DOC leam Rescues Buried Pair

Remember hearing about three Berkeley students who survived a deadly avalanche near Donner Pass in northern California last February? What you probably didn't get from the national media was that their rescuers are Dartmouth alums.

Four Berkeley students had been sledding on a small slope before it released, burying them in heavy snow pack. One sledder, Harry Eichelberger, ate snow to clear it from his face and gradually gained mobility in his arms. Five hours later Eichelberger emerged from the snow. But he was unable to use his raw and swollen hands to dig out his friends. Looking across a small, snow-covered lake, he saw a light in the window of a cabin. He trudged through thigh-high drifts to reach the cabin, smashing a windowpane to attract attention.

Eichelberger was luckier than he realized. The cabin belonged to the Dartmotith Outing Club, and its occupants knew what to do. Immediately an impromptu militia of rescuers—including Eddie Gilmartin '91, Jamie Rosen '92, '93s Chris Seldin and SusyStruble and Katie Fesus '94—grabbed makeshift avalanche probes and set off to trace Harry's barely discernible tracks to the site of the slide. What appeared at first to be a twig soon materialized into Derek Lerch's hand, limb, then body. With brooms, ski poles and mops the rescuers then unearthed Marisa Nelson and Malcolm Hart.

Regrettably, Hart died later that morning of heart failure. The other three Berkeley students survived. They won't forget their Dartmouth rescuers. As Lerch'smother said: "We owe you, each of you, the world."

This painting by Guy Mallick '56 of the Donner Pass cabin hangs in Robinson Hall.