvened and assessed their conditions, it was decided that Eginoire, who was beginning to experience hypothermia, should walk down Ophir Pass Road to meet Search and Rescue. “Hypothermia set in pretty quick, and I knew I had to get out of there as soon as possible,” he said.

Meanwhile, Spencer and Temple slowly made their way to the road as well.

With severe bruising and various facial lacerations – but no broken bones  –  Eginoire embarked on the long slog out, post-holing his way for well more than an hour. “I just set small goals for myself,” Eginoire said of the willpower to keep going. “I would tell myself, ‘Ok, just make it to that tree. Or that meadow,’” he recalled. Eventually, Eginoire made it to a spot where he could see Highway 550 and Search and Rescue crews, including his good friend Susan Hale. He made contact and was escorted the rest of the way to a waiting ambulance, which took him to Mercy Medical Center. At the same time, another search party headed out for Spencer, who was evacuated via sled and taken to Mercy in another ambulance.

Both men were treated and released from Mercy early Tuesday morning with an assortment of cuts, bruises and undiagnosed muscle and tendon damage.

Eginoire, an experienced backcountry skier, said he knows how lucky his party was.

There were two avalanche fatalities elsewhere in the state on Monday. A snowmobiler died in a slide near Crested Butte and a snowboarder near Keystone also died in a slide. Almost a year ago to the date on Monday’s accident, fellow Durangoan, Peter Carver, 23, died in slide near Silverton. A  month later, on March 2, 2013, Durango native Joe Philpott, 26, a student at Colorado State University, was killed in a slide near Cameron Pass.

Although avalanche danger was rated high on Monday above treeline and considerable below treeline, Eginoire said he had been skiing in the San Juans for three consecutive days with no incident. He and his ski partners are well versed in avalanche safety protocol  – Temple is an instructor with the Silverton Avalanche School – and after assessing conditions, decided the trees would be a safe call that day.

But, as is often the case in the notoriously temperamental Colorado Rockies, precautions only go so far – and Mother Nature had the final word.

“It was a serious wake-up call,” said Eginoire, who lost his camera in the melee.

Fortunately, all the skiers had Colorado Search and Rescue cards and insurance to help out with the medical and camera bills. But there is no substitute for peace of mind, which may never return.

When asked about his “skier’s sixth sense” – an inner voice that sometimes eerily sends hair standing up on end – Eginoire admits, in hindsight, that he did feel a little spooked that day. “I even had a dream the night before.”

However, he chalked it up as a freaky coincidence or simple nerves. And, once at the top looking down at untracked lines, that little voice was all but silenced – only to return with a vengeance.

Fortunately, the skiers were given a second chance to listen.

“If you’re having second thoughts, don’t go. Don’t even leave your house,” Eginoire said. “Skiing powder is not worth dying over.”