Search for missing skier enters fourth day

Search and rescue teams scoured the backcountry near Whitefish Mountain Resort for a fourth day Tuesday in the ongoing search for a skier reported missing over the weekend.

Columbia Falls resident Dr. Jonathan Scott Torgerson, 62, was reportedly skiing alone when he left the ski resort boundary near the Flower Point area on Saturday.

A team of about 20 searchers along with support from the Two Bear Air rescue helicopter were on the scene Tuesday morning. Ground crews probed the slopes in the Beaver Pond and Kona backcountry areas east of the resort boundary above Canyon Creek, looking for signals from an avalanche transceiver or Recco reflector. Cloud cover and cold temperatures of near minus 10 on Tuesday contrasted with Monday’s sunny and calm weather.

According to searchers on the scene, the teams left the Canyon Creek area at around 6 p.m. on Monday, pushing the cover of darkness, before meeting up again Tuesday at 9 a.m. to resume the search. Searchers told the Daily Inter Lake that each day that passes wipes out more visual clues that could lead them to Torgerson’s location. They said most of the evidence was likely lost in the hours immediately after he went missing Saturday with the massive amounts of snow and wind that hit the area that night.

The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office was coordinating the myriad of different search groups involved, including the Flathead Avalanche Center, members of North Valley and Flathead Search and Rescue units, and the Flathead Nordic Backcountry Patrol.

Volunteers told the Inter Lake on Tuesday that they are determined to keep searching until they succeed.

Flower Point is a common spot for skiers to enter backcountry terrain in the Canyon Creek area. A groomed snowmobile trail runs along the Canyon Creek valley floor between Flower Point and the Skookaleel chutes. The trail begins in the North Fork area north of Columbia Falls and ends at the summit of Big Mountain.

Torgerson is a long-practicing area physician who works at North Valley Hospital in Whitefish.