Skiers trigger avalanche near Lookout

by Kathleen Woodford Mineral Independent
| January 21, 2016 11:12 AM

What started out as a fun day of skiing turned deadly for three skiers near Lookout Ski Resort on Wednesday, Jan. 13. A report by KREM News said that people at the scene spoke to one of the skiers who said that they had started their day at nearby Lookout Pass before heading about five miles away.

According to Mineral County Sheriff, Tom Bauer, the skiers were at the St. Regis Basin which is about two miles east of the ski resort located on the Montana-Idaho border. It was there that one member of the trio triggered an avalanche at approximately 3 p.m.

One skier was caught in the slide and was buried up to his neck. Kevin Davis, director of the Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center said that the other two skiers were able to dig him out. Emergency crews were called out including the Mineral County Search and Rescue and the Two Bear Air rescue helicopter out of Whitefish.

Two of the men were flown to the Lookout Ski Resort parking lot. One of the pair suffered a broken leg and was transported by ambulance to the Shoshone Medical Center in Kellogg. From there he was taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane where he had surgery on his leg.

The third victim could not be flown out by helicopter because the weather turned bad and it could not return to the scene. Snowmobiles from search and rescue were dispatched and safely recovered him later in the evening after 6 p.m.

According to Davis, an avalanche warning was issued after the incident. The back-country warning was issued for 3:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. Thursday. It impacted the Selkirk and Cabinet Mountains of Bonner and Boundary counties, the St. Joe Mountains of Shoshone County and Kootenai Counties. The mountains of Eastern Washington and Western Mountain were also part of the warning. The unstable snow was blamed on high winds combined with heavy snow.

Sheriff Bauer spoke to the wife of the injured man and she said that he is recovering nicely. The other two men did not receive serious injury. All three victims are from Spokane.