B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 2, 2003 SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN TERRACE STANDARD 838-7283 SKEENA ANGLER ROB BROWN _ Spring ear Bill, I fished our favourite river on Wed- nesday. Without four-wheel drive, it would have been impossible. My at- tention was divided between a radio filled with coverage of the Anglo/American ter- rorism in [raq and the last snows of winter fall- ing in the distant draws and on the tops of the blue mountains in the background. How much better to have cold clouds filled with blue crys- tals, than the hot, chemical clouds of war. I should have been concentrating on the middle distance beginning just in front of my hood for when I did, at last, the road was covered in snow, There was no room to maneuver, so I kept on for miles on the top of a faint tread someone had laid down a while ago, trying to comfort myself with the thin proposition that he must have turned somewhere. Fortunately he had. I followed his lead then suited up and made for the river, following my predecessor’s boot tracks in the snow. Perhaps it was the disturbing stuff on the radio, Bill, but I strode streamward with my rod as- sembled and the tip pointing down the trail. I never do that. You've fished with me enough to know I never do that. But, today I did and, na- turally, I stepped in a snow filled hole, fell on my face and broke four inches off the tip of my eight-foot-nine-inch Grantham seven weight cane rod, newly renovated and awaiting bapt- ism. wah ] was so angry and disgusted that I would have divorced myself if I were a schizophrenic, | stomped back to the truck and pulled the other tip from the bag. I bound the top pieces of the rod together with elastics then turned the rod so that the handle was facing forward before set- ting out. I made the stream without mishap this time. It was low, dark, and not as clear as I would have expected for this time of year. Still, it was plen- ty clear enough. Originally I’d planned to fish the Ball Park and the Dug Out, but when I reached the river bank I waded the tail of the Bull Pen and made my way to the Corner Pool where I caught nothing and lost one of my meti- culously tied KFC flies, It's spring, U thought, wAy in the hell don’t i fi ish the floater? I changed to the floating head and attached a compact little professor dressed on a stout, short-shanked hook, and began casting it up- stream of those fishy looking pockets 1 know as well as my living room after 30 years of fishing this water. The line stopped part way through one of the depressions and began moving up- stream, pulled, as it turned oul, by a fat, silver steelhead. This is good news, I thought as I watched the fish push through a shallow riffle to a pool below. 1 made my way downstream excited at the possibility of another steelhead. Instead [| hooked four Dolly Varden and a pair of heavily spotted cutthroat trout, another surprise. I looked for fry, There were none in the shallows. 1 waded out again and caught a dark steelhead. Its belly was caved in as if it had. spawned already, Then, a few feet downstream I fastened onto an- other hard steelhead, all white and black. There is an alder sticking out over the fast rif- fle below the run, The water underneath it looks shallow and fast, Years ago I'd seen Gene Lle- wellyn make a cast under that tree and watched as his float disappeared instantly, At the next low water opportunity, I returned to that spot and slid out through the fast water, over the slippery, cobbled bottom to reconnoiter. Sure enough, there was a pocket, some two feet deep. Since then [ve found fish in it with damp, dry and wet flies, depending on the season. I've never moved more than one, probably because there isn’t room for two; and so it was this last time. After my fourth steelhead, | was satisfied, and would have left for horne except that the air was warm and I needed to know if there were mote trout about. The answer came soon, at the tail of Bannis- ter’s, where I caught a brace of large spotted cutthroat trout followed by a large Dolly Varden. It was as if I'd picked. up where I left off last fall ~ as if winter had never happened, The trip up was less anxious. The clouds were gone. The stn was warm. The air smelled of things rotting and growing at the same time. Let’s go out soon, Bill, These are times that challenge a man’s sanity. Both of us can use the respite. Tighter lines, fs - Rob.. : aa ue oe : i : Tight turns mar By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN SHAMES Mountain's Pan- handler run was littered with enthusiastic specta- tors March 23 as the sixth annual Ruins Cup got un- derway. The annual event al- lows both skiers and snow- boarders take part in a boardercross style event. The contest sees up to six participants leaving the gates in a mass start weaving their way through a jump-riddled course complete with tight S-turns and steep banks, The men's skiing event proved to be particularly exciting with tight side-by- side racing right to the fin- ish line and some spectac- ular wipe-outs at the mid- dle of the course where ra- cers faced a bottle neck going into a series of tight turns. Top spot went to Rob “There was really tough com- petition - there were some really spectacular Starts — at least two men were down in the open.” Schibli followed by Chris Barton and Aaron Jingles. The boardercross also saw some great action, particularly in the men’s nior women's division. and women’s divisions. “There was some really tough competition,” says event organizer Tara Valk. “There were some really Spectacular starts — at least two men were down in the open,” The men's event went to local rider Colin Da- vies, who claimed top spot for the second year running taking home a $800 purse. Hot on his heels was Prince Rupert boarder Tim Dopko who managed to claim second spot despite a back injury the previous day during Shames Moun- tain’s first ever rail rodeo — an event which sees riders complete tricks on various apparatus at the hill’s ter- rain park, Dopko picked up $100 for his efforts. Third place went to Terrace’s Mike Talstra, The women’s event saw local teen Sylvie Gianne- lia, 15, nab first-place tak- ing top honours from three- time defending champion Danna Haworth, 20, . Haworth was about 10 metres behind Giannelia at the finish line with Lori Hulbert right behind her, Giannelia picked up $250 for the win and Ha- worth earned $50, Valk said there were more women entered in this year’s contest com- pared to years passed al- lowing for eight rider in each of the junior and se- SKIERS head into tight turns half way down the course during the sixth an-. nual Ruins Cup’ at“Shames” Mountain’ March*23. See page B5 for complete results: from the: skier and boardercross events: SARAH A ZIMMERMAN PHOTO HM Sweep! Rail rodeo rocks TIM DOPKO didn’t let a trip to the hospital March 22 stop him from getting back on his snowboard and win top honours in his di- vision at the first ever Shames Mountain rail rodeo. The event tests the abi- lities of snowboarders and skiers to tackle obstacles at the resort’s newly deve- loped terrain park. It was held in what's called a jam format, meaning riders could prac- tise their tricks as often as they wanted before alert- ing the judges that they were prepared to show their stuff. last winter, so his fears were sound. He went to hospital, was given the ali-clear from the doctors after being x-rayed and returned to the hill to capture first place in the men’s open division, The event drew 30 par- ticipants from throughout the northwest and the Ter- rain Park, developed by local boarder Tyler Wil- son, drew praise from out of town riders, “The terrain park is awesome, it’s easily the best in the province next to Whistler,” says the re- sort’s spokesperson Rey- LAST WEEKEND'S annual Loggers Bonspiel at the Terrace Curling Club drew 30 teams to the exciting event. Teams were playing for top spot in four events. The March 28-30 tournament is one of the most looked for- ward to competitions of the year. See next week's issue for full results. During a trial run early ann McDonnel, in the day, Dopko, a Prince Rupert rider, fell off mountains so far this sea- a rail awkwardly and was afraid he may have injured his back, He recovered from breaking his back just B10, “T’ve been to six other son and they didn’t even have any terrain parks.” For full results see page Local man survives avalanche burial By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN SEVEN local snowmobilers are counting their blessings after a harrowing experience which saw one man buried two metres beneath the snow for more than 20 minutes after being caught in an avalanche. The man miraculously survived, but the in- cident serves as a reminder that anything can happen in the backcountry, says one member of the group, Del Meashaw. “In all of this, the one message [ would have is respect the elements and recognize that what appears to be a safe opportunity could be hazardous,” says Meashaw, an ex- perienced sledder and a director of the Skeena Valley Snowmobile Association. The men were sledding in the Anweiler Creek area about 60 km north of Terrace March 13 when the avalanche struck. The group arrived to the site around 4 p.m, After having a quick bite to eat Meashaw and another man rode up the slope and stopped 200 metres above their [riends, “| was the first one up,” says Meashaw. “I noticed it break off to my. left about 40 feet away. We're looking down and there’s a plume of snow dust where it ended at the bottom.” The men at the bottom of the slide's path tried to outrun the slide. Meashaw saw one snow machine ride out of “the cloud of. powder before he and the other sledder above the slide raced down: to check on thelr friends. : Of the five. machines at the bottom, two. were partially buried and one was almost com- pletely buried, That posed a problem because the sledders’ safety gear was stored under the hoods of the buried machines. Three of his friends escaped without inci- dent but one man was buried up to his shoul- ders and another man — who was not wearing a beacon — was missing. The first victim had a backpack on — in it was a probe and shovel which Meashaw took after making sure his friend was uninjured and could get himself out of the snow, Though some of the other men in the group had beacons, they were useless given the vic- tim did not have one. Meashaw could see the missing man’s sled partially buried by a small tree. His gloves and helmet were about 100 feet further.down the slope. © “By fate or good fortune, I decided to probe above the sled and on the third probe I made contact with him,” Meashaw explains. “I think I got him on the side of the leg with the probe ~ 10 inches on either side and I could have missed him.” The man’s body was pointing. head down at a 45 degree angle, his feet were one metre: be- ‘neath the snowy trap and his head nearly two metres under, Meashaw estimates. It took the men, sharing four shovels and working together, about 20 minutes to dig their friend out. His face had lost its colour but f he quickly stated breathing oni his own... No CPR was required and the man was un- injured. “There have been longer survivors when people are in a vehicle or a building that was hit, but to be buried that long and survive is unusual,” says local avalanche technician Rod Gee. “There was so many ways that it-could have been far, far, worse.” On March 26 four people died in two separ- ate avalanches, one near Fernie and the other near Valemount. The first avalanche claimed the lives of three snowmobilers. The second avalanche saw a 45-year-old male heli-skier buried under the snow for 20-25 minutes. He died. Meashaw says the experience has left his group of friends extra cogniscent of the unpre- dictability of the elements. All of the men were experienced in back- country sledding, had taken avalanche safety courses offered by the snowmobile club and as a group agreed the risk in that particular area was low. : “We ride aggressively but we also ride In- telligently,”. says Meashaw. “Tt.was an incident that happened on one of: our routine days out.” He recommends anyone hitting the back- country should take an avalanche safety _ course. “It's like leaming first aid, Even if you only . need to use it once and save a life, it ts ‘worth it,” he says, -. .