Snowboarder Recalls Horror of Avalanche

The bruised survivor of a Mt. Baldy avalanche that apparently killed his companion recalled Monday the horror of being swept down the mountain slope, slammed into a tree and buried, then clawing his way out for 20 minutes.

Although searchers continued over the weekend to probe for the body of Mike Pilotti, 24, of Costa Mesa, “It’s pretty sure he’s gone to be with the Lord,” said Larry Beard, 32, who survived the Jan. 24 avalanche on a section of the mountain that was marked as unsafe for skiing and snowboarding.

Beard, who owns a San Clemente snowboard manufacturing company, said he doesn’t want Pilotti, his friend and former employee, remembered as a “dumb snowboarder who paid the price.”

“He was not a dumb snowboarder and neither am I,” Beard said. “This was a freak accident.”

Both men had considered the snowboarding run down the prohibited area of the mountain to be as safe as driving 65 m.p.h. on the freeway, he said.

“If you’re a snowboarder, everybody goes out of bounds,” said Beard, who suffered three broken ribs, torn ligaments in one leg and a bruised tailbone.

“It’s like deciding to go 65 on the freeway,” he said. The law “says 55, but we all go 65.”

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Nevertheless, Beard conceded, he would think twice today about snowboarding in mountain areas marked out of bounds because of the threat of avalanches. Moreover, he would urge others to be cautious.

“Just because accidents haven’t happened before doesn’t mean it can’t happen,” he said. “In retrospect now, I wish we hadn’t done it.”

The avalanche involved an area about the size of three football fields, Beard told reporters at a news conference called at his business, Purged Sled Co.

Beard said it is difficult to know for certain whether the avalanche was caused by him and Pilotti disturbing the snowpack in the unsafe area. He has ridden snowboards in that and other areas marked out of bounds numerous times, he said.

However, Beard allowed that the immediate area that gave way around the two men “probably was caused by us.”

Moments before tragedy hit, the two friends had stopped on the slope and looked at each other, overcome by the beauty of the snowy setting, Beard said.

“Mike was smiling ear to ear,” Beard recalled. “All of a sudden I started seeing the snow start to crack. Everything beneath us started to slide.

“All of a sudden we started going like a locomotive. I was going straight toward a tree.”

Beard’s slide was halted by the tree, but the collision cracked his ribs and tore the ligaments in his right leg. He thought he saw Pilotti sweep past him in the rushing sea of snow.

“It was like a ton of water pressing me into that tree,” he said. “It was that tree that saved my life.”

Had the tree not stopped his slide, Beard said, he may have ended up at the bottom of the incline, buried beneath as much as 40 feet of snow. As it was, he was packed about two feet below the surface and able to dig out.

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Once free, but spitting blood and hobbled by his injuries, Beard tried in vain to locate Pilotti.

“I was screaming for Mike,” he said. “I was crying. I was feeling very unhopeful.”

Finally Beard decided to maneuver down the slope to a road and hailed a passing motorist. As many as 100 searchers have combed the mountainside using 20-foot probes, but they have been unable to find Pilotti’s body. The search and rescue efforts have been scaled back to weekends only, Beard said.

“The loss to me is great,” Beard said. “I feel very sorry for all his family.”

Beard said he is establishing a memorial fund to help Pilotti’s family with funeral expenses and the cost involved in shipping the body back to New York state, where the Pilottis live.

Those donating $100 or more to the fund will receive a memorial plaque honoring Pilotti, featuring his photograph and some of the design and artwork he produced for Purged Sled Co. Donations may be sent to the Mike Pilotti Memorial Fund, care of Purged Sled Co., 1046 Calle Recodo No. B, San Clemente, CA 92673. Beard said checks should be made payable to David Pilotti, who is Mike Pilotti’s father.