Date: Mon, 12 Feb 1996 16:37:00 +0000 From: Bruce Bowler SNOWMACHINER AGAIN CHEATS DEATH IN AVALANCHE The Associated Press KODIAK - A snowmachiner who survived an avalanche a year ago has again cheated death, this time after getting buried under 5 feet of snow. Tom Abell Sr. was pulled from the avalanche Tuesday, and friends credit the $200 transceiver he was wearing for saving him. Abell and friend were snowmachining in the backcountry near Anton Larsen Pass when the avalanche caught him. But unlike last year, when he lost a friend in a slide that also trapped him, the electronic beacon and receivers his companions were wearing saved him. ''This time when it happened I knew everything to expect, and I knew I was in a world of hurt. In three minutes I blacked out, just like the experts say,'' Abell said. His companions immediately turned on their receivers, found him in two minutes and spent a frantic 15 minutes digging him out. He was unconscious when they reached him but he quickly recovered. ''Without the transceivers, we wouldn't have found him in time,'' said Terry Davis, who helped dig Abell out. Last year no one in Abell's group was wearing a transceiver when an avalanche buried him under 8 feet of snow and killed Rick Gunderson, his snowmachine partner. A friend found Abell that time by chance when the searcher fell into an air hole Abell had dug. On Tuesday fate again was on Abell's side. He was wearing a full-face helmet, which gave him a tiny amount of air space. Still, the snow was packed around his mouth, and he had blacked out from a lack of oxygen when Davis and Tom Dooley got to him. Abell recovered and drove his snowmachine out of the backcountry. Dooley, who has snowmachined in Kodiak's backcountry for about 15 years, said the snow is looser this year than he's ever seen it. ''It's really unstable,'' he told the Kodiak Daily Mirror on Thursday. ''The way it is right now the slightest vibration sets off avalanches,'' he said. Abell said the noise of the snowmachines triggered the slide. ''We weren't being careless. I want to stress that. We were riding and the vibration set it off,'' he said. Dooley said he saw Tuesday's avalanche from below. ''The wind and the snow cloud rushed by me and for a few seconds I thought I was in it. If I had been 150 yards further up I would have been,'' he said. Kodiak Island search and rescue spokesman Mike Sirofchuck said avalanche conditions are expected to remain dangerous through the weekend. ''Backcountry travelers are encouraged to use extreme caution, carrying snow shovels, avalanche poles and wear an avalanche transceiver,'' he said. ''They cost about $200, but what's your life worth?'' Sirofchuck said.