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Show The Park Record A-18 Continued From A-14 Mountain Town News 231 White Pine Canyon Road $5,750,000 4 bedrooms | 7 Bathrooms | 6,089 Sq Ft | 2.09 Acres 13 White Pine Canyon Road $6,250,000 6 Bedrooms | 9 Bathrooms | 10,414 Sq Ft | 5.01 Acres N PE DIN AL GS E 218 White Pine Canyon Road $8,850,000 7 Bedrooms | 12 Bathrooms | 10,961 Sq Ft | 4.40 Acres BOB MARSH realtor® listing agent for the colony 435.645.6078 | bmarsh@xmission.com www.thecolonywpc.com 2455 White Pine Canyon Road | Park City, Utah © 2017 BHH Affiliates, LLC. An independently owned and operated franchisee of BHH Affiliates, LLC. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.® Equal Housing Opportunity. Information not verified or guaranteed. This time, the avalanche story has no obituary DURANGO, Colo. — An unnamed man lives today in Durango partly because he and his companion took all the right tools on a backcountry skiing trip. But he also got lucky. Very lucky. The man, who the Durango Telegraph said declined identification for fear of scaring the bejesus out of his loved ones, had skinned up the Deer Creek drainage between Durango and Silverton. It’s considered to be a “safe” place when avalanche danger is high. But he and his buddy, 49-yearold Mark Helmich, a splitboarder, lost their way during the stormy day. Beginning their descent, they were triggering slides. Mistakes had been made. They chose not to return uphill and risk triggering even larger avalanches. Instead, they elected to ride down the final pitch to Highway 550, where their car was parked. That’s when the snow slid, taking him over a 25-foot cliff and burying him in the pile of snow along the highway. Helmich immediately charged over the cliff, too. Time was critical. They both had avalanche transceivers. He located the signal from his companion then used a probe pole to locate the body. This took five minutes. Then he dug furiously with his shovel. “I did a whole lot of praying,” he told the Telegraph. “It’s definitely pretty lonely, being by yourself and digging. It was feeling surreal. Until you’re in that situation, you can’t understand what it’s like.” More luck came along in the form of Mike Barney, who is an instructor at the Silverton Avalanche School. He took over the digging from the exhausted Helmich. Finally, 20 minutes after the slide had occurred, they Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, January 21-24, 2017 had cleared the snow to the head of the victim. He was still breathing, still conscious. He had been unable to deploy the airbag, but did manage to get the straw from an AvaLung into his mouth. It was just enough to save his life. The moral of this story probably should be that you need every tool available in avalanche terrain along with competence in use of those tools. But add it all up and you may still need some luck to survive even a small avalanche. Mike Cooperstein, a forecaster with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, pointed out that 25 percent of all avalanche victims die from being hit by trees or rocks or falling off cliffs even before being buried by snow. About 72 percent of avalanche victims die from asphyxia, or breathing their own carbon dioxide underneath the snow. He says the statistics supporting the usefulness of saving lives is more clear-cut for air bags, but statistics supporting the use of AvaLungs are promising as well. The website for Black Diamond Equipment, manufacturer of AvaLungs, had this testimonial from an individual identified as “Jeremy” from Durango. “I have worn my AvaLung for at least six years without ever having to use it,” he wrote. “I don’t ski every run with it in my mouth but it’s great to have it available for those scarier than normal runs. Last Monday I triggered an avalanche and ended up immobile buried under four feet of debris. Fortunately I was able to keep the AvaLung mouthpiece in my mouth during and after the slide. I was able to breathe normally for 15 to 20 minutes while my partner initiated a beacon and probe search and dug me out. He added this: “CAIC reminded me the next day that over 15 minutes was often fatal due to asphyxiation. I escaped without injury at least partially due to my AvaLung.” The CAIC said that if everyone wore an avalanche transceiver and an airbag, two of three people who die from asphyxia would live. Comforting immigrants, recalling past turbulence TELLURIDE, Colo. – A gathering called Community in Solidarity was organized by public officials in Telluride on Sunday evening. The intent of the meeting, explained Amy Levek, a San Miguel County commissioner, was to tell people of other nationalities in Telluride that “You are an integral part of our community, and what is coming out of Washington, D. C. does not represent how this community thinks.” San Miguel County and Telluride have not designated themselves as sanctuaries for illegal immigrants. Octavio Humberto Verdin Garcia, a bakery employee, told the Telluride Daily Planet that he and his co-workers have work visas, but they remain concerned Congress could recall the visas and discontinue the program. About 100 miles to the south, historians in the Durango area turned their attention to a time about a century ago when white nationalism flared in the United States. In the 1920s, Ku Klux Klan chapters were established in many towns and cities, including Bayfield, located in the piñon and juniper country 20 miles east of Durango. There, a locked trunk at a former community building was found to contain the white capes and pointed hats worn by KKK members in their rituals and public demonstrations. The Durango Herald explained the trove contained the names of various people still remembered in the community: a school bus driver, a janitor, somebody whose wife taught at the school. KKK members felt threatened by immigrants flowing into the community after World War I. They burned crosses at Latino work camps at a uranium processing plant, according to research by Jessica Thulson. The area had very few AfricanAmericans. The focus of the cross-burning was directed at Latinos, Catholics and Jews. Andrew Gulliford, a history professor at Fort Lewis College, explained the KKK chapter in Bayfield “absolutely reflects what was happening nationally in the 1920s.” “Change was coming, and small towns like Bayfield were digging in their heels,” he said. Duane Smith, a retired history professor, cautioned against people looking down their noses at their ancestors through today’s lens. “What your relative did was not something to be proud of, but who’s to say we wouldn’t have been members, too?” he said. Santa Fe mayor proposes to tax sugary beverages SANTA FE, N.M. — Javier Gonzales, the mayor of Santa Fe, made a proposal to tax sugary beverages. He wants to use the estimated $7.8 million that would be raised annually to fund preschool programs. Childhood educators have been “screaming at the top of their lungs that if we want to find a game-changing policy that will truly assure every child has access to the American Dream, you invest in them at their earliest years,” he said at a recent town hall meeting covered by the Santa Fe New Mexican. The boosted programs would benefit 1,000 prekindergarten children in Santa Fe. In New Mexico, an overwhelming majority of children fail to meet reading standards in the third grade, according to Gov. Susana Martinez. DISCOVER PARK CITY’S EARLY YEARS Look for The Way We Were in every Wednesday edition of The Park Record |