http://www.komonews.com/news/27587449.html

Looks like some people are not having the luck that some of you had on the the Ptarmigan Traverse this year.

Best wishes to all involved in this.

Bummer. Dropped gear.
Hope they are OK.

These news reports give you just enough information to make very little sense. Where are they on Spire Point, exactly, for example? Why do they only have ONE sleeping bag (in such a remote place)? Why would they carry that ONE sleeping bag up a Grade I, short route? It's almost better to give no info than such incomplete info that raises more questions than answers.

Meanwhile, I wish the best for these folks.

the ptarmigan's a "hiking route?"

the article says they lost their other gear

a tuantaun could be a key piece of rescue equipment

There was a 4-person rescue in the Bugaboos yesterday too with recent snow and ice turning a descent into a 2-plus day affair

Wow three parties hammered by weather on alpine routes in one week.
Note to self, pack hand warmers.

that sucks they got out a phone call but didn't give the rescuers their exact location. Perhaps they didn't know it exactly. Hopefully they make themselves really visible.

I could see how an epic could begin once one person drops a bag full of gear. That's lame for anyone.

And why would they be going out there on such a crappy weather week?

everybody please remember that it is important to slag these people for poor judgment before we get information as to what really happened. knowing the facts will just confuse us and make it harder to demonstrate how much smarter we are.

Are you suggesting that we're a tad late on starting our speculation thread?

i don't think it's too late yet, but we are running out of time, so all those armchair experts out there need to get rolling soon or the facts will come in and they will have missed their chance!

I for one would rather that unknowledgeable news people didn't decide for themselves which information should be withheld (aside from obvious ones like names, etc.) Would you prefer an article that said "an undisclosed number of people are stranded on an undisclosed location on an undisclosed route, with undisclosed gear."

I too hope they come out of this with nothing worse than a great epic tale. "No shit, there we were..."

I see your point, Tom -- but does the article that came out answer your questions about this incident much better than if it said an "undisclosed number of people are stranded on an undisclosed location on an undisclosed route, with undisclosed gear." In the end, it provides just enough info to raise a million questions & invite speculation.

And, are you suggesting that the "unknowledgeable media" DOESN'T decide for themselves what to edit out of their stories? Or do you think that they included all the facts that they had, minus the names?

not to mention the Si Haystack mission ongoing right now... and I was remarking to myself how quiet it had been all summer...

And the Three Fingers mission from a couple of days ago. More people should check the weather forecast.

Si Haystack? WTF? This is getting bizarre.

Yeah, on Si, 27yoM dead. Early reports on the news were suggesting some sort of SCA as the cause of the fall. I'm sure we'll hear more..

Wow. Sorry to hear that, Gary.

Condolences to the family and friends, as trite as that may sound.

Here's a "little more" knowledgeable media report regarding the still ongoing 'Spire Point Situation' than that earlier released.

From: KING 5's Web Site,
2 hikers stranded on mountain ledge

04:07 PM PDT on Thursday, August 28, 2008

By KING Staff



MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — A man and woman remain stranded on a narrow ledge in the North Cascades.

Sheriff's Search and Rescue spokesman Joel Pratt said the hikers, 33-year-old Matthew Edwards and 27-year-old Robin Gibson, both from Wisconsin, called Wednesday night to say they were stuck at about 6,000 feet in the area of Spire Point, east of Darrington.

Pratt said Edwards and Gibson set out on the trail on Sunday and were descending when they lost much of their gear down the side of the mountain. What!! (emphasis mine)

A Navy helicopter tried to reach them Wednesday night but deteriorating weather conditions forced the crew to return to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.

A specialized team from Pierce County was headed up to search for the hikers and helicopters from NAS Whidbey and from Fairchild Air Force base in Spokane are assisting.

Search and rescue staff are worried about hypothermia.

"The clothes that they had for dry clothes were in their packs. They're currently just wearing what they were wearing on their day hike, and they've been through several rain storms by now and one full evening," said Deputy Brad Holmes.

The Skagit County Sheriff's Office says if the weather has not cleared enough to allow for an air rescue the tentative plan is to have mountain rescue personnel stay overnight with the stranded hikers.

Well at least then it would be accurate.

at least the homo huddle won't feel quite so homo for them

wierd story - these ones always piss me off b/c they so rarely seem to have sensible explanations in the end

What does SCA stand for?

SCA is sudden cardiac arrest.. but it sounds like King5 jumped the gun on saying it was a heart attack (or even any sudden illness resulting in loss of balance/consciousness).. probably because they heard CPR was being done? anyway, we'll probably hear more on the details of the fall (where it occurred, what caused it), but another factor was that visibility up there was next to nil

On the Spire Point story, the Seattle Times reports

"...a 'fast team' of three rescue hikers started the climb to assist them."

Rescue hikers?

NOTE TO MEDIA

learn to differentiate between HIKERS and CLIMBERS

this mistake happens about 100 percent of the time.

I think I just read in yesterday's paper that that mission is still ongoing. One of three has descended, the other two remain trapped but are with rescuers and are awaiting clearing weather before NAS Whidbey can return with a helo. All are teenagers (16 and 17 years old).