needsalt

Saturday January 6, 2007 was blue-skied, cold, and windy in Winter Park, Colorado.  We traveled out to Winter Park on the 1st of January as a group from Oakwood Road Church to enjoy some skiing, hiking, snowmobiling, and worship.  Four vehicles carrying about 16 to 20 people set out shortly after one another with the lead vehicle 20 minutes ahead, then our vehicle -- Toyota Sienna minivan carrying Jordan Cook, Darren and Sarah Johnson, Peter Olsen, and myself -- followed within a minute by another van then a SUV pulling up the rear.  Jordan was driving, Darren sitting shotgun, Sarah was sitting directly behind Jordan in the second row, while the chair behind Darren was removed before the trip to make room for more luggage, and lastly Peter and myself were in the third row of the minivan.  We set out and headed down highway 40 toward Berthoud Pass, just beyond the small town of Winter Park.

Along the road we admired the affect the high winds had on the mountain tops as long tails of snow were shown blowing off the mountainous peaks. Darren was admiring the scene and snapping many photos along the way. Sarah was just laying back and closing her eyes for a nice road trip nap, and Peter and I started watching a movie on my laptop in the back of the van.

As we headed down the pass Darren suddenly hollered, “Jordan, look out!”, we all looked up in time to see snow sliding down the mountainside just feet in front of us in a large white cloud. We’re not sure if Jordan had time to hit the breaks or not, but we were suddenly slammed from the right side by what can only be described as a freight train. My initial reaction was to cover my face and duck as the van violently changed directions and headed for the mountainside on the other side of the three lane road. My eyes remained closed but I could soon tell that we were rolling side over side down the mountain. I pulled my legs up as close and I could get and formed myself into a ball shape.

My first thought was that I couldn’t believe this was actually happening, followed by an optimistic hope that we would just hit a small bank of snow. But as we began rolling I thought the worst and awaited something hard to connect with my body and for consciousness to end and to be reunited with my savior. Each sequential roll brought more and more pain to my body as I bounced off the seat and the items flying around the van bounced off me. The exact moment the windows smashed out is unclear, but I distinctly remember the cold air and a small amount of snow on my face.

It was over as quickly as it begun and I reopened my eyes to survey my friends around me. We were on the passenger side of the van at a slightly more than forty-five degree angle, with our seatbelts suspending us in our seats. The van held an eerie darkness, but abundant light flew in the shattered windows. I immediately heard Jordan reassuring everyone that we were okay, as I asked the same question in a muffled voice. I peered at Peter as he groaned in pain. I asked Peter a couple times if he was okay to which he finally replied affirmatively.

As I moved my body I was amazed to discover minimal pain and damage except a throbbing in my head and the areas which withstood most of the impact during the crash. I started to crawl out the window to my left/up and unbuckled my seatbelt which caused me to slip down the new slope of the seat. I succeeded in emerging from the van to find Jordan already out and on the phone to 911. I remember being amazed at his calm and tranquility as he described to the operator our location and the condition of our friends, while at the same time feeling a sense of denial at what just occurred. Part of me thought I would shortly wake up and be comfortably back in my seat on the twelve hour ride home. I surveyed the surroundings in amazement and confusion.

After hanging up with 911, Jordan immediately called his father to inform him of the situation and condition of everyone and to allow his father to call the parents of everyone else. I knew that everyone was somewhat ok, enough so that they were able to speak and move, so the next thing that occurred to me was to get help. I started back up the three hundred foot steep incline back to the road and got about ten paces up when I saw at least ten motorists from the road starting the descent to us below carrying shovels, skis, ski poles, or whatever they could get their hands on. I stopped in my tracks at the realization that getting help was futile, it was an avalanche, I’m sure somebody saw it.

It was at this time that I realized that another car was with us, another car had been struck by the avalanche. The other car was a black Honda and was about half way up the hill – shortly to the side – and lying on their hood. By this time at least one person had emerged and was asking for a knife. He added that everyone was ok, but one person required a knife to loose a seat belt to escape their car.

This surprised me a bit. I distinctly remember packing my knife, I don’t normally carry one with me, but I had brought it with me for skiing and hiking on the trip incase something happened which required its use. However, I had left the knife in my coat pocket which was packed away in my suitcase for the journey. I slid back down to the van to recover my knife.

By this time there were motorists attending to the other people in my vehicle and Peter had emerged from the van and appeared to be mildly bleeding from his hand, otherwise seemed somewhat unscathed. Before we left our cabin, we had packed quite a large amount of stuff into our van including pots, pans, and knives that Darren and Sarah had used for cooking on the trip, all our luggage, and left over foods that were not eaten on the trip. If one vehicle had to be chosen to get stuck somewhere in the wilderness, we were the most adept to taking on that challenge. I went to the back of the van which had been stacked with stuff to the top of the rear seats and of which my suitcase was put on the bottom. The back window was gone along with all the luggage except for my suitcase among a couple broken bottles. Amazed, I withdrew my suitcase and laid it upon the ground.

I opened my suitcase and grabbed my coat which was on top, along with a large amount of clothes just to keep me warm. I also tossed a few handfuls of clothes into the car for Sarah to use to keep Darren warm. I then headed back up the hill with my knife ready to help. I’m not certain why I felt I had to help the other motorists, besides the fact that they were in need of a knife. I wonder why I wasn’t helping in our vehicle with Darren. He did appear to be alright, but part of me felt helpless, and this was something I could do, for I had a knife.

I made it about half way up the hill to the car when the other gentlemen in the black Honda declared that they had a knife, and all was well. I think I stood there, cold, for a few moments trying to decide what to do, however unsure, I do know that I decided to head back down to our van again.

By this time the motorists and possible emergency workers were prying the shatter-proof windshield from the vehicle in order to easier excavate Darren from the vehicle. Sarah was walking about the van snapping pictures with Darren’s camera. Darren, along with everyone else in the vehicle minus me, had lost their glasses and were experiencing varying degrees of blindness and all wanted to see the carnage.

I believe it was at this time that I again asked Peter how he was doing to which he replied, “Good…..I turned your laptop off for you.” I was shocked by the response, not sure if it was mostly from the fact that the laptop continued to play the movie through the crash or at the uselessness of his comment; laptops were the last thing from my mind at this moment. We all chuckled about Peter’s comment later.

I found Sarah taking pictures and gave her a big hug. Emotion started to take over and Sarah responded with thankfulness, but wanted to stay busy and not think about what was going on and went back to capturing photos.

It was about at this point that one of the rescue gentlemen told Peter he should go on up, that he was no use right now and he should seek medical attention. This sounded like a plan and I asked someone to help me up. Two gentlemen walked up with me as we scoured the deep snow for any signs of possible other buried vehicles. At one point I even put my ear to the snow to listen for any possible muffled noises, it turns out that only two cars were involved in the incident and we thankfully discovered no one or nothing.

The steepness of the incline required climbing on hands and knees at points and multiple rests and led to feeling shortness of breath. As I reached the top I assumed that Peter had beat me to the top and immediately began looking for him. He was nowhere to be found. I remember walking over the fifteen foot chute of snow which covered the road, feeling amazed at the severity of what had just occurred. I was also amazed at how little attention I got. People were orderly probing the snow for other possible vehicles and allowed me to observe. After realizing that Peter was not on the left side of the snow slide, I climbed both fifteen foot piles of snow to the right side of the slide. The other vehicles, minus the one vehicle who was about twenty minutes ahead and our now totaled van, would have been behind us. By this time Jordan had already talked to everyone on the phone to assure them that we were okay and alive.

I found my pastor and friend, George Stagg first and greeted him with a large and emotional bear hug. Friends seemed to have emerged from thin air as they all came running out of the vehicles all of which had another emotion hug waiting for me. I assured them all that we were fine, but Darren was in some pain. They draped me in blankets and asked if I wanted to get in the car to get away from the freezing air and wind. As inviting as this sounded I instead decided that I should seek medical help. Part of me was afraid there could have been something wrong inside, and I just didn’t know it from the large amounts of adrenaline that had been coursing through my veins.

Another pastor, Randy Beckett, helped me find something of authority and I explained that I had been in the car at the bottom and wanted to get checked out. They had two gentlemen push on various parts of my body checking for pain then had me climb across the chutes of snow back to the other side, where the Ambulances were. I was led by a first responder and loaded into an ambulance along with Sarah who had just scaled the mountain.

We climbed in freezing and covered up with ambulance blankets and I asked her if she wanted to pray. I’m not entirely sure of the entire prayer, as can be imagined, but I do know that we prayed for safety for all those involved, healing and safety for Darren, wisdom for the doctors who may be called to action at the hospital, and that glory would be brought to God through this. Sarah then explained to me that Darren was being hauled up the mountain in a backboard and sled using ropes by the Avalanche Rescue Team and that he appeared that he was going to be ok.

We were moved to another ambulance and were strapped into back boards and neck braces, although we had both just scaled the mountain they were still afraid of possible injuries yet to be discovered. We also were given oxygen and our pulse was monitored. The first responders were a little concerned about me being short of breath but the rest of my good condition and my explanation that I DID JUST CLIMB A MOUNTAIN in the cold and was just in an AVALANCHE may have settled them some.

We set out for the hour drive to St. Anthony Hospital in Denver, of which gave us time to chat with our paramedics (Chris and Jamie) and time to run through the accident again and again in our heads. It was just so amazing as I began to consider what had just happened. I still couldn’t believe it.

After a couple of hours we were all released from the hospital with cuts and bruises save for Peter who was admitted over night for he had stitches in his hand and a broken rib. We were amazed that Darren wasn’t the most injured until Tuesday when he returned to his local physician to discover that he had three to four broken ribs that were not discovered in the ER. As Darren said, when he called me a up a couple days later….he won.

Reflections: A Perfect Plan

God has a plan. His plan spans the whole of humanity and is laid out throughout the entirety of the bible. His plan is to reunite humanity with himself and bring glory to himself through us. His plan includes each and everyone of us but it is up to us whether or not we participate, either way God will use us for His glory.

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

Romans 8:28

Okay, what's my point, what does this have to do with surviving an avalanche? Well many people have made the following comments: "Good thing you were on a Church trip.", "God was really looking out for you.", and "You guys were really lucky!" I totally agree that God was looking out for us, He protected us, definitely. But had we all died, God still would have been God. He still protects and provides. I don't think I'm alive because I believe in God's saving grace and love, I'm not alive because I'm a righteous person or anything. I'm alive because it was God's plan for us to survive the avalanche, just as if I was dead it would have been because that is God's plan for my life. Christians die everyday, His provision is not necessarily brought through a long prosperous life. But believing in Him give us comfort of knowing him when death does come. Either way glory would have been brought to Him through this event. He's provided many avenues and opportunities for us to declare to many people His power, glory, and grace and to bring praise to Him through this event.

The only way this event could be described is as a perfect plan. If you had to be in avalanche, this was how to do it. I do believe that God protected us on that mountain; He protected us because it was His plan to do so.

First off, the van. We were driving a Toyota Sienna minivan. The Sienna received almost five stars in all its crash ratings. The eerie part about this van, was two days earlier I had been riding with George in the van coming back from Keystone ski resort headed back to Snow Mountain Ranch. It had been snowing quite fiercely most of the day and the roads were hardly plowed with at least five inches of cover in some areas. I was riding shotgun and was attentively paying attention to every hill, curve, and car along the way while white-knuckled on the door handle. George was calming my nerves through recitation of the safety features included in his van. Air bags, side air bags, all wheel drive. “I spared no expense he said.” All the air bags fired during the crash. Even the oval shape of the van allowed us to easier roll down the mountain as apposed to getting stuck somewhere then getting buried. Saying I’m thankful for this van is just the beginning.

Seatbelts. We had just began a twelve hour road trip home, in which in most cases people usually kick off their shoes, take off their coats, unfasten their seatbelts and settle in for the ride. At the time of the avalanche most of us weren’t wearing our coats, but we all still had our shoes on and our seatbelts. The van had been packed with luggage, pots, pans, knives etc., and after we stopped rolling most of these things were gone; they had flown out the broken windows during the rolls. Had we not had our seatbelts on, I’m convinced we would have been thrown from the vehicle, buried along with some of our luggage, or crushed beneath the rolling van. Also the fact that it was our vehicle from among the four traveling with us was a blessing. After talking to everyone else it sounds like there was at least one person in all the rest of the vehicles not wearing their seatbelt; thankful it was us. The other vehicle involved in the avalanche was also all wearing their seatbelts. I almost always wear my seatbelt, needless to say that I will always now.

Alpine rescue team. The Alpine rescue team which operates in the area was training about five minutes away. They were on the scene within minutes but were, however, beaten to the scene by the first ambulance of local paramedics. Lastly, one of the foremost knowledgeable people on avalanches happened to arrive on the scene roughly thirty minutes after the avalanche. Overall, we couldn’t have asked for a more suited array of help. They were perfect.

Missing van seat. To allow for more storage in the van, the second row passenger side bucket seat had been removed by George before the trip. As inane as it may be, it was all part of the plan. Both Darren and Peter who had been sitting on that side of the van were the most, if only, ones hurt (Peter had one broken rib, and Darren had four cracked ribs). The tree that stopped us from rolling any further down the slope also hit right where that seat had been removed. Had that seat been present, someone would have been sitting there and would have most likely been more severely injured.

Time of the day. Lastly even the time of the day made for the best results in the avalanche. Had it occurred only thirty minutes to an hour before the traffic would have been more dense causing more vehicles getting caught in the path of the slide. Charter buses and van loads of people drive through that pass often and the amount of injuries or even deaths would have been greatly increased. Eight people went over the edge that day, and eight of us came out.

During the accident my mind was racing between many thoughts, and a very prevalent thought was that this was the time, this was going to be IT, I was going to die. What is amazing was that I was not scared. People have commented that “that must have been scarey”, or “I bet you were scared to death”, when in reality I wasn’t scared. I described it the other night when we shared with our church about it, that I actually had a feeling of excited anticipation, I was going to go be with the LORD! I felt comforted that my life had been lived for Him, and thought it a privilege to die in a way that would attract attention to our lives and that our lives would demonstrate His grace and love and power. The fact that we didn’t die means to me that He’s not done with us on this earth yet. He still has plans for us, to bring more glory to Him and even to bring Him glory through it. I hope to grow to be an old man and have lots of kids who too can live their lives for God and bring Him glory, but those are my plans and not necessarily His plans for my life, and I’m ok with that.

Colorado State website describing the avalanche.

Pictures courtesy of Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC)

Last picture courtesy of Dave Boone (driver of other car involved)