A backcountry skier, who was skiing on Teton Pass, just outside of Jackson Hole, is lucky to be alive after an avalanche buried him under 3-5 feet of snow.
Satchel Toole, 23, was found unresponsive and not breathing when he was dug out by his backcountry partners after being buried in the avalanche debris for more than 8 minutes.
The 23-year-old began to vomit and started to breathe again after his partners began resuscitation.
“I think it’s fairly haunting to think about a lot, but it definitely gives you a perspective on being thankful and also aware,” Toole told the Jackson Hole News & Guide. “You can learn a lot from it.”
Search and Rescue chief advisor, Cody Lockhart, agrees that a lot can be learned from the near tragic accident telling Jackson Hole News & Guide, “It’s probably the most dangerous place you can be on the south side of Teton Pass, this bowl,” Lockhart said. “These people were definitely in the wrong spot to be today.”
UPDATE: We have received the following email from Monica Manning.
To be clear, the quote from Teton search and rescue was about the group that set off the avalanche above him. That group was visiting from bozeman, and my boyfriend and their party of 6 all live in Jackson. My boyfriend was coming out of bear claw, making his way over to the traverse when the visiting party of 3 set off an avalanche off wolf trap above him, the area the search and rescue team talked about where no one should be.
Could you please clarify this in the article. He almost lost his life at the end of his run through bear claw due to a visiting groups actions to ski a very dangerous area above the traverse out, the search and rescue team was not referring to our boys actions about where they were skiing in that quote, and our group of 6 executed a near perfect rescue to save his life.
– Monica Manning