Matt's Avalanche Adventure

Okay, so Matt (my youngest son) is on spring break for 2 weeks. He lives in beautiful Telluride, Colorado. Last week was the first week of spring break, and every day he was calling or texting to tell me where they snowboarded. They were having an awesome time. Then no calls or texts for about 3 days......Hmmmmmm, mommy is thinking...what's up?

So, I texted him Friday night....no response.

I texted him Saturday and just texted, "Hello???"

He texted back, "Hi". I called him a bratty boy and some other things and then a few text messages later, I get this one, "I got to see an avalanche up close and personal a few days ago."

I thought he meant that they were snowboarding and saw an avalanche on another peak. Uh, no...he meant up close and personal....like he was almost in it.

"Would you like to call and tell me about it?" I texted.

"No," was his reply.

WTF Matt....spill it already was my thought!


He did call and explained that they were snowboarding in the back country (that means not at the ski resort, but just off on the mountain somewhere) and he saw the snow give way ahead of him. He was snowboarding with his friend Joe and they had their dogs with them. When Matt saw the avalanche start, his first concern was for the dogs. They just run along with them down the mountain when they snowboard.

Matt quickly snowboarded over to the left into some trees to get away from the path of the slide. His dog Luna quickly followed, but his friend's dog was only about a foot from the avalanche! The dog did come over to him in the trees and Matt watched the avalanche from there.


It wasn't a big one, but a sheet of snow about 6-12 inches deep broke away and slid down the side of the mountain. It wouldn't have been enough to bury Matt, but it could have been a painful trip down the mountain with possible injuries. The dogs would have been a different story. They may not have faired so well.

Joe also told Matt that there was another break in the snow behind him when he was going down. He sure was lucky! Matt and Joe stayed near the trees for a while and then rode down.

The avalanche was actually moving fast enough to continue it's journey across a flat area of ground and then continue down the next section of slope.


I think what frightened Matt the most was that he thought the conditions were safe that day, and they weren't. He triggered an avalanche. When they got down, they reported the slide so it could be posted online. That way other snowboarders would know that the area they were in was not stable.

So, how does mom feel about Matt's adventure? It scares the heck out of me, but a lot of the things that Matt does scare me...I also look at it as a good thing. No one got hurt, but it was frightening enough to keep him off the slopes for a few days reflecting on what happened. I know that experience will always be in the back of his mind whenever he heads for the back country and hopefully it will make him even smarter and safer.

The pictures were taken after the avalanche and the last picture is Joe and Matt's dog, Luna.

Search and Rescue

A few months ago Matt was asked if he might be interested in joining the Telluride volunteer Search and Rescue Team. At the time, he assumed that when you were part of SAR that when you got pages, you had to go. Being a public school teacher, he knew that wouldn't always be possible so he didn't pursue it. He was asked again and yet again. The last time, he actually started asking questions and found out that when you get paged for a call, you go if you can.

Knowing he could be part of the team made him start asking even more questions, but now they were directed at himself. Could he be committed enough to attend the twice monthly training sessions, which would go on for many many months? Could he wear a pager 24/7 and drop whatever he was doing to go on a call? Could he deal with the emotional side of this kind of work?

The last question was the only one he was unsure of when he attended his first training class last week. It will be many months before he goes out on a call, so it's hard to answer that one.

The first class was held in an airplane hangar learning all about helicopters. You never know what kind of vehicle you will be using for a rescue. It could be snowmobile or a helicopter, a 4WD vehicle...whatever it takes to get you to the scene.

You might need to find someone that is lost in the mountains, or help someone that has fallen off a cliff, you could be searching for someone buried in an avalanche, or even recovering bodies from a car that went over the side of the mountain. You don't know what awaits you.

Matt's feeling is that no matter whether you are assisting in a search or a rescue, you are helping someone. It might be a rescue where you save a life, or if you are retrieving a body, you are helping the family and friends of the victim put some closure on a tragedy.

Matt will continue to attend classes and I will update you from time to time on what he's learning.

Speaking of avalanches....they scare the heck out of me, but I am also in awe of them. I can watch videos of them over and over and over again. Kind of like a video of a tornado. It's like I can't believe what I am seeing. Here is a video of a controlled slide. Often times they will create man made avalanches when conditions become unsafe on the mountain. This is in Telluride where Matt lives.