Lodge was near, but rescuers reached boarder too late
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/703334.html(It is pretty obvious that the troopers ignored this snowboarder's first 9/11 call- and only responded three hours later after he called again. His brother died just a 13 minute walk from the lodge, only a short time after his brother left to go to the lodge for help again. The Wasilla troopers treated these boys so callously. It was only a short drive from Wasilla to this lodge)
After the brothers hiked up a ridge, they turned to ride their snowboards down the bowl.
Theodore launched his board and his brother was supposed to follow.
"I looked back and he wasn't there," Theodore said. "Like he changed his mind in a split second and went down another way."
Theodore called out but got no response. He tried to climb back up but the powder was too thick. He kept sinking up to his waist. He could see where his brother was supposed to be but he wasn't there.
Theodore raced down to the bottom of the bowl and to the nearby lodge where he hoped someone could help him, he said...Theodore made the 911 call at 6:22 p.m., according to a trooper statement...
He went back to the mountain, slugging up in the deep snow, calling his little brother's name.
Finally he heard a reply. It was his brother yelling something unintelligible, he said.
When he got to him, Morgan had no hat, had lost his board, and had snow in the collar of his jacket.
The teen had no obvious signs of trauma. He just looked very, very cold, the older brother said...
Theodore tried to sit his brother on his snowboard and push him down. The pair got about 300 yards, Theodore guesses, before the bowl turned upwards at a gully and he couldn't muster the strength, through the snow to push any further. He worked for maybe an hour. It seemed like forever, he said. "I couldn't drag him up that hill," he said.
He tried carrying his younger brother, slinging him over his back but the 18-year-old was too heavy for him.
Theodore unzipped his jacket and unzipped his brother's jacket, hugging him and trying to keep him warm, he said. He called for help through the 20 mile per hour winds but no one responded.
He knew that he wasn't going to be able to get his brother out of there and that his brother was just getting worse. He decided to go back to the lodge for help, he said.
He gave his brother one last hug....
Hours had passed since Theodore first called 911 at 6:22 p.m. The trooper report says he got back to the lodge around 8:52 p.m., a time that Theodore and Wurlitzer say is probably right.
While Theodore thawed himself in front of the wood-burning stove, he waited for help. He told the lodge owner, "I hope my brother makes it."
Theodore said the first trooper arrived about 10 minutes later...Wurlitzer and the trooper, with a spotlight, followed Theodore's tracks and found Morgan at 9:15 p.m. He was 100 feet down a gully, Wurlitzer said. He had no pulse and was not breathing.
Medics arrived and tried to revive him but were unable to. He was pronounced dead just before 10 p.m.
This story happened a few weeks back, and as a mother I feel so traumatized that people could be so uncaring toward these young snowboarders. Why didn't anyone from the lodge, or the police bother to help? This is just so sad... and several weeks later the autopsy results are still not out, probably because they do not want to admit he froze to death when they easily could have helped him.
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