Encounters in Avalanche Country: A History of Survival in the Mountain West, 1820-1920

8. Departure from Avalanche Country

119 119 Eight dEPArturEfromAvAlAnchEcountry All of a sudden I heard a loud report, and instantly felt myself going swiftly down the hill. Looking around I saw many others buried, some with their feet out and head buried out of sight, and others vice versa. When I struck the bottom I tried to run, but the snow caught me, and I was instantly buried beneath 20 feet of snow and rock, being on the very verge of death by suffocation when I was reached by the rescuers. —J. A. Raines, Chilkoot Pass, 1898 o n april 3, 1898, proSpEctorS nEWly arrivEd on thE WESt side of Chilkoot Pass in Alaska—the gateway to the Klondike gold rush—were inducted into the perils of Avalanche Country. Native Tlingit packers warned the gold seekers away from the pass because conditions indicated a slide could happen at any time, but those anxious to get to the goldfields did not listen. As the eager fortune hunters toiled upward, a wall of snow swept down the pass at tremendous speed, hitting those in its path with deadly force. The exact number killed remains uncertain, but the estimate was somewhere near seventy dead, including twenty-three aerial tramway construction workers.1 Certainly these new arrivals would have benefited from following the advice of the Tlingit people, who possessed wisdom accumulated over generations. The prospectors also could have learned something from their counterparts in Colorado, who by the 1880s had strong convictions regarding the predictability of snowslides. Coloradoans might have enjoyed playing in the snow, demonstrating their skills at ski races, and dancing all night at winter balls, but their remote and lofty locales had also demanded they stay alert to the perils of snowslides. They learned to place cabins in safe locations and moved to protected locations when slides threatened. After slides struck, they dug out victims, buried the dead, sought outside aid, and rebuilt their homes and places of business. Across the Mountain West, when risks endangered a 120 § dEparturE from avalanchE country community, members developed a range of responses that began with identifying potential problems, developing practices that tried to mitigate those problems, and coping collectively with disaster when their methods failed.2 The adjustments people made to live in Avalanche Country meant that participants in the industrial economy of the Mountain West remained bound to nature and possessed important knowledge about their environment . From the trappers who learned to use snowshoes to the miners and railway men who pondered the impacts of forest clear-cutting on avalanche hazard, these individuals came to know nature better. Improved knowledge led to defensive actions such as learning to ski and identifying safe zones. Over time, as more people came to work in harm’s way, daring rescues and specialized knowledge about slides contributed to workplace practices that reduced danger, celebrated those who put their lives on the line, and valued those who had experience in the mountains. Families and friends who participated in rescues and public funerals reinforced the practices that supported the risky work. They also stood by that knowledge when they sought monetary compensation based on their faith that people could predict slides. Events that began in the 1820s with the Rocky Mountain fur trade and extended into the twentieth century threw people together in Avalanche Country, a place where lack of preparedness and skills could lead to tragedy. These encounters led to exchanges of knowledge that enabled newcomers and experienced mountain people alike to better navigate their dangerous mountain home. Dependence on the help of new acquaintances sped the development of practices that allowed trappers, miners, and railroad workers to undertake greater risk with the assurance that others would help them if the need arose. This ethic reinforced a sense of responsibility that contributed to the social makeup of these communities under construction . Because winter hazards did not disappear, the risks that bound individuals together before industrial mining and railroading arrived continued to influence how mountain people understood their natural world, social spaces, and workplaces into the twentieth century. Environmental realities invaded everyday actions in the United States and Canada. Not only in Avalanche Country, of course, but in every region that saw industrial development, men and women encountered risks and built communities that grappled with disasters and questions of responsibility and blame. Timber workers in the Northwest, coal miners in dEparturE from avalanchE country § 121 Alberta, and dock workers in New...