Co-workers of a UCSB librarian who died in an avalanche last week are planning a memorial and asking friends to add to a journal of memories.
Morgan Cowles, 39, was on a ski and snowboarding trip with a friend to Pear Lake Ski Hut in Sequoia National Park on Jan. 27, when a blizzard forced them to hunker down an extra night in the wilderness.
The next morning, the pair resumed the long hike to their vehicle with flash beacons activated, mindful of the potential for an avalanche, said Greg Hajic, a friend of Cowles and fellow UCSB librarian.
Sure enough, around noon a wall of snow gave way, sparing the friend but burying Cowles. The friend searched for Cowles on the slope, and within 10 minutes spotted the signal on his beacon, Hajic said.
“He started digging him out,” he said. “Morgan was head down in the snow and feet up, and nonresponsive.”
His friend tried to revive him, to no avail. On his way back to the trailhead, the friend ran into a rescue squad, which had learned the pair was missing, Hajic said.
Back at UCSB, Hajic said he didn’t think anything of it when Cowles didn’t show up for work that Monday.
“I wasn’t too worried about him because he is such an experienced outdoorsman,” he said. “And I knew he was up there at a time when a storm was passing. I figured they’d spent another night there.”
The next day, a friend of Cowles’ called the library and delivered the news.
“It was just total devastation,” Hajic said. “Everybody was crying that day, and for many days after.”
Cowles moved to Santa Barbara two years ago from Seattle to take the job in UCSB’s Davidson Library. There, he worked in the map-and-imagery laboratory, which is in the midst of a major project to create an online archive of maps for geologists.
Cowles was an avid outdoorsman who rode his bicycle 10 miles to work everyday from downtown Santa Barbara. He also was into kite surfing and Telemark skiing.
“He was just super positive — always in good spirits,” said Hajic, who works at the library as a digital data services coordinator. “He was always great at kind of keeping up the banter in the workplace.”
Cowles’ funeral will be in April in Santa Fe, N.M., where his parents live. Meanwhile, Cowles’ co-workers are making arrangements for a memorial in the Santa Barbara area, but have not settled on a date.
In the meantime, they hope Cowles’ friends will stop by the library to add to the journal.
“One thing I thought I’d never say: I sure miss seeing a sweaty guy in Spandex every morning,” Hajic said.
Click here for a blog created in Cowles’ memory.
