Injured Climber Rescued on Mt. Stuart

[Retrosaurus]

From The Wenatchee World 9/2/02:

A 61-year-old woman suffered broken bones and chest injuries Sunday in a climbing accident on Mount Stuart, west of Leavenworth.

 

Joyce Nielsen was in serious condition this mortning at Central Washington Hospital.

 

She fell while climbing at the 9,000-foot level shortly before noon, said Jerry Yonaka, chief of operations for the Chelan County Sheriff's Office. Details of the fall were unavailable this morning.

 

Search and rescue workers from Chelan and Kititas counties airlifted her from the mountain by helicopter, Yonaka said.

 

In addition to chest injuries, Nielsen suffered facial fractures and a broken arm, a hospital spokeswoman said.

[Off_White]

I wonder what route? It looked nasty up there on Sunday: I was on Dragontail and we had huge winds and a ringside seat of the cloud deck going up and down on Stuart (until it wrapped around us too). The winds were so gusty and variable, it seemed like it would be some hideous flying conditions. It got better later in the afternoon, perhaps thats when they pulled her off. Rescue personnel are pretty damn awesome.

[pope]

quote:

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Originally posted by Off White:

I wonder what route? It looked nasty up there on Sunday: I was on Dragontail and we had huge winds and a ringside seat of the cloud deck going up and down on Stuart (until it wrapped around us too). The winds were so gusty and variable, it seemed like it would be some hideous flying conditions. It got better later in the afternoon, perhaps thats when they pulled her off. Rescue personnel are pretty damn awesome.

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That storm took everybody by surprise. My brother and I were installing a metal roof on his house when it hit, and for a moment there, I had my finger on the Big Lou hotline on my cell phone. That wet metal be some slippery biz'. Kind of like rock shoes on steep, wet heather or pine needles.

 

Instead of calling 9-1-1, we completed the task and then devised our own rescue. While my brother slid down the panel on his butt, I stood on the latter and underclinged the barge board, so that if he would have tumbled, he would have crashed into the latter instead of going over, and I could have arrested his fall.

 

[ 10-20-2002, 10:56 AM: Message edited by: pope ]

[brukb]

We ran into a rescue team Sunday afternoon as they were heading in to help someone hurt high up in the Cascadian Couloir on Stewart, I assume it was the same climber in the article.

That same weather system, along with some routefinding difficulties, prompted us to back off of Sherpa Peak shy of the summit.

Would be interesting to hear more about the accident and rescue.

[erden]

We were camped out near Ingalls Lake, planning to get up Sunday morning to climb the complete North Ridge. Lenticulars were forming to the west and NW around 5 PM on Saturday and we were conscious of possible weather.

 

We woke up several times with high winds that night and with drizzle. At 4:00 AM, we planned to pack up and get going. We decided against it when it was obvious that the cloud ceiling was lower than Goat Pass, and even Ingalls would not be visible from time to time.

 

We decided to sleep in, and get out in the morning while the going was dry. We did not observe any early morning rescue activity on the south side of Stuart. That may have been later in the day if on the south side...

 

Erden.

 

[ 09-03-2002, 10:28 AM: Message edited by: erden ]

[jdog]

we were up on stuart on saturday and sunday trying to do the full north ridge. weather was great all day saturday, then during the bivy on saturday night it turned to crap. we were below the fog level most of the night, but throughout the night i periodically woke up and it kept coming lower and the winds increased.

 

as for sunday the weather was crap. nothing worse than climbing 5th class in wet and very windy conditions. we managed to make it to the notch, though, in one piece. i estimate the wind at the notch was blowing at over 60 mph. the standard gully created a nice funnel for all the wind to exit through. rain going up not down. made for an interesting rappell.

 

the rescuers made it back to the trailhead about the same time we did on sunday evening. i was wondering why they were carrying litters and rescue gear. had no idea that a rescue was going on on the mountain. don't remember hearing a helicopter all day.

[Murrman]

We met the accident party at about 9'200 just after the climber had taken a 60' fall around noon. The chopper wanted to drop SAR at the false summit but it was a white-out and SAR said it was gusting up to 75 mph. My party (4 of us) helped haul/carry the lady across the summit for an hour or so and then we descended to our bivy site at 7'400 to get a sleeping bag, bivy bag and make hot drinks for the injured climber. We met the accident party again around 8'200 and built a rope litter to help carry her. We carried her down to our bivy site at 7'400 where the copper landed and picked her up. She was blacking-out at the top but, once we got her bundled-up in the bag and some hot chocolate in her, she was lucid.

 

It would have taken SAR almost 8 hours to just get to where she fell and who knows how long to then get her out. We had 9 strong people to carry a 115 lb person and the process still took 6 hours.

 

Lesson Learned: 1) Even under near ideal conditions, this was a very, very difficult evacuation. With just one or more variables against us IE: rain or three less people available...this could have resulted in a much worse outcome. 2) SAR are studs. 3) Your climbing partner's character is what's going to save you in an emergency.

[boooks]

The injured climber was in a party of 10 Mazamas up from Portland. They were ascending Ulrich's Couloir on Sunday morning when Joyce slipped on some wet lichen a bit below the summit (this was at about 11:30 am). According to her party members she fell approximately 70 feet. Our party of four was heading for the summit via the Cascadian Couloir when we came across their party a little above the false summit trying to carry her down the Cascadian (about 1:00pm). Through sheer strength and tenacity they were able to get her to the top of the high snowfield and slide her down to about 8200 feet where they constructed a litter out of ropes and ridge rests. Our party was camped at 7500 on the Cascadian so we descended and two of my partners went back up with some hot drinks and a sleeping bag. Another party of four Mazamas was descending the Cascadian after doing the west ridge and also jumped in to help get her down. By about 6pm everyone was able to carry her down to our camp at 7500 feet. They had been in contact with SAR all day who said they couldn't send in a helicopter because of the bad weather and wind. By some stroke of luck the wind died long enough to get a helicopter in to land at 7500. She was flown out at around 6:45pm. My personal involvement in the rescue was limited to drink and landing pad preparation, but I did have an opportunity to talk with the injured climber briefly and was amazed by her strength and composure. She was cracking jokes seven hours into her own rescue. Amazing.

 

I have to commend everyone involved in this rescue this weekend. Her climbing partners did an incredible job getting her down the mountain. It was great that the helicopter was able to come and get her (the pilot did an amazing job in the windy, precarious conditions), but the real work was done by her fellow climbing partners and the other climbers who selflessly abandoned their own plans to aid in this woman's rescue. A little on the PollyAnna side of life, but I have to say that my faith in humanity was restored. My thoughts are with Joyce and I'm crossing my fingers for a speedy recovery.

[iain]

Nice work guys! Good to see everyone helping out, and helping out intelligently rather than getting in the way of a rescue op.