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Bold Peak Avalanche
By Marilee Enge, ADN 6/5/90
"Man Survives Two Avalanches". Timothy Doyle was sure he had climbed his last mountain when he took a step on a Bold Peak snow field Sunday afternoon and felt the whole mountainside let go. The warm afternoon sun had loosened the snowpack on the 7,500-foot peak near Eklutna Lake, and Doyle, 39, picked the wrong time to make his descent. A torrent of- soft snow swept him off his feet and tumbled him like an insignificant stone 2,000 feet down a steep slope.
"I thought for sure it was my last ride," he said Monday from a Providence Hospital bed where he was suffering from a battered face and a broken leg. "I got twisted and yanked ... slammed down, knocked around. I came up for air every once in a while. It just seemed like it would never stop."
When it finally did, Doyle's climbing companion, Mark Norquist, rushed to rescue him. Norquist dug him out, got him situated and went back for a sleeping bag and pad to make his friend comfortable while he made the 10 mile trek for help. But the mountain wasn't done with Doyle. Norquist had been gone about 15 minutes when the second deluge hit. "It looked like the whole hill was coming down at me," said Doyle. This time, the avalanche buried him, leaving only a foot uncovered.
"It was like being cast in concrete. I couldn't move anything. I just had a little pocket of air in front of me so I could breathe and holler." It took Norquist an hour to get the gear and return. Norquist hiked the 10 miles to the Eklutna ranger station. Doyle said his friend got to a telephone at 2 a.m. Monday and the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group reached him about 5 a.m. He was then airlifted off the mountain. Doyle, a data communications expert, said he has been climbing Alaska peaks for 10 years. This was his first mishap.
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