5 Avalanche in British Columbia

The distress call went out at10:16 A.M..“Mayday! Mayday! ”was heard over the radio. “Portal Camp has been wiped out by a snow slide. Require ... all help possible.”

One hundred forty men worked and lived at Portal Camp. The camp was part of a copper mine run by the Granduc Mining Company. It was in a remote part of northern British Columbia. Stewart, the nearest town, was 30 miles away.

The mine had been open only six months. It was built under a snow-covered mountain. Portal Camp was near the entrance to the mining tunnel. The camp was like a little town. It had a dining hall, offices, and bunkhouses. The men who lived in the camp took turns working in the mine.

In some ways, life wasn't so bad for the miners. They got plenty to eat. They kept each other company. During their free hours they could go to the recreation hall.Still,they were in a place with terrible weather. This part of Canada had fiercely cold winters. It also got huge amounts of snow. Often more than 60 feet fell in a single season. The record snowfall was more than 90 feet.

In mid-February 1965, 16 feet of snow fell on the camp. That didn't trouble the miners. To them, the snow just seemed like a nuisance.In truth,however,all that snow posed a great danger.

Above Portal Camp sat the Leduc Glacier. This frozen mass of ice lay at the top of the mountain.As new snow piled up on the glacier's smooth surface, the conditions became perfect for an avalanche. It was just a matter of time.

On February 18 the time came. Tons of snow slipped down the face of the glacier.There was no warning.The snow came silently,so none of the men had a chance to run away. The lucky miners were the ones in the tunnel. The unlucky ones were at Portal Camp. There the snow blasted all but one building.

Gus Ritchie was one of about 100 men in the mine when the avalanche hit.“The slide cut off the power, ”he said.“We groped our way through the darkness until we got near the entrance.” There they found a pile of snow blocking their way. “We crawled up over the snow and were amazed by what we saw. [There was] no more mechanic shop, no more garage, no more coffee shop. Everything was just chunks of wood,steel,and tin.”

Was anyone alive under all that rubble? It didn't seem possible. Then Ritchie heard a faint moan. He and the others started digging as fast as they could for the survivor. They heard another groan a few feet away. They thought they were digging in the wrong place, so they moved to the new spot. Then they heard several more human sounds. “We were all confused, ” said Ritchie. “There were people buried all over the place.” They dug out eight comrades who were hurt but alive.

They also found a dead miner. “It really hurt me when I found my friend Scotty dead, ”said Ritchie.“He was in a crouched position on his hands and knees. [He] must have died that way as he tried to protect himself from the slide.”

One survivor at the camp was Frank Sutherland. He was in the kitchen when the snow struck.“First thing I knew, the lights went out.” he said. “Then the building took off down the slope and slid half a mile.They had to cut me out with a chain saw.”

Bertram Owen-Jones, a cook, was also in the kitchen. He was holding a knife when everything went black. The snow blew apart the cookhouse. A piece of the wall fell on Owen-Jones. Still, he never let go of the knife. It took him three hours, but he used the knife to cut himself free. Other men also managed to free themselves.

Meanwhile,rescuers were struggling to reach Portal Camp.These rescuers came from both Canada and the United States. They couldn't drive trucks into the mining camp. The 16 feet of new snow blocked all the roads. Some took Snow Cats over the mountains. Others came by air.

After several hours, rescuers finally reached the camp. They picked up 17 miners who were in the worst shape and rushed them to safety. But that left more than 120 men still in the camp. Another avalanche could begin at any moment. The rescuers knew they would have to make more trips to Portal Camp to save these men.

By the next day, though, they found it almost impossible to get to the camp. A blizzard was raging there. Wind whipped the snow in all directions. No one could see more than a few yards. Still,helicopter pilots bravely agreed to fly into the camp. One of these pilots was Kenny Eichner. He wanted to bring in a doctor to treat wounded miners stranded at the camp.

About a mile from Portal Camp, the storm became too intense. Eichner had to land his chopper right on top of the glacier. All night he and the doctor huddled inside the helicopter. The next morning Eichner had to chip ice off the blades to get going again.

Even after reaching the camp,rescuers were not safe.The threat of another avalanche hung over them all the time. Some filled their choppers with surviving miners and flew out again. Others stayed to look for men still trapped in the snow. Hour after hour they dug. They found one dead body after another. In time their hopes of finding survivors faded.

After 79 hours they found a buried miner who was still alive. He had been trapped under six feet of snow. Helicopters had landed on top of him. At last a bulldozer began to clear away the snow above him.That was when rescuers found him.He was dehydrated.He had frostbite.But at least he was alive.

After a week of hard work, rescuers still had not sifted through all the snow. But they could stay no longer. So much new snow was falling that another avalanche seemed sure to come. Everyone had to get out of Portal Camp. So now the rescuers themselves had to be rescued.

More pilots flew in through the blinding blizzard. These men spotted Portal Camp only because smoke was still rising from the ruins. The storm was so bad that one plane slid off the runway at Stewart and hit a snowbank.

In all, 26 miners died. More would have died if it hadn't been for the skill and courage of the rescuers. Portal Camp was never reopened. The risk of more avalanches was just too great. The Granduc Mining Company had learned a harsh lesson. There are some places that should be disturbed only by Nature.