said, "and once it started coming it broke up, and it started tumbling over and over." 

Radovan and Simpson were caught in it and rolled hundreds of feet down the mountain.  Radovan felt himself pounded against rocks.  "It was definitely rocks," he said. "I could feel myself getting hit off the rocks. Tumbling down, I wasn't sure how I was going to end up. At one point I could feel myself getting totally buried. I tried to push myself up with my legs.  I was doing my damnedest to stay on top.  That was my biggest concern." 

Because the men lacked rescue beacons and shovels, Radovan was worried that if he was buried he would never be found. Luckily, both men were still on top when the snow stopped sliding.  Almost miraculously, Simpson was unharmed.  He used his parka to make a windbreak for Radovan, got his partner into some extra clothes, and then left him in the gathering darkness while he walked to a house in the Glen Alps subdivision to call for help.

Chugach State Park Ranger Frank Wesser and members of the Alaska Mountain Safety Rescue Group reached Radovan a couple hours later. Ironically, Wesser said, the injured skier was only a few hundred yards from where the mountain safety group had triggered an avalanche on Saturday part of a training exercise.  Avalanche expert Fesler participated in both that training and the rescue.  He said Radovan and Simpson were extremely lucky.  "Their avalanche spread out in a fan," he said. "It was very shallow, about two to four feet deep. If it channeled into a gully they would have been buried deep."  He also said the men should have been carrying basic avalanche equipment.  "Standard equipment for people traveling the backcountry is a shovel, a probe and an avalanche-rescue transmitter," Fesler said.  "The average victim is buried under one cubic meter snow.  With a shovel, that victim can be dug out in 10 minutes.  Without a shovel, using only hands, it would take 50 minutes."

Skiers, snowshoers, snowmobilers and everyone else who plays in backcountry has to start thinking more about avalanche dangers in light recent accidents, Wesser said.  "It's getting little scary out there," he said.  "They must have been thinking that avalanche conditions were only moderate, but conditions (Sunday) night were pretty prime."  "Yesterday just wasn't the best time to do (this)," Radovan admitted.  "I just lucky that nothing happened Eric so he was able to go get help."  As it was, Radovan was beginning to suffer from hypothermia by the time rescuers delivered him to Providence.