Rescue on Mt Stuart West Ridge on Aug 7-8

[whodgman]

Anyone have any report on the rescue performed on Mt Stuart, West Ridge this past weekend (Aug 7-8)? I was with my kids at Headlight Basin with all sorts of Sherif and Army hellicopters on Saturday and Sunday. A hearty crew was carefully extricating the injured party down the face from Long John's Tower. I trust the rescue was successful. I haven't seen anything in the papers or postings.

[Freeman]

West Ridge rescue thread

[whodgman]

Freeman:

Thank you for the thread. Happy to know everyone was alright. Also appreciate the knowledge & limitation on helo flying. Should there have been more concern in the rescue, I would have thrown myself and kids into any rescue hauling. But the Sheriff, Army and SAR seemed to have all the help they needed.

[Freeman]

You are welcome. And thanks for the offer of help.

 

To put the whole helicopter limitation thing in perspective as you know there was a fatal crash in the alpine lakes on wednesday. It sounds (and I'm getting this strictly thru the news) that the pilot was long lineing some supplies to fire fighters on the ground when the tail rotor hit a snag. My understanding is that a 205 (Huey) is a hard ship to fly vertical reference solo - most of the time they would have a spotter.

 

That is one of the things that makes the whole winch operation so much more difficult - the winch operator is giving the pilot instructions on where to move the ship - the pilot is looking straight forward out the window. Amazing stuff when it all works...