Details of fatal avalanche released

The victim of a deadly avalanche that occurred March 31 on Peak 6996, next to Mt. Shields, at the south end of Glacier National Park may have survived the initial impact of the slide and tried to walk off the mountain.

According to Patrick Suddath, branch chief of ranger activities at Glacier Park and incident commander for the avalanche investigation, the victim, Brian Wright, was ambulatory after the slide occurred.

"It's clear that he had been moving around," Suddath said. "Which explains why he was not buried."

The team investigating the slide's aftermath believes Wright, snowboarding alone at the time, triggered the large slab avalanche on the northeast-facing slope of the peak around 1 p.m., shortly after talking to his mother on his cell phone from the summit of the popular backcountry destination near Marias Pass.

The slide was approximately 220 feet wide and ran about 1,800 vertical feet into a narrow chute. Friends found Wright's body on April 1 on top of the snow 200-300 yards above the toe of the slide.

An incident report was prepared by Erich Peitzsch of the U.S. Geological Survey, avalanche specialist Ted Steiner, and Jason Griswold and Brad Blackhan, of the National Park Service, and released by the Glacier Country Avalanche Center on April 8.

Based on the evidence, the report states, Wright's tracks intersect the avalanche debris from skier's right about 250 feet below the crown of the avalanche. Blood-stained snow was found in an area of sapling-sized trees about 530 feet below the point of entry.

It's likely Wright sustained severe trauma in the area around the blood-stained snow and trees, although Suddath said investigators are unsure about the exact location.

"There's a lot of potential for trauma in an avalanche," Suddath said.

From the area of blood, snowboard tracks were then seen heading skier's left out of the avalanche debris to where the investigation team found Wright's snowboard, about 210 feet below the bloodstained snow.

"These tracks appear to be the tracks of the victim, and the tracks that the reporting party stated he had seen when he found the victim," the incident report reads.

After removing his snowboard outside of the slide path, it's believed Wright then descended the mountain on foot to his final point of rest, 441 feet below his snowboard and about 350 feet above the toe of the avalanche.

Suddath said it's uncertain about how long Wright was alive after the slide occurred, but that a culmination of several pieces of evidence show that he had been moving around.

He was found face down on top of the slide debris with his head in the uphill direction.