English - The Rescue
Jeli,
From the first moment I understood you had left us, the only thing I had in mind was meeting with your mum. Even though I was afraid of how she would react, I just wanted to tell her how happy you were and how you spread it. I remember looking at you while we were going up Jordana’s chairlift, you were sitting on my right side, just in the middle, I thought I had never seen you that excited before. You were talking louder with half of your body almost hanging from the chair looking at me, completely exultant. I was explaining to you how fragile the structure of the snow was, and you were telling me how the wind had taken all the snow away and the only place where the snow was iced hard pack was in Vinyeta. We asked Snow Patrols and they confirmed they had shot once and nothing had fallen down, but the avalanche risk was 3/5.
We got close to the entrance. We stood there and we could see that there wasn’t any cm of new snow, the top area was an ice slab with hard snow without any evidence of snow accumulation, as we had seen it when we analyzed it the previous time from Marconi. We decided to go ahead, being aware of not slipping or getting stuck on a rock or a root. After skipping the top part, we found out what we were looking for, the diagonal half-tube less steep and plenty of powder and you decided to go ahead drawing wide turns, shouting at the same time: yuhooooooo! With your Bossman style. Seeing such a scandal and you getting out of the tube, I started turning looking for the superior axes to spread snow. And this is how we repeated it until we reached the end, doing the last turns under the sight of your great friend Killer that had just gone down Escorna. When we finished it, we crashed our poles while you said: que fina! And this was how we headed to the second round.
We decided to take a different line on the same face. When we got in I saw a couple going down that disappeared skiing. Then you took off your phone and you added a picture on your Instagram story.
And this was the way you jumped first, following the trace of the couple.
And this was the way you jumped first, following the trace of the couple.
You were the first, I was between 25 and 50m away from you. I was getting to the second reunion and you had just left doing the superior left diagonal heading the trees. And suddenly, I saw how the slab broke under my shoulders and you disappearing downhill. Minute 0’0”.
That was when I saw the disaster with the cloud of powder coming up, I shouted trying to communicate with the people who was around, telling them that there was a lost person, and I went down. It was me going there or none would look up for you. I tried to follow the avalanche track. It was 1’24”.
At the end of Vinyeta I took of my tracker, holding it over the snowdrift trying to find you buried there by any chance, because if I was going too low I could not go up again. I hoped someone had already started looking for you with the trackers at the bottom of the valley. I got there, standing on a higher point to have a view of the whole valley and also be seen by the ones who were there while analyzing and deciding how to proceed not to waste any second.
Time was running out, the avalanche covered the bottom of the valley and went up to the trees from the opposite side. So I thought it would be impossible for me to find you on time. Fortunately, there were different groups of people. I shouted that there was a victim and it was time to use their trackers, thinking they were still not using them, but I was not sure. I had to be hopeful that someone could help me and could see your spoor.
Then I called the emergency services from Baqueira. It was 5’55”. Thirty seconds later, 6’25” holding my phone talking to the operator, I started looking for you skiing with wide turns over the deposition zone.
Suddenly, a group shouted they had found you, it was 8’10”. I put my skis straight and I crossed the track to the base of the trees of the opposite mountain. I was not sure if more people had been caught. When I got there they were probing, I left my skis and backpack and they were already shoveling. It was a group of 5people and in a few seconds other 5 joined the group. I asked and none of them had any experience or knowledge of rescuing even though some of them had the equipment. I took the ACNA course three years ago, so I headed the group to organize a train of 2+2+2 rotating with the tail doing the steepest part. At the beginning I said to be organized on a 1+2+2, we ended up being 2 people shoveling at the front and the rest cleaning because the place was flat and the hole needed to be big enough being able to work 2m under the ground. At a certain moment, I turned around and I couldn’t see the proof and I asked to pinpoint again without giving up shoveling. It was 11’50”, as time went by we were surrounded by more people.
The next pinpointing was a disaster, with false positives, and finally, I did it by myself because I was the only experienced person in there and with proof sensibility. Probing was not was also successful so it slowed down the shovels' rhythm, but it didn’t stop it. I doubted if we were on the right spot because when I arrived in there I didn’t check my tracker neither the proof which was pinned, they were shoveling and I thought you were placed there.
It was 14’40”, I took the tracker again and I tried to make a fine search to verify you were there and being right with the proof. It was a disaster, there were too many people, some of them just arrived to help in some way, but their trackers were on transmit mode and my tracker guided me in their direction. I shouted to turn off the trackers. Too many people, some of them shouting, some of them not even listening but all of them trying their best to find you. Finally, we kept on with the fine search while the group kept shoveling. Without knowing exactly if we were digging on the right spot, I had two options, keep digging blindly or stopping them and trying to pin again waisting a really valuable time. There was people everywhere. The only thing I knew it was that we were running out of time and I thought I had lost control of the situation.
In that moment, the snow patrols appeared. It was 17’00”. I told them to take control of the situation. They led the situation trying to reorganize people. It was then when they found you and they open your airways. It was 17’49”. We were in the correct place. But you were not breathing. Today it’s been 7 days.
During these days I asked myself many questions starting with if I could have avoided it, and certainty, I don’t have an answer but I will never have it. What I have the answer for, is to know the exact time it took us to find him and to open his airways, 17’50”. It’s from then, when I’ve been asking myself if we could have done that in 16’? And 15’? Even 14’? One or two minutes can be always gain taking faster decisions. To reduce 3’ or even 4’, you need to take all your decisions properly without making any mistake. From outside, many decisions can be seen as obvious to be taken and analyzed from an objective and stable moment. When you are there, there are many variables and micro variables that are included in the equation which slow down the decision process. Some of them as easy as listening the people who is shouting or talking to you, especially if there are separate groups at a distance talking at the same time as it was, the waist of time trying to figure out what they are telling you or even try to know if they have understood what you have just said. The information is vital when we are running out of time.
Moreover, there are decisions that are critical and not only you have to take them thinking about the possibility of succeeding with each alternative, nor the time it will take you and the opportunity cost. As an example, the last 100m in Vinyeta, I decided to invest my time in going downhill handing the tracker, just in case he got buried in a hole or budge covered by the avalanche. The possibility of you being there was low, but I thought it was fast and the opportunity cost of you in there covered by the snow was high. Now, I know it took me around 15” taking the tracker and one more minute handing the tracker. Really valuable time.
Time… time… time… we can combine decisions and different actions to reduce the time until we get crazy, and everything will end up in probability. I’ve done 999 combinations and I’ve decided to stop.
What I would never know, is, if, with these gained minutes, the result would have been another. I would like to think that not, but certainty, I can’t confirm and as a human being and overall as a friend of yours, the doubt will be with me forever.
In any case, now is time to analyze from a wider position so everyone can learn something from that, improving protocols and being used for future rescues.
Timing:
0” avalanche
30” moving to the avalanche zone
1’20” downhill through the avalanche track
3’10” handing the tracker going down to the end of the snowdrift
4’40” shouting to activate search mode with the people around the area
5’55” calling Baqueira Emergency phone number. Give information about the place and victim number and they kept my call
6’25” beginning of the research handing the tracker with the phone on the other hand because my call was still kept
8’10” victim location- 5 people group. Hang up the call
9’10” beginning shoveling, group of 10 people
11’50” losing the proof mark and restart probing. Group of 14 people
17’00” snow patrols arriving and taking control of the situation. Group of 20 people
17’49” finding my friend and opening the airways.
Important points to learn from:
Do not move throughout of bounds without the security equipment. The size of this avalanche covered the bottom of the valley, luckily it didn’t catch no one else. Most people who were crossing from Escorna were not carrying a tracker. So, going from Escorna from the side of Vinyeta was as dangerous as going down Vinyeta.
In case of seeing an avalanche on a transitable area or a someone of your group is caught, call immediately the Baqueira Emergency phone number: 973639050. I got surprised that after 5 minutes no one had called. I had already saved on my agenda, now it’s one of my favorites. Those are 10 earned seconds. My advice, if you are the partner of the victim and you are on your own: call, give the necessary information and hang up automatically. This is a 30” call. They kept call for too long, 2 minutes just telling me: “Don’t hang up”, “I contract the Snow patrols for you”, “ Don’t hang up”…. They played music and I was sent to the voice mail without asking me anything else. Fortunately, I didn’t stand waiting without doing nothing. Meanwhile, I continued the research with the tracker.
The rescue operation has to be started in any case with your partners without waiting for the snow patrols to come. Their assistance is vital to revive the victim or to speed the end of the research, but they would never be on time if the partners of the victim don’t start the rescue.
ACNA-1 course of Avalanche Rescue is absolutely necessary. Knowing how to proceed on a rescue act is a responsibility to your partners either for the rest of the skiers. Apart from this course, practicing regularly a rescue to automate decisions and take them away from an equation in a stress situation. The same rescue with 2 or 3 people with basic rescue knowledge would have reduced the time of evacuation/extraction. Even though you have the course, it has to be practiced and know how your tracker works looking for a partner. As closer you get to the signal curves, they disrupt the position and each tracker shows them differently.
Leadership on a rescue is basic. I put my self on the leadership. It’s true that I lost the focus on the leadership, seeing that I couldn’t delegate to re-probe due to the lack of experience from part of the team. I’m sure this slowed down the shoveling rhythm. Even though there were rotations until the end, they did it by themselves. It’s difficult to improve something that’s half working on a stress situation and running out of time (if there are others that do not work at all). I thought about giving more instructions to the ones who were shoveling, but I was finding him with the proof. And people are not ready to listen and learn on a situation like that. If you are not over them constantly or they will end up by doing what they already know. What was also difficult was that there were people constantly joining the group, even 20 people were there. You shout to someone and another answers, you say “The red one!” And 3 guys turn around, you give an order and the latest to join do the opposite. The best would have been that someone would have kept these people at a certain distance, but the place was flat and transitable, and people were coming from everywhere, it was really difficult. I don’t want to criticize nothing, indeed, everybody put their willings and sweat. If I had been there on my own, I wouldn’t have been able to raise him in 17 minutes. Thank you all.
Jeli was carrying his ABS backpack and he didn’t activate it. To the once who carry an ABS backpack, you need to practice how to activate it until you memorize and are able to do it without thinking. On an stress situation, you don’t have time to think. Practice and practice avalanche simulations going downhill. What I’ve sometimes done is to turn my phone alarm on to pull automatically the airbag when it rings, wherever you are.
Time, time, time. I have detailed the timing of each situation, to understand that there are lots of tiny actions that need to be done which are around 20 seconds, 40 seconds… which finally impacts directly on the rescue timing. For example, I looked up for the tracker twice. It’s a silly action, but it represented 30’, totally. The possibility of drowning, due to the lack of oxygen nor the excess of co2, the exponential growth around 1’15’ is considered the inflection point, knowing that in each case the situation varies. In our case, common sense tells me that it was lower.
Review with your partner the protocol of how to act in an avalanche case. Don’t take anything for granted. Don’t assume that trackers, yours and your partner’s, are on. There is battery enough. I never go with less than 80% of battery left because once you are on search mode it runs out easily. It’s true that on the accident’s day, we didn’t check it, I took it for granted that it was on because Jeli was carrying his ABS backpack. When it was time to look for him, I doubted that it was on. Those little doubts take seconds and confidence in the decisions. In my case, I tried not to affect but the doubt pass through and also I waisted seconds.
I have to tell you that it has been a difficult week, but it has been smoother thanks to all the signs of affection that I have received from friends, family, as unknown people who were great friends of him, and also his fantastic family. Thank you all from the deepest of my heart.
Finally, thank everybody who takes part in the rescue, snow patrols, firefighters, who tried their best to revive him, but mainly to all those anonymous skiers who found him and all of you who left their faith shoveling snow without stopping.
A strong hug to all of you… and especially to you, Jeli, this is for you!
Video: Jeli, Forever ride.
Video: Jeli, Forever ride.
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Jeli Bossman @ Little Alaska, Abril 2018
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Special thanks to Marina.V. for the translation.
Glad to read this post. I knew Jeli years ago before I joined the skiing community, but it’s very relevant to me today. This hits hard.
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