Father credits 3 miracles after retrieving son from avalanche
Published: February 21, 2007
“Three miracles.” That’s what Mark Hoffman of Clyde Park says saved the life of his son after the 15-year-old was buried under an avalanche for 20 minutes Sunday.
The father and son were snowmobiling with friends in the Crazy Mountains. The ride started out like any other for Hoffman, a veteran snowmobiler and owner of Crazy Mountain Motorsports in Clyde Park. The group of five riders headed toward the Rapid Creek drainage 12 miles east of Clyde Park.
“We were aware that there was potential for an avalanche,” Hoffman said. “We did not even plan to ride off-trail.”
They came to a steep slope that had to be climbed to reach a higher plateau and the bowls beyond it. Only Hoffman, son Kamron and their friend Brent Smith could make the climb on their snowmobiles.
They decided to ride on a lower slope with an incline of less than 30 degrees, Hoffman said.
With Hoffman first, Smith second and Kamron third, they followed one another across the slopes below Tuning Hill.
The next thing Hoffman knew, Smith was speeding by him, waving. When Mark looked back, he could see a wall of snow coming his way.
“This was the first miracle,” Hoffman said. “If Brent had not looked back, the avalanche would have overtaken us, and all three of us would be dead.”
The avalanche, which Hoffman estimated as a half-mile wide and a mile long, cut loose hundreds of feet above where they had ridden. As the snow settled, Hoffman looked back and saw no sign of his son.
“I told myself, ‘I can’t lose control because I need to save my son’s life,’ ” he said.
Hoffman and Smith raced back up the hill to where Smith had seen Kamron overtaken by the avalanche. They took out their avalanche transceivers but were unable to pick up a signal.
They spotted Kamron’s blue snowmobile hundreds of yards down the mountainside. Thinking he might be buried under the sled, they started digging around the battered machine, Hoffman said.
There was no sign of Kamron and still no signal. Knowing time was against them, Hoffman and Smith went back up the hill for another search.
This is when the second miracle happened, Hoffman said.
He stopped his sled and was searching the mounds of snow on the avalanche field when he looked down and spotted the toe of his son’s boot sticking out of the snow.
Hoffman and Smith cleared the 4 to 5 feet of snow piled on top of Kamron. But when they pulled him out and took off his helmet, he wasn’t breathing.
By Hoffman’s estimate, almost 20 minutes had passed since the slide occurred. Then the third miracle happened: Kamron coughed and started breathing.
Smith then sped down the mountain to contact medical personnel, and when father and son arrived at the parking lot, an ambulance was waiting. Kamron was checked out at the site and sent home.
Kamron said that when the avalanche hit him, “I just thought I hit a rock.”
The teenager was still recovering from bumps and bruises Monday and did not make it to class at Shields Valley High School.
The Crazy Mountains are avalanche-prone right now, said Doug Chabot, director of the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center.
“What’s happening is that the lowest layer of snow is weak, so the weight of snow on top makes it unstable,” Chabot said Tuesday. “The thing to remember with unstable conditions is that if the slope you are on is connected to a steep slope, an avalanche can be triggered.”
Hoffman said the ordeal taught him to think twice about where he chooses to ride his snowmobile.
“After an incident like this, it changes how you think about where you ride and where I will let my son ride,” he said.
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