Williamson rescue

Wow, what a story!

Edited to delete bad link. Story below. 

TFPU, phyl!

More details here:
https://m.facebook.com/inyosar/

Link

Here’s a normal goddamn link, presumably with worse info. 

JaredGwrote:

Link

Here’s a normal goddamn link, presumably with worse info. 

Thanks Jared. Here's the text of the article:

"A woman who sustained a severe leg injury while climbing Mount Williamson alone was rescued last week in a dramatic two-day effort involving five helicopters, multiple state and federal agencies and several search and rescue personnel members, according to Inyo County Search and Rescue. 

On July 2 around 3:30 p.m, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services alerted the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office to an SOS activation from a Garmin InReach device. The alert reported that a solo climber had fallen while off-route near the west chute of Mount Williamson, west of Independence, at an elevation of 13,600 feet. Part of the Sierra Nevada range, Mount Williamson is the second-highest peak in California. 

She had lost her backpack — containing all of her food, water and extra clothing — and reported a serious lower leg injury “with bone visibly protruding through the skin,” according to a July 7 Facebook post from Inyo County Search and Rescue. Despite her injuries, the woman reportedly remained calm while waiting for help. 

Inyo SAR contacted the climber via satellite text and then requested air support from the California Highway Patrol’s Central Division Air Operations Unit. However, a sudden thunderstorm swept across the Sierra, bringing lightning, wind and rain that forced the CHP’s H-40 helicopter to turn back after picking up two volunteers in Lone Pine. 

As daylight faded and weather limited operations, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services arranged for the Naval Air Weapons Station in China Lake to fly four Inyo SAR volunteers to around 10,500 feet near Shepherd’s Pass, arriving before midnight. With altitude limits preventing the helicopter from flying higher, SAR volunteers had to continue the rescue on foot through the night.

Rescuers made verbal contact with the hiker by sunrise when they reached the base of the West Face but found themselves unable to make an immediate rescue due to the steep and unstable terrain, according to the Facebook post. The CHP’s helicopter arrived later in the morning, only to be unable to hoist the climber from her position “in a steep, narrow chute.” Two SAR volunteers were finally able to reach the hiker after they were inserted 300 feet above her, successfully rescuing her about 23 hours after her fall. 

Additional support was called in by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services after another extraction complication. A helicopter from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department arrived with a longer hoist cable, but “extreme altitude” limited the helicopter’s abilities. The California National Guard ultimately deployed Spartan 164, a Black Hawk helicopter, from Bishop Airport.

By around 7:15 p.m. on July 3, SAR members maneuvered the climber to open terrain. About 28 hours after the initial SOS signal, the Spartan 164 helicopter was able to lift her to safety and bring her to Bishop Airport for medical care. The helicopter came back to the site to pick up the remaining SAR volunteers. 

“This mission is a powerful reminder of the dangers of high-altitude mountaineering and the extraordinary efforts behind each rescue,” Inyo SAR officials said in the Facebook post. “The climber’s bravery and composure in extreme conditions were remarkable.” "

Cosmic- thanks. 

Fairly detailed account of the rescue from the SF Chronicle:

https://tinyurl.com/2u5j37ba

It would be interesting to hear the story from the person who was rescued. There’s a photo of her in the rescue helicopter and she appears to be in her 20s. She must have quite the story to tell.

Terry Ewrote:

Fairly detailed account of the rescue from the SF Chronicle:

Thanks for the link; the Chronicle story clarified some things for me that the earlier reports did not, with the exception of the writer's unfortunate use of the word "ventured." Venturing, as I understand it, is a purposive activity, and is not accurately descriptive of someone being accidently off route. So which was it? More likely to be the latter, I suppose; I recall that when I climbed the West Face the first time, also alone, it was very early in the season and I saw no indication that anyone else had been on the route already. I had to pause several times to determine that I was in fact likely to be heading towards the chockstone. It's a bit of a maze up there.

I poked around online here and there after I read the first news stories in an effort to understand them, but what I read that had been posted by other climbers only confused me more. I had never heard of a feature or route on Williamson called the West Chute. I still don't understand if it's different from, identical to, or only a section of, the West Face.

Terry Ewrote:

 she appears to be in her 20s. She must have quite the story to tell.

to me, her actions seem reckless. I wonder if she would have been so caviler to go solo, on the only day rain was forecast, without a rescue beacon?

Aaaaaaaand we have the first judgy armchair analysis, here on Monday morning.  Because none of us have ever hiked solo, right?

Rob Dillonwrote:

Aaaaaaaand we have the first judgy armchair analysis, here on Monday morning.  Because none of us have ever hiked solo, right?

I've never called for a rescue, and I don't travel with a panic button as my contingency plan

Joy Bastet wrote:

enjoy dying alone. it can definitely happen to you 

I'm not saying the rescue wasn't wanted, warranted, and accepted. I'm just saying maybe having the beacon influences people to take more risk, 

Paul Morrisonwrote:

 ….. I had never heard of a feature or route on Williamson called the West Chute. I still don't understand if it's different from, identical to, or only a section of, the West Face.

The West Chute is a specific feature of the West Face, that is third class to the summit. I climbed this more than a decade ago and followed the Secor description that I’m inserting below, to differentiate this line from the many chutes on the face.

Having roads, ambulances, hospitals, phones, beta, role models, aspirations- and, yes, sat comms- all of these encourage us to take more risks. Preindustrial people with no safety net probably took it easier. So yeah, hot take bro. 

I thought she HAD a Garmin?  That's how she got rescued, yes?  Some bad luck, that could happen to any of us.  A boulder shifts, we tumble--boom.  Compound fracture.  Yeesh.  Glad it worked out.

Inyo SAR is unabashed about calling out people who were unprepared or made bad decisions. example

In this case, they said "Enormous bravery and fortitude was shown by this patient, and all involved were impressed by her ability to remain calm, collected, and alive."

I trust their judgement. 

Jay Crewwrote:

I've never called for a rescue, and I don't travel with a panic button as my contingency plan

Jay - I used to carry this attitude.

Then, a couple years back two partners and I were caught is a rapidly developing thunder cell in a really bad place (From our vantage, the day went from blue sky, to hail from a blue sky, to Mordor in < 30 min). As we were retreating, all three of us were struck by the 3rd lightning bolt apparent to us during said storm. After the keraunoparalysis wore off, I was more-or-less unharmed as was one of my partners (M). The other partner (C) had much more severe injuries, many of which were not visible to us on our ledge (hint: lightning burns often start on the inside). Neither C or I had a satellite device, but M did (a Garmin mini-InReach II). We had a brief discussion during which only I advocated for self rescue. I was quickly over-ruled and the button was pushed. In the end, that decision and the efficient and heroic actions by SAR (in this case SEKI SAR) minimally substantially impacted C's recovery and quite possibly saved his life. [Even if we could have successfully self-rescued, this would have delayed C's arrival at a hospital by at ~24 h]

There was plenty of luck involved on our side too. The right helicopter, pilot, and personnel were available/willing for this high altitude, technical, dangerous rescue. Also, there was a brief break in the storm right before sunset during which C was rescued. (M and I then rappelled, downclimbed, and stumbled through the night getting back to our camp around 1 AM.

I learned a lot of lessons that day. Two of them are:

 - I now carry a two way satellite communication device (the same model mentioned above)

 - I try to be less judgmental about others caught in rough circumstances, especially when I don't know all of the details leading up to the event

***

Edited to add: All my respect to Inyo SAR and the other organizations involved in the rescue. Y'all are heroes! Also, hats off to this young lady, for being prepared, composed, and making the right decision to call for help. I hope your recovery is swift and full!

Chris Henrywrote:

Jay - I used to carry this attitude.

Then, a couple years back two partners are I were caught is a rapidly developing thunder cell in a really bad place (From our vantage, the day went from blue sky, to hail from a blue sky, to Mordor in < 30 min). All three of us were struck by the 3rd lightning bolt apparent to us during said storm. After the keraunoparalysis wore off, I was more-or-less unharmed as was one of my partners (M). The other partner (C) had much more severe injuries, many of which were not visible to us on our ledge. Neither C or I had a satellite device, but M did (a Garmin mini-InReach II). We had a brief discussion during which only I advocated for self rescue. I was quickly over-ruled and the button was pushed. In the end, that decision and the efficient and heroic actions by SAR (in this case SEKI SAR) minimally substantially impacted C's recovery and quite possibly saved his life. [Even if we could have successfully self-rescued, this would have delayed C's arrival at a hospital by at ~24 h]

There was plenty of luck involved on our side too. The right helicopter, pilot, and personnel were available for this high altitude, technical rescue. Also, there was a brief break in the storm right before sunset during which C was rescued. (M and I then rappelled, downclimbed, and stumbled through the night getting back to our camp around 1 AM.

I learned a lot of lessons that day. Two of them are:

 - I now carry a two way satellite communication device (the same model mentioned above)

 - I try to be less judgmental about others caught is rough circumstances, especially when I don't know all of the details leading up to the event

***

Edited to add: All my respect to Inyo SAR and the other organizations involved in the rescue. Y'all are heroes! Also, hats off to this young lady, for being prepared, composed, and making the right decision to call for help. I hope your recovery is swift and full!

This can happen to any of us adventurers who ventureinto the mountains.

So far I have been lucky.

I hope the rescued climber, heals up quickly and heads back out soon.

Anybody know if she tagged the summit?

Jay Crewwrote:

I'm not saying the rescue wasn't wanted, warranted, and accepted. I'm just saying maybe having the beacon influences people to take more risk, 

You seriously believe that people take unnecessary risks solo in the backcountry just because they have a beacon that 1) may help rescuers find him or her, 2) assuming that he or she survives the accident?

Jay Crewwrote:

to me, her actions seem reckless. I wonder if she would have been so caviler to go solo, on the only day rain was forecast, without a rescue beacon?

Jay -- I align with most of the existing "c'mon man" comments on your comment, but I commend you (and everyone else on this thread so far) for refraining from one thing... invoking $$$. 

The comment section of SFGate's FB post linking to their article re the rescue holds a disgusting amount of "hope they send her the bill", "ah don't want muh tax dollas goin' to that dumb b****" type sentiments. Fuck that. My bad for thinking I'd find an exception to the rule, if you wanna lose faith in humanity, look at a comment section on social media :/ /s Glad we're not that divided as a community   

Fat Dad wrote:

You seriously believe that people take unnecessary risks solo in the backcountry just because they have a beacon that 1) may help rescuers find him or her, 2) assuming that he or she survives the accident?

Fat Dad -- AFAIK this is still a vigorous debate (the effect of technology/"panic buttons" on risk-taking). There's definitely a reality to what you're calling out. I once had a partner who expressed outright disdain towards inReach and similar devices. It made me uncomfortable. Then, once upon an epic in the Sierra, I fell, as LAPAR, on a rappel anchor failure that I emerged from with bruises but nary a scratch... with the only SOS-capable device whose battery hadn't died being my phone, whose passcode I hadn't shared with my partner (Face ID was not a thing then, or at least I hadn't installed the freshest iOS).

Fat Dadwrote:

You seriously believe that people take unnecessary risks solo in the backcountry just because they have a beacon that 1) may help rescuers find him or her, 2) assuming that he or she survives the accident?

While not technical climbing, and both solo and with others, there is a great deal of,at least anecdotal, evidence, that in the Northeast folks do indeed go into the mountains ( summer and winter) woefully unprepared but with cellphones or other emergency devices, assuming that if they get in trouble they can just call for help--help that they assume will rapidly appear. While the easy accessiblity, low altitudes, and benign appearance of these mountains have tempted many into trouble for years before the existence of such modern devices, the number of such incidents ( sadly too many with fatal results) has increased significantly in recent years, and in a great many of them said 'devices' have been carried by the victims.

Fat Dadwrote:

You seriously believe that people take unnecessary risks solo in the backcountry just because they have a beacon that 1) may help rescuers find him or her, 2) assuming that he or she survives the accident?

It is a fact. Even more so with groups of people. 

While I believe this is somewhat less prevalent in the technical climbing community, it is definitely present. Beyond any doubt. 

To paraphrase Thoreau, "In technology lies the preservation of the world ".