ZCZC SLCWRKMTN SLR TTAA00 KSLC DDHHMM ****MOUNTAIN WEATHER FORECAST**** UTAH AVALANCHE FORECAST CENTER FRIDAY FEBRUARY 2, 1996, 1300 HRS A PATROLLER WAS CAUGHT AND BURIED IN A SLIDE AT SOLITUDE. HE WAS DOING CONTROL WORK ABOVE HONEYCOMB WHEN A CORNICE BROKE FARTHER BACK THAN EXPECTED. THE RESULTING SLIDE WAS 10 FEET DEEP AND 500 FEET WIDE AND RAN 1,500 VERTICAL. HE WAS BURIED FOR ABOUT 15 MINUETS. HE RESPONDED TO CPR AND WAS FLOWN TO THE HOSPITAL. ------------------------------------------------- Jeff Brewer was an experienced ski patroller who had patrolled at Alta before joining the Solitude Ski Patrol. He was doing a control route with his partner Eric in Honycomb Ridge, a backcountry-like part of the ski area which had not been open yet this season. The ski patrol had not done any avalanche control work in the area previous to the accident. For the first part of the season there was not enough snow, and in the two weeks previous to the accident there was too much snow. Utah had experienced near record amount of snow for the month of January and it all came in a 2 week period--about 14 feet of snow in 14 days. Most of the Honycomb area had run naturally during the storm. They were working to bring down the one last piece which remained. Brewer and his partner were throwing hand charges from the ridge while two other patrollers acted as spotters from a high point just up the ridgeline. They were both standing on the flat part of a near knife-edge ridge, Eric stood just above a small tree and Jeff Brewer stood just 5 feet away from the tree but still on the flat part of the ridge. When one of their hand charges triggered the huge class 5 avalanche, the hard slab broke right to the crest of the ridge. It broke through the tree Eric was standing above and he was not caught but it broke very near Jeff Brewer's feet and he suddenly found himself riding a large hard slab block which he could not escape. It descended quickly through sparse trees and over a cliff, down a 38-45 degree slope. He was carried about 800 vertical feet and buried vertically, head up, with his head about 1 1/2 feet below the surface. The other three patrollers had to descend the steep avalanche path and negotiate cliffs but they had his head uncovered in about 15 minutes. He did not respond to CPR. The avalanche was a class 5 hard slab 2-10 feet deep, 1200 feet wide and ran 1000 vertical feet. It fractured on the depth hoar near the ground. It had been two days since the end of the storm. ------------------------------------------------- RESCUER DIES FROM AVALANCHE AFTER YEARS OF SAVING OTHERS By Joshua B. Good THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Jeff Brewer lived for outdoor adventure. He skied. He hiked. He mountain biked. ``If I can't ski and bike, just shot me,'' he often told his friends. Since Feb. 2, when Brewer was critically injured in an avalanche at Solitude Ski Resort where he worked as a ski patroller, doctors at University Hospital have told his family and friends that he would never ski again. Too much brain damage. He was under the snow, without oxygen, for 16 minutes. In the hospital, his lungs filled with fluid. The 36-year-old man's body began to shut down. He was in a coma. Still, Brewer didn't give up. ``He was fighting big time, he didn't want to let go,'' said Brewer's friend, Dana Richardson. She described how Brewer would open his eyes and struggle to focus. But Brewer died Sunday morning. Richardson was holding one of Brewer's hands and Susan Despain, another of Brewer's friends, was holding the other when their friend stopped breathing. ``He used up 10 or 12 lives; he's cheated death many times,'' Despain said. Hours after he died, a small group of Brewer's friends gathered at Richardson's Salt Lake City home to swap stories about their buddy. They talked about the freak accident that took Brewer 1,500 feet down a mountainside in Honeycomb Canyon. He had just set off an explosive charge to knock down a dangerously steep slope. It was supposed to be a controlled avalanche. But the snow slide worked its way to Brewer's position on a mountain ridge and he tumbled through trees and across rocks, carried by snow chunks as big as boulders. After 16 minutes, his fellow ski patrollers pulled him out of the snow and he was flown to University Hospital. It wasn't the first time he was injured while out in the wild. There were numerous car wrecks, usally while heading to or from backcountry trips. There was the time he was camping near Zion National Park with his friend Lawrence Buhler. Two times during the night Buhler pulled Brewer out of the fire. ``He wanted to stay warm,'' Buhler said. Brewer also is credited with saving lives. He worked as a ski patroller at various Wasatch Front resorts for 20 years. One year at Alta, he watched an avalanche cover skier. He was the first on scene, and after he and other patrollers dug a tunnel to the buried man, Brewer reached in and cleared snow out of the skier's mouth. Another time he performed CPR on a downed motorcyclist in Big Cottonwood Canyon, his friends said. ``He was always just there when you needed him,'' Richardson said. ------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from: Avalanche hazard high throughout Rockies 11 dead due to unstable snow SkiNet (http://www.skinet.com) Report by Jill Adler, Park City, Utah, Feb 19 Solitude (Utah) patrolman Jeff Brewer died yesterday at the University of Utah Hospital. Brewer was caught and buried on Feb. 2 while doing control work in the Honeycomb area of the mountain. A cornice broke farther back than expected, resulting in a slide ten feet (3m) deep, 500 feet wide and running 1500 vertical feet. He was buried for 16 minutes before rescuers found him. ------------------------------------------------- From msaemisch@sisna.comTue Feb 20 00:13:05 1996 Date: Mon, 19 FEB 1996 09:33:04 +0000 From: Let Mikey Ski It! Newsgroups: rec.skiing.alpine Subject: Solitude Rescuer Dies As a tribute to Jeff Brewer, the Solitude ski patroller who died Sunday from injuries sustained in an avalanche a couple of weeks ago, I provide the following story from today's Salt Lake City Tribune. Note that he was buried for only 16 minutes. Mike... ------------------------------------------------- RESCUER DIES FROM AVALANCHE AFTER YEARS OF SAVING OTHERS By Joshua B. Good THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Jeff Brewer lived for outdoor adventure. He skied. He hiked. He mountain biked. ``If I can't ski and bike, just shot me,'' he often told his friends. Since Feb. 2, when Brewer was critically injured in an avalanche at Solitude Ski Resort where he worked as a ski patroller, doctors at University Hospital have told his family and friends that he would never ski again. Too much brain damage. He was under the snow, without oxygen, for 16 minutes. In the hospital, his lungs filled with fluid. The 36-year-old man's body began to shut down. He was in a coma. Still, Brewer didn't give up. ``He was fighting big time, he didn't want to let go,'' said Brewer's friend, Dana Richardson. She described how Brewer would open his eyes and struggle to focus. But Brewer died Sunday morning. Richardson was holding one of Brewer's hands and Susan Despain, another of Brewer's friends, was holding the other when their friend stopped breathing. ``He used up 10 or 12 lives; he's cheated death many times,'' Despain said. Hours after he died, a small group of Brewer's friends gathered at Richardson's Salt Lake City home to swap stories about their buddy. They talked about the freak accident that took Brewer 1,500 feet down a mountainside in Honeycomb Canyon. He had just set off an explosive charge to knock down a dangerously steep slope. It was supposed to be a controlled avalanche. But the snow slide worked its way to Brewer's position on a mountain ridge and he tumbled through trees and across rocks, carried by snow chunks as big as boulders. After 16 minutes, his fellow ski patrollers pulled him out of the snow and he was flown to University Hospital. It wasn't the first time he was injured while out in the wild. There were numerous car wrecks, usally while heading to or from backcountry trips. There was the time he was camping near Zion National Park with his friend Lawrence Buhler. Two times during the night Buhler pulled Brewer out of the fire. ``He wanted to stay warm,'' Buhler said. Brewer also is credited with saving lives. He worked as a ski patroller at various Wasatch Front resorts for 20 years. One year at Alta, he watched an avalanche cover skier. He was the first on scene, and after he and other patrollers dug a tunnel to the buried man, Brewer reached in and cleared snow out of the skier's mouth. Another time he performed CPR on a downed motorcyclist in Big Cottonwood Canyon, his friends said. ``He was always just there when you needed him,'' Richardson said.