BAKER CITY â February pulled off a feat in its 28 days that most months canât manage in 30 or 31.
A barrage of blizzards during the shortest month boosted the snowpack in the mountains of Northeast Oregon from below average to well above. At a few measuring sites the snowpack doubled, or nearly so, during February.
âYes, those storms we saw from mid to late February really boosted the snowpack,â said Marilyn Lohmann with the National Weather Service in Pendleton.
The Upper Grande Ronde Basin is at 140% of normal with the Lower Grande Ronde near 120% of normal, and the Wallowas stand at 124% of normal, she reported. This is significantly higher than at the start of February when the basin snowpack was 91% of normal. February precipitation was 216% of average. Precipitation since the beginning of the water year (October 1 to March 1) has been 111% of average
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“I don’t have a signal either. Is his transceiver not on?”
“We need all hands on deck now!”
Their confidence was crushed. The most essential avalanche rescue tool, fundamental to their training scenarios, was suddenly useless. They’d have to find him using other means: pole-like probes and shovels. If they didn’t find him in 15 or 20 minutes, he likely wouldn’t survive. They were approaching the two-minute mark.
No way, McIntosh said to himself. This
can’t be how Nick McNutt dies.
They thrust their probes into the snow, guessing at which bit of debris he lay beneath. Lustenberger, the mountain guide, suggested they begin a probe line a methodical search of the whole avalanche area, top to bottom. “Now we’re relying on techniques used for body recovery, not rescue,” she says. McNutt, meanwhile, had no idea what was happening above. His snow tomb was soundproof. He realized he could pull in air through the porous snow, but only if he breathed slowly. So he