Working For Old Snowflake (By Don Mickle)

Avalanche!

I became an avalanche victim for the first time. Vic and I went up to the Round Hill to do snow readings, clear the stakes and check the anemometer. There had been a big snowfall overnight. Noel had gone down to the valley to oversee highway avalanche control with the army and the 105 mm Howitzer cannon that was the weapon of choice for avalanche control.
Fred and Walter were assisting him with the avalanche control and Noel called Gladys on the radio for us to go up and check the snow conditions on the Round hill. Vitus and I traversed up to the Round hill. We worked our way up the slope and Vic was getting worried about the traveling conditions. We took the readings, then started back down to the station. The slope was usually stable to ski down but Vitus didn’t like the looks of it. He directed me to take my wrists out of the pole straps and let out my avalanche chord. (a long red chord, measured every meter from the skier – until you were located in the avalanche debris if you were covered – this was before there were avalanche transievers). Vic watched as I started to traverse across the slope. Sure enough, the side of the hill began to slide all at once. I was carried down about forty feet – but just buried to my waist. Vic skied down and we soon extracted my skis. I was none the worse for the experience. I think that I remember Vic getting on the radio with Noel and telling him that we did a ski-test and the surface conditions were hazardous.
As the winter wore on I was given more responsibility in the snow-plot. I took the readings quite often, especially if Noel was down in the valley on a ‘shoot’ with the army. Snow readings were required at regular intervals during a storm cycle. The shoots often happened at night and if the storm was a lengthy one the Howitzer would be blasting avalanche slopes from the East end of the park to the West end and then start all over at the East end as the slopes filled up with snow again. There were over 70 snow slides that could affect the highway. I was shown how to do a ‘Shear test’ – a block of snow was set on a tilt platform and tapped to see where the layers would break off. I even helped with the snow profiles which were shoveled in stages to the ground level. Density, temperatures, snow crystal types and penetration were measured for each layer from the surface to the ground by the Avalanche observer while an assistant recorded everything in a field book.
One of my duties was snow-cat chauffeur. Noel and Gladys had several guests that came to visit them and I was kept busy driving them from the station to their cars at Flat Creek.
My mother and father even made a visit one time and I had a rare invitation to join them for supper. I remember one of the guests was a young Hans Gmoser who had injured his leg so came to visit Noel and Gladys during his down time. I was invited over to watch a private showing of his film about climbing Mt. McKinley. It was an unforgettable memory.

The Trouble with Smokey and Thor

I had become good friends with Noel and Gladys’ dogs, Smokey and Thor. They were happy easy going dogs that loved to follow me around on my shoveling patrols. They were carefully kept from going anywhere near the snow-plot. Thor did go AWOL one time and merrily roared around the out-of-bounds snow plot, knocking over snow stakes and leaving large tracks near the HS stake (height of snow). Thor’s invasion was a closely guarded secret but I had seen the tracks prior to the next snowfall before the evidence was covered.
Noel gave Smokey credit for saving his life a couple of summers before. Noel had been doing some bush-whacking near one of the trails on Fidelity Mountain when he met a large grizzly bear. The bear charged him and Noel managed to climb a tree. He didn’t get far enough up the tree and the bear reached him and clawed his leg and hip. Noel punched the bear in the nose with his meaty fist and the bear backed off long enough for Noel to climb further into the tree. He tied himself to the tree with his belt before he became weak from loss of blood. Smokey had been barking and snapping at the bear and somehow managed to avoid being whacked by the grizzly. Noel yelled at Smokey to go and get help. The dog seemed to know and headed back up to the research station. When Smokey arrived back at the research station without Noel, Gladys called for help and Smokey led a search party to Noel, who was still tied into the tree but almost passed out from the loss of blood. Noel always had a limp after the encounter and Smokey always had a special place in the Gardner’s hearts.
I was shoveling snow (for a change) one day and I heard Gladys talking to Noel about the dogs’ health. She had recently taken them to the veterinarian at Salmon Arm because they seemed to have a case of diarrhea. The Vet couldn’t find anything wrong with them – but the problem still persisted. I thought about this problem while I was shoveling because I had seen no evidence of runny dog poop.
As I was thinking about this I spit out some tobacco juice. I had a habit of chewing plug tobacco at that time. I usually shoveled a little snow over it to cover it up.
The lights came on – I probably didn’t always cover the brown tobacco juice with snow! I thought about fessing up to Noel and Gladys about my chewing tobacco habit and how it may have been mistaken for doggy bowel problems but changed my mind. It wasn’t that long after my episode with Noel’s skidoo so I walked off and made sure that any tobacco stains were well covered by snow. My tobacco chewing habit was curtailed while I shoveled snow after that.
A few days later I again heard Gladys mention to Noel that the trouble with Smokey and Thor seemed to have cleared up.

Spring

It was getting close to spring. I was hired at Rogers Pass until the end of March – then would return to lake Louise and join the rest of the Family to operate Skoki lodge for the spring skiing season. My mother and father, June and Bert Mickle, and my sister Faye would already be at the lodge. Dad had finally finished his contract of clearing the power line at Lake Louise, just in time to open Skoki. I looked forward to joining them.
I think that Gladys was relieved that I would be heading home in one piece. I wasn’t sure about Noel but he did invite me to come with him and observe a registration shoot with the Army a few days before I left the Pass. It was a clear day and the Army had the 105 mm and the 75 mm Howitzer cannons set up near Mt. Cheops to check the accuracy of the gun sightings and also to clean out any remaining threats of avalanches from the last storm cycle. Fred and Walter were also there to do observations. Fred explained the procedures to me as the different targets were set up and the targets sought out one by one. Several avalanches were triggered by the blasts of the big weapons and they came down the mountain like roaring freight trains, leaving clouds of dust hanging over the valley below.
‘Old Snowflake’ stood at a telescope. I am sure that the Army Lieutenant considered ‘Old Snowflake’ to be a General as he shouted orders in a no nonsense manner.
I left Rogers Pass on a rare day of sunshine and reflected on my experiences of spending the winter in the imposing yet inspiring Selkirk mountains. Noel wished me well as I left the research station for the last time that winter and even said that I should think about coming back another year. I said goodbye to my friends Gladys, Smokey and Thor. I stopped at Flat Creek to give a last farewell to the exuberant Max, who wagged his tail as he barked and showed off his fangs. Vitus waited discretely in the car, still thinking that I was going to be torn from limb to limb. We drove back to Lake Louise, where he dropped me off at the Post Hotel.
Dad was waiting for me and we headed up to Temple lodge and loaded supplies on the skidoo. Dusk was setting in as we started for Skoki Lodge.

Noel and Gladys spent two more winters at Rogers Pass, then retired to their ranch in Southern Alberta near the West Castle ski area. Fred Schleiss became the Avalanche forecaster at Rogers Pass for many years. Fred’s brother Walter was Assistant Forecaster. Fred hired two Avalanche Observers and four assistant observers each winter.
It is still busy, dangerous and crucial work to keep the Trans Canada traffic moving from the Pacific coast to the rest of Canada during the season of ‘Avalanche Wars’.
I returned to ‘The Pass’ and worked for Fred and Walter during the winter of 1968 – 1969. I lived for two more winters at Rogers Pass working for Peter Schaerer and the National Research Council. There are many more adventures and memories – for another day.

Don Mickle – January, 2010.