Another Rescue

[Bronco]

Injured Montana climber rescued from Mount Augusta in Alaska (Bozeman Chronicle)

 

 

06/20/02

By The Associated Press

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YAKUTAT, Alaska — An injured Montana climber was rescued Wednesday after he was caught in a rockslide on Mount Augusta, but bad weather kept rescuers from getting to a second climber.

 

The injured climber — Jack Tackle of Bozeman, Mont. — had been stranded for almost 40 hours. He was rescued from a steep, icy slope at about 9,500 feet where his tent was lashed to the side of the 14,070-foot mountain.

 

An Alaska Air National Guard HH-60 Pavehawk helicopter hovered above Tackle while a pararescuer was lowered to him. Tackle was then placed in a hoist and raised to the helicopter at about 1:35 p.m., according to Senior Airman Kristi Kendall.

 

Tackle was to be flown to Yakutat about 60 miles away and transferred to a C-130 transport plane to be taken to an Anchorage hospital. The extent of his injuries was not immediately known.

 

Tackle is one of the country’s top climbers, said Margo Krisjansons of Exum Mountain Guides in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, where Tackle works summers as a mountain guide. She said Tackle, a former director of the American Alpine Club, has climbed mountains all over the world.

 

‘‘He is a proficient mountain guide, an excellent climber,’’ she said.

 

Clouds and fog made it impossible to get to a second climber at base camp at 7,500 feet, Kendall said. She said the second climber, Charlie Sassara of Anchorage, was not injured and had two weeks of provisions. A private air service was expected to pick up the climber when the weather improved.

 

Maj. Mike Haller, a spokesman for the Alaska Air National Guard, said initially it was believed that both climbers were injured.

 

The slide occurred at 10 p.m. Monday night. Sassara got Tackle into a tent in a relatively sheltered area, then headed back to the pair’s base camp where he used a satellite telephone to call his family in Alaska for help.

 

A Canadian rescue team from Kluane National Park in the southwest corner of the Yukon was dispatched Tuesday in a pair of Bell Jet Ranger helicopters Tuesday, but both were turned back by poor visibility.

 

The Pavehawk chopper reached what rescuers believe was the base camp late Tuesday but had to leave because of fading light and deteriorating weather.

 

Mount Augusta is at the north end of the Alaska Panhandle near the point where Alaska, British Columbia and the Yukon come together.

[Dru]

Good to hear Tackle got rescued and is alive. After all he is the guy who defined "dry tooling" as "what we used to do in high school when we couldn't get a date".

[roger_johnson]

We went into the South side of Augusta in the early 70s and got a couple thousand feet up before the lack if good rock (tons of loose stuff everywhere) dictated a retreat. Of coarse, the avalanche sweeping our gear and ourselves away sped the descent up. Or is it sped our descent down? Very happy that JT is down and recovering!

[mattp]

Augusta appears in this photograph, showing the Malispina Glacier from space. Look for Mount Saint Elias, the most prominent peak at lower left, and follow it's range two large massif's to the right. I believe Mount Augusta is the broad roughly pyramidal looking peak above the "S" shaped glacier. The south face is 7,000 feet high.

 

Here's the address: malispina

 

[ 06-20-2002, 10:14 AM: Message edited by: mattp ]

[Jedi]

Roger, did you guys attempt the South Ridge?

 

Beautiful peak from the south!

Jedi