Marty Mann and his snowbiker companions headed into the backcountry ready for a great day, well-equipped with all the essential backcountry safety gear. When the avalanche hit, his Float 22 avalanche airbag deployed and helped him survive a life-threatening ordeal.
"I fell off of a tall cliff (400ish feet tall). As I fell off I assumed the first impact would kill me and when it didn't I figured if I could deploy the airbag it may help me survive some impacts around my upper body," reported Marty to BCA via Facebook messenger. "I remember reaching for the trigger. I feel the airbag deploying, and having a pack on covering my back really helped keep me stay alive. I feel the airbag did help me stay up close to the surface of the snow when being buried in the avalanche."
Caption: Marty says this photo was taken after he had been partially unburied.
Reporter Duncan Adams of the Kalispell Daily Inter Lake also interviewed Marty Mann after his accident, read an excerpt of his story below.
"AVALANCHE VICTIM DESCRIBES LIFE-THREATENING ORDEAL"
On January 5, 2019, Mann, age 44, and three friends met up around 8:30 a.m. at Woodys Country Store east of Kalispell, Montana to buy supplies for a day of motorized snow-biking in the Swan Range.
Around 10 a.m., at a spot just past Swan Lake, the men climbed on their snow bikes and headed into the backcountry. Mann, who has a long history of skilled participation in motorsports, revved up his snow-adapted KTM 450 XC-F bike. Roughly 3 hours and 45 minutes later, Mann and one of his friends stopped near the summit of Spring Slide Mountain. Mann, sweating from the effort expended during the ride, stepped away from his bike to consult his cellphone and maps to try to pinpoint the group's location. He kept his helmet on. He said he did not stray far from the bike.
Caption: A snow bike belonging to Marty Mann sits near the approximate location of a cornice fall where the avalanche occurred near the summit of Spring Slide Mountain in the Swan Range in Montana. Photo: Flathead Avalanche Center.
As the other two snow bikers are coming up the hill, the vibrations and the sound caused the cornice to break off, according to Mann. He said he thought the force of the collapsing cornice pulled him off his feet. He said he does not believe he was standing directly atop the cornice when it broke.
"I felt like I was just getting tossed in a dryer, he said. I hit the ground, and I thought, I'm still alive," he said. But the life-threatening ordeal continued. "I get to the bottom, and then I get swept down in an avalanche. I'm just swimming, swimming, swimming, trying to get to the top."
When the cornice broke, it triggered several thick slab avalanches, the Flathead Avalanche Center reported. Mann was carried another 100 feet down the slope and buried.
When the mass of snow stopped moving, Mann discovered he was buried standing up, with roughly two feet of loosely packed snow above him. Miraculously, he had an air pocket around his face and could breathe. The snow pinned his right arm, but he could move his right hand. More importantly, he realized he could move his left arm. He started digging at the snow around him and tried but failed to reach the Spot satellite tracker in a front pocket.
"I wondered whether everybody else had been swept down the slope," Mann said. But then he heard the sound of snow bikes.
"I was able to raise my arm, and they could see where I was," he said. Mann's companions left one man near the summit to try to connect with cell service to summon help. The other two raced down the mountainside to initiate a search.
"They dug me out until they could reach my Spot to send an SOS," Mann said. And then they continued digging.
"By then, I was shivering and going into shock," he said. Mann's companions built a large fire and employed emergency space blankets to warm him, but the shivering continued. They also continued efforts to summon help, not knowing whether the SOS message had been received. It had. Eventually, Two Bear Air reached the scene. "At that point, I thought, I might survive this," Mann said.
Later, the Flathead Avalanche Center, which said it is best to give cornices a wide berth because they can break off far from a suspected edge, estimated Mann fell about 200 feet in steep and rocky terrain after the avalanche.