Mint Henk looked over his shoulder twice as he passed over a steep roll on the northeast side of Parrot Peak in the La Plata Mountains. He made several turns, monitoring the snow as he made his way down the chute.
It was shortly after noon on Feb. 26, about 14 miles northwest of Durango, and his friend, Alex Vidal, waited on the slope above him.
Henk, 37, was well-trained in avalanche precautions. He had previously served as a guide at Silverton Mountain and completed the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education’s Level 2 course designed to prepare expert skiers for the backcountry.
And Henk had a plan.
He would carry speed and exit to a ridgeline to his left if an avalanche started.
He had the gear, too – a helmet, a beacon and an avalanche air bag.
But before he could make it to the ridgeline, a crushing wall of snow enveloped him.
“It was almost like an Olympic swimming pool in Saran Wrap hung from a line that was cut,” Henk said. “It just dropped instantly.”
More than 1,000 feet down the mountain, he looked down at his leg as he lay partially buried in snow. He could see the blood leaking through his waterproof pants, though he couldn’t see his broken femur extending through the back of his left leg.
He felt cold as blood left his body in liters.
As Flight For Life touched down on the mountainside and rescuers ran to his aid, he lost consciousness.
Henk was caught in one of the most severe avalanches in Colorado this ski season. Preparation, a quick response and quality medical care saved his life and his leg. More than a month removed from the accident, Henk expresses gratitude for those who tended to him and the support of the Durango community as he makes a speedy recovery.
Before Henk left with Vidal on Saturday morning, he checked the Colorado Avalanche Information Center’s backcountry avalanche forecast. It listed the avalanche danger as considerable, a 3 on a scale of 5.
The two spoke about the risk but felt like the recent snow was worth it. One of the few days he could ski, Henk was pressed to get into the backcountry.
Henk and Vidal parked along County Road 124 north of Mayday and put on their skins, climbing the mountain and skiing down the shoulder of Parrot Peak.
“We were presented with no instabilities or issues,” Henk said. “We took it one pitch at a time and did the whole protocol and were happy with how things looked and felt and skied.”
The men again put on their skins and climbed up the mountain to an area of dense trees that transitioned into a clear chute. They descended one at a time and after several hundred feet Henk left as Vidal arrived.
The conditions were considerably different and Henk glanced over his shoulder like he usually did when he was uncertain.
Before he could react, the snow smashed into him.
Henk had seen plenty of avalanches while working avalanche control on Silverton Mountain and Mount Baker in Washington, but this slide was unique.
Unlike others that paused before they began to slide as they built up energy after the snow’s collapse, the avalanche Henk found himself caught in immediately began to move.
“The force and speed that snow hit me with was something I hadn’t seen. I’d seen lots of slides from doing avy work, throwing explosives and ski cutting,” he said. “This was instantaneous. The speed at which this slide hit me was startling.”
Somehow, Henk’s air bag deployed as he tumbled down the mountain surrounded by snow and debris, though he doesn’t remember pulling the release.
The avalanche was a 2.5 out of 5 on the avalanche destructive force scale, somewhere between a D2, which can kill a person, and a D3, which can destroy a log house, said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
It was one of three avalanches in Colorado this year that registered D2.5 or higher.
“If you get caught in that, that is a really dangerous avalanche for a person who is not in a car or in a building,” Greene said.
As soon as Vidal realized what had happened, he called 911, according to an incident report from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
He skied on the surface of the avalanche searching for Henk with his rescue transceiver, and at the base found Henk partially buried but severely injured.
Blood stained the snow as Vidal dug Henk’s legs free. Vidal, who had taken an avalanche rescue course the previous week, took some mesh he had on hand and fashioned a tourniquet to limit the bleeding.
Though he was in shock, Henk knew what was happening.
“I knew my femur was broken. I knew I was bleeding. And I was cold,” he said.
Concerned about additional avalanches, Vidal moved Henk down the mountain to a group of trees.
Seventeen minutes after his first call, Vidal phoned 911 again to let rescuers know the extent of Henk’s injuries.
As Vidal cared for Henk, La Plata County Search and Rescue sprang into action.
When Ron Corkish, president of La Plata County Search and Rescue, heard Vidal’s description of Henk’s injuries, the team immediately called Flight For Life.
As Flight For Life responded, Search and Rescue positioned teams at the mouth of La Plata Canyon and Hesperus Ski Area in case the helicopter could not reach the men.
Just over an hour after the avalanche, the helicopter crew texted Vidal at 1:25 p.m. and after landing the helicopter reached Henk seven minutes later within the “golden hour” when trauma patients begin to deteriorate, Corkish said.
In the Parrot Peak area, there are two landing zones where helicopters can reach someone. Henk and Vidal happened to be only several hundred feet from one of those landing zones, Corkish said.
“Everything was going in his favor as far as Flight For Life being available, being proximal to about the only landing zone that’s in that area and having enough daylight and weather conditions to safely pull off that event,” Corkish said.
Because of Henk’s leg and concern that he had a spine injury, it took Flight For Life and Vidal over an hour to get him in position in the toboggan to be flown to Mercy Hospital, Henk said.
Henk’s wife, Katy, estimated that he reached Mercy by about 2 p.m.
After Flight For Life dropped Henk at Mercy, the helicopter returned to pick up Vidal because of the risk of further avalanches.
Katy Henk had the couple’s two young children and one of their friends for a sleepover when she received a call around 4 p.m. from a friend who worked in Mercy Hospital’s emergency department.
Katy, who works at Animas Surgical Hospital, began asking questions and her friend told her that Henk had been in an avalanche and a CT scan revealed he had broken his femur and his spine.
She told their two children, Harper and Maple, that Henk had gotten an “owie” and was at the hospital. She asked a friend to take the three children for the night.
When she arrived at Mercy, Henk had already been given six units of blood. In all, he received 7 to 8 liters.
“At some point, I was more other people’s blood than I was my own blood,” he said.
After four hours, the nurse at the hospital told Katy they were transferring Henk to Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs on a Flight For Life plane, and they we’re trying to get her on the flight.
An ambulance ferried Katy and Henk to Durango-La Plata County Airport, but everything went slowly because of Henk’s stretcher and the medical equipment.
“They barely could get his stretcher on there with all that it had,” Katy said.
Henk, Katy and two nurses flew the short distance to Colorado Springs in a freezing airplane. When they arrived they were again met by an ambulance that took them to Penrose while accidentally running a red light.
At about 2 a.m., more than 12 hours after the avalanche, they arrived at the hospital where Henk was carried to the neurotrauma floor.
Katy sat with Henk and a nurse as a stream of doctors flowed in and out of his room.
“We just tried to wrap our heads around the situation,” Katy said.
On Sunday, once he was stable, Henk underwent surgery on his leg. Surgeons placed a permanent metal rod with three screws on the bottom and one screw on the top to hold his leg together.
A day later doctors fused Henk’s broken spine.
They would later tell him that 80% of those with his type of spine injury would end up paralyzed.
After four days of being unconscious, Henk woke up on a Tuesday. By Friday, less than a week after the accident, Katy and Henk were driving back to Durango.
Doctors removed Henk’s intubation tube on Tuesday and as Henk worked through what he was feeling in his back and leg, they told him he was going to walk that day.
“At first, you go, ‘This is a joke. There’s no way I’m going to be able to walk,” Henk said. “You’re pretty shattered, and then through their and your will, you make it happen.”
In the last month, Henk has transitioned from a walker to crutches to a single crutch. He now can walk on his own, though his left leg is still swollen and requires elevation.
The Durango community has shown an outpouring of support for the Henks, delivering meals and raising money. A GoFundMe for the family, under the title Help the Henk Family, has surpassed its goal and raised more than $52,000. And at Second Ave Sports, where Henk works as a mechanic, he received a standing ovation when he first visited the shop.
The support has allowed Katy and Henk to focus on his recovery and their children.
“The community aspect of this story is something that I didn’t expect and it’s overwhelming and awe-inspiring for us,” Henk said.
Henk has been progressing rapidly as he works through physical therapy, but a full recovery will take time. His doctors estimated a recovery time of three months for his back and 18 months for his leg, Katy said.
In hindsight, Henk looks back on the accident and questions some of his decision-making. With limited time for recreation and with climate change altering winters, he said he felt pressure to get into the backcountry, forcing him to take greater risk.
“The main thing I’ve learned is that when you read that avy report you’re better off going ‘All right, maybe I take this weekend off,’” Henk said.
So far this ski season, 16 people have been caught in avalanches and six have been killed. Henk said everything aligned to keep him alive and in relatively good health. He and Vidal had all the safety gear they needed and both had practice and experience dealing with avalanches.
“It was planning and preparation, and there was luck,” Henk said. “They both ended up being extremely important where I’m in this favorable position that I’m extremely grateful for.”
Henk called Vidal one of his heroes, and he shared a deep appreciation for all of those who rescued and cared for him. He recalled one of the nurses at Penrose Hospital named Gabe who encouraged him and gave him the positive feedback that spurred his quick recovery.
“I would love to express my gratitude for all those involved with Search and Rescue, the doctors, the nurses. My part in this whole thing is strictly physical,” he said.
While it will be some time before Henk gets back on skis, he still loves the sport and wants to impart that love to his children. While in the past he avoided ski areas, Henk said he now would enjoy skiing with his children at Purgatory Resort.
“It’s been a learning experience and it gives you a new outlook on life,” Katy said. “It just makes you more understanding and more thankful for what you do have.”
As Henk has tried to make sense of the accident, he has worked to form a narrative so that he and those around him can take the positive from an avalanche and heal.
“You need to create a narrative that’s helpful for you and others,” Henk said. “... Things went wrong. I made poor decisions at certain times even though I was trying to make the best decisions possible. After that, things went incredibly. I had wonderful and knowledgeable people help me out and put me back together. We’re moving forward and we’re learning lessons.”
ahannon@durangoherald.com
