Members of the Nordic Ski Patrol load the Valhalla Adventures snow coach at about 8 a.m. Sunday at the main staging area near Olney. The first wave of 16 search-and-rescue members, including a rescue dog, traveled by snow coach and snowmobile nearly 19 miles to the remote Red Meadow Lake area, where an avalanche late Saturday afternoon trapped three snowmobilers. One snowmobiler was able to escape and travel to Polebridge, where he called for help. Craig Moore/Daily Inter Lake

Avalanche victims' bodies found: Snowmobilers from Kalispell caught Saturday in snowslide
Posted: Sunday, Jan 15, 2006 - 11:04:33 pm
By JOHN STANG
The Daily Inter Lake

Search teams recovered the bodies Sunday afternoon of two snowmobilers killed by a Saturday avalanche on the north side of Red Meadow Lake.

The pair were Danelle Bloom, 22, and Christopher Schmalz, 21, both of Kalispell, said Flathead County Undersheriff Mike Meehan. The causes of their deaths were undetermined Sunday.

A third snowmobiler — Dan Kenfield, 20, of Kalispell — survived.

The trio and their three snowmobiles were caught mid-afternoon Saturday in a major avalanche on a backwoods trail next to Red Meadow Lake, 19 miles north of Olney. Nearby snowmobilers rescued Kenfield shortly after the avalanche.

Kenfield and Bloom had stopped and taken off their helmets near a treeline, said Tom Snyder, a Flathead County sheriff’s deputy and coordinator of the Flathead Search and Rescue Team’s recovery effort. Schmalz and his snowmobile were apparently midway between the treeline and Red Meadow Lake.

Several avalanches apparently occurred naturally Saturday in the Whitefish Range, Snyder said in his briefing of the recovery team just before dawn Sunday. The recovery team did not think that the snowmobilers caused the fatal avalanche.

Snyder said Kenfield told him Saturday evening that the Kalispell man heard a ka-boomlike noise and then “whoosh” — the snow carried him and Bloom between 80 and 100 yards, and buried him a few feet beneath the surface. The avalanche splashed into Red Meadow Lake, knocking out a significant amount of water.

Buried inside the snow, Kenfield spit to determine which way was down, and yelled for help. Some nearby snowmobilers found him and dug him out, Snyder said. Kenfield and his rescuers found Schmalz’s body, but not Bloom, who did not have an avalanche beacon on her. They took Kenfield east to Polebridge, where they contacted the sheriff’s office.

“He was pretty much traumatized,” Snyder told the recovery team.

Three Flathead County Search and Rescue Team members made it to the avalanche site by late Saturday afternoon, with heavy rain and snow falling on them. Nightfall stopped the search.

“The avalanche conditions were really nasty,” one of the three, Chuck Curry, told the recovery team in Sunday’s pre-dawn briefing.

The snow was wet. One avalanche occurred between the Olney-area recovery base and Red Meadow Lake, but only part of the hillside snow slid, leaving a major amount hanging above, threatening a second avalanche. Fog cut down on visibility. Snow chunks “the size of Suburbans” were found in the Red Meadow Lake area.

Fallen trees blocked the trail leading to Red Meadow Lake.

Kenfield attended the pre-dawn briefing efforts to outline where the trio was when the avalanche occurred. He declined to talk to the Daily Inter Lake about the accident. Relatives of the victims later joined him on a vigil awaiting the recovery team’s return.

The bulk of the first recovery team headed to Red Meadow Lake shortly after 8 a.m. Previously, an advance group went ahead on snowmobiles and skis with a chain saw to cut away the blocking trees. The rest headed up on snowmobiles and on a Valhalla Adventures-provided Hagglund, a Caterpillar-treaded snow coach that carried much of their supplies. Skiers from the Nordic Ski Patrol were the scouts, checking to make sure that potential avalanches did not threaten the rest of the team.

Overall, 16 people and one dog, Ripley, were in the first team. Ripley’s job was to seek Bloom’s scent.

The first team took slightly more than 1 1/2 hours to reach the Red Meadow Lake avalanche site, where they knew where to find Schmalz. Cell phones and radios did not work in the Whitefish Range’s mountains. The base and recovery site communicated by satellite phones, with reception being sporadic and static-filled.

A second team of 12 people and three additional recovery dogs left the base camp at noon. The North Valley Search and Rescue Team stationed a group at Polebridge in case more help was needed. The overall region was closed to recreational use during the search.

Bloom’s body was found at about 2 p.m., Meehan said.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com.