On 4/21/22, I pulled a skier out of a huge creek hole at Mt. Hood Meadows. I had been wondering why there are so many fatalities in Heather Canyon. I know of at least 4 in the last 5 years. This incident was a good illustration of the dangers.


The creek hole. Note the tracks coming in from the right.

Background

(Skip to the rescue if you are familiar with creek holes and Mt. Hood Meadows)

What is a creek hole? A creek hole forms when snow falls on running water. The running water melts the snow the falls on top of it, but usually only in patches. The result is a series of holes or depressions in the snow that follow the creek bed. Creek holes are dangerous for a number of reasons.

You can get injured from falling into them, depending on how deep they are and if there are rocks at the bottom.
If you get wet from the running water at the bottom, you are at serious risk of hypothermia in a winter environment.
They create an automatic terrain trap in an avalanche. A guy died last year in Heather Canyon after falling into a creek hole and getting buried by his slough (the snow he was pushing down the mountain).
The water can freeze to your skis, preventing you from skiing out.
They can be really hard to see until you are directly on top of them. I couldn’t see this particular creek hole until I was within about 5 feet, which is too little time to stop.

As an aside, since we are often skiing when it’s below freezing, the water can be super cooled. That means that the water temp is actually below the freezing point, and its movement is the only thing keeping it liquid. Thus, it will freeze instantly to anything it touches. Iced skis don’t slide, and can be quite difficult to scrape. I’ve measured water temperatures as low as 14 degrees F in winter streams.

Heather Canyon

Heather Canyon is a relatively short, steep, wooded pitch that falls off a ridge on the skier’s left of Mt. Hood Meadows. In my opinion, it is deceptively accessible, since it’s short, and easily reached from easy terrain. However, it’s large enough that it can be very hard to find lost skiers. It seems like there are fatalities in Heather Canyon every year, which is abnormal for an inbounds area.

Rescue

The skier was out with a friend in Heather canyon. She skied into an enormous creek hole that was about 15-18ft deep, with running water at the bottom. This creek hole was right next to the cat track exiting from Half Moon Bowl, and she must have ventured just off the trail. You can see a track, probably from her pole, above the tree on the right side of the creek hole photo at the top of the post. According to her, she landed on her head. I’m guessing that she hit the tree, which flipped her upside down, but also broke her fall somewhat. She said she didn’t lose consciousness, and was unhurt, but quickly realized that there was water running through her helmet. She yelled, but despite being right next to the cat track, no one heard her. We are guessing she was down there for at least 30 minutes.


The skier in the creek hole, trying to throw her poles out.

Finally a guy skiing in front of me heard her and stopped. I noticed him, and got to the scene around 2:30pm. She was trying to climb out without her skis and poles. Since she was unhurt, I had her go back down and throw her gear out of the hole. She got her poles out, but not her skis, as the hole was too deep. You can see in the photo how far down she is. Her skis lodged halfway up the wall. I then got in a stance with my skis at the lip of the hole. I couldn’t reach her with my pole, so I looped my poles together as an extension. With both poles, and me leaning down, she still had to climb up a couple of feet to grab my poles. I helped her climb out, and she got her skis on the way. She was wet, but otherwise fine, and in good spirits. All is well that ends well.

However, if she had lost consciousness or otherwise not been found before closing time (3pm for Heather Canyon), she would’ve been out for the night in wet gear. She also could’ve been seriously injured falling 15 feet onto the rocks in the creek bed. Luckily, she was skiing with a friend, who was actively searching for her. When I skied down to the Heather Canyon lift, I found her friend hiking up the trail with a Meadows employee. So hopefully they would’ve found her within the next hour with patrol.

Stay safe out there!