Ice Climbing Accident / Guiness Gully / Field BC

[gregm]

get well soon! glad to hear it wasn't worse.

[jmckay]

Is this not the right code to submitt photos so WTF?

 

 

Edited December 13, 2005 by jmckay

[layton]

ok, it's been long enough. what happened and to who?

[Blake]

Is this not the right code to submitt photos so WTF?

 

 

 

 

it's the right code, put those image address (what you wrote between the ) isn't a working link.

[Alpine_Tom]

(Sorry you will have to get out your calculators and translate 4 meters into whatever primitive length calculating system ancient cultures use)

 

sh*t -- that's like over eight cubits!

 

Seriously, I'm glad everyone's safe. It's been a brutal year in the mountains around here.

[Cobra_Commander]

night skiing in field!

 

[Alpinfox]

Guinness Gully is a three pitch ice climb located near the small town of Field in British Columbia Canada near the Alberta border. In between the 2nd and 3rd pitches of the climb is a low angled section of about 100m in length. In the upper third of this low-angled section there is a small cliff band (~5m tall) that spans the gully. A footpath skirts around the cliffband on the climber's left side.

 

After topping out on the climb and rappelling the upper most pitch, my partners and I were hiking down the low-angled section in order to get to the rappel of the second pitch. When Sam was directly above the highest part of the small cliffband, he tripped and went over the cliff headfirst.

 

He was knocked unconcious briefly, but was awake albeit disoriented, by the time I reached him. Dave and I quickly determined that Sam would be unable to rappel unaided, and could not weight his harness due to extreme pain, so we would not be able to lower him. We assisted Sam in putting on his down jacket and he then laid down flat on his back (position of most comfort) on a small piece of foam pad. Since Dave has more technical rescue training and I have more medical training, I stayed with Sam while Dave fixed two lines and rappeled to the base of the climb. He was able to initiate a rescue and then returned to the base of the second fixed line with a pack full of supplies (two sleeping bags, water, food, etc). I hauled the pack up and the gear was essential in keeping Sam warm and hydrated. Our first sign that Dave had been successful in initiating the rescue was the arrival of a Lake Louise fire truck which shined a very powerful spotlight up at us. They were able to quickly locate us because I had set my headlamp on its emergency flash setting and hooked it over a prominent tree branch. The arrival of that powerful spotlight lifted our spirits tremendously.

 

Sam and I had a long wait for the rescue folks to arrive with him suffering intense pain in his back and a few minutes of paralysis and some other signs of spinal trauma. Eventually a group of Canadian National Park Wardens (a professional mountain rescue group) did arrive with a full-body vacuum splint, another sleeping bag, and a sled/litter. We immobilized Sam in the vacuum splint and transfered him into the sled. Once Sam was packaged, the Wardens did an excellent job of lowering Sam all the way to the base of the climb with one 200m-long static line. Sam was then loaded into an ambulance and finally given morphine after ~9hrs post-accident.

 

We later learned that Sam had four badly broken ("burst fractures" of all three columns) vertebrae in his upper back. Statistically, more than 80% of people with three or more of that type of fracture are paralyzed instantly at the time of the accident, so Sam was very lucky to not suffer that fate. Sam's spine was imaged and immobilized at a hospital in Calgary and then, after several days, he was flown to Harborview Medical Center here in Seattle. He underwent surgery on Friday to install two titanium rods in his back and to fuse 7-8 vertebrae. He is recovering very well and is being transferred out of the Neuro ICU this evening and will likely be discharged from the hospital by the end of the week. He will be out of work for about 6 months, but is expected to make a nearly full recovery with only a loss of ~30% mobility in his neck. Hopefully he will not have any chronic pain, but that is a possibility.

 

Sam is extremely lucky to be alive and not paralyzed. He is in good spirits, considers himself "the luckiest guy in the world", and plans to get back to physical activity as soon as possible.

 

My heartfelt thanks go out to everyone involved in Sam's rescue and treatment, with special thanks to the Canadian National Park Wardens based in Lake Louise and my partner Dave Burdick.

 

I don't believe that there is much to be learned from this accident. Sam simply tripped while walking on low-angled terrain with crampons on and unfortunately his trip happened at a very bad time. As a team, we had the supplies, training, and level-headedness to keep a horrible situation from becoming tragic, and for that I am very thankful.

 

Be careful out there folks.

[Cobra_Commander]

...he was able to initiate a rescue and then returned to the base of the second fixed line with a pack full of supplies

 

That must have felt like forever...it's a long ways down and back up to that climb if I remember right. Incredible luck about the back, thank goodness. So easy to accidently catch a crampon on those rambling step climbs like that.

[olyclimber]

Both you and Dave did a great job taking caring of business and getting Sam out of there (along with the mountain rescue pros). Thanks for posting the story Pax.

[Squid]

Thanks for sharing the good news of his prognosis. He was pretty lucky to have the two of you.

[Alpinfox]

Hey Fox-

I was thinking about your incident, and wondering about the play of events there. Had you splinted/immobilized Sam before moving him onto the sleeping pad? Were you thinking in terms of spinal injury at first, or did that evolve later?

 

I'm defintely not trying to second-guess you here, I'm just very interested in the accident and how you responded to it.

 

Immediately after the accident, Sam sat up. At that point we put his jacket on him and put the foam pad under him. He then said he wanted to try to walk. I protested, but he wanted to give it a try. He made it about 20-30 steps before figuring out that he was not going to be able to keep it up. We then put the pad down and he laid on it. We had nothing to immobilize him with and trying to use tree branches or something would have resulted in a mess and been uneffective. As long as he laid still, his spinal cord was not in danger of further traumatic damage (although damage from swelling was a problem, but out of our control) so I was more worried about the hypothermia issue. I held his head still while we waited for the rescue. Due to some signs/symptoms that Sam presented, Sam and I knew for sure that he had a spinal injury shortly after Dave left, although we of course suspected it earlier.

[dbb]

Thanks all for your well wishes!

 

Some things I took away from this accident were:

 

We were very lucky that Sam's pack had quite a large foam pad in it, that we all were carrying down jackets, and that we had several chemical-hand warming packs with us. Also, prussiks are not a great option for reascending fixed lines, especially half ropes that are icy. The second pitch's rope was free hanging, and once I got up into the air on it, my prussiks slipped. I've always carried prussiks and a pulley on my harness, but from now on I'll be carrying a pair of tiblocs. they are more efficient for jugging a line and wouldn't slip (when used with the right carabiner). Beyond that, just be careful out there. One slip can change everything...

 

Dave

[tomtom]

Also, prussiks are not a great option for reascending fixed lines, especially half ropes that are icy. The second pitch's rope was free hanging, and once I got up into the air on it, my prussiks slipped. I've always carried prussiks and a pulley on my harness, but from now on I'll be carrying a pair of tiblocs. they are more efficient for jugging a line and wouldn't slip (when used with the right carabiner). Beyond that, just be careful out there. One slip can change everything...

 

Another hearty "Good Job!" to Pax and Dave.

 

[FYI to the noobs: when ascending fixed ropes, you can tie a backup knot (an overhand or figure eight on a bight clipped to a locker on your belay loop) every 15-20 ft or so. If you start slipping down the rope, then the backup knot will catch you.]

[jmckay]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 14, 2005 by jmckay

[sweatinoutliquor]

Shit you guys I'm really glad to hear that things worked out for you. Such an unfortunate accident but it could have been so much worse. Here to you for taking good care of your friend, and also to all the rescue professionals who rolled up and did their job so well. Accidents like this happen, and from what I understand from your story, you guys had your shit pretty much together. Good decision not to force any self rescue in that situation.

PS. I agree about the prussik point you made...

[mneagle]

I just found out today that the "Sam" involved in the accident is a buddy of mine that I used to climb with a lot when I lived in Washington. This is terribly upsetting to learn. He is an excellent guy and a great partner. I sure hope he gets through this soon and gets back on his feet and back in the mountains. Here are a few shots of him in better condition:

 

Total Soul - Three O'Clock Rock

 

Summit of Black Peak

 

Smoking a sausage atop Prussik Peak

 

Crux-offwidth on Backbone Ridge - Dragontail Peak

 

Bivy before Liberty Crack - Liberty Bell

 

Best wishes dude.

[alpineyeti]

Just in case the positive, get well soon, heal quickly vibes have died down, I will throw out some more. Keep healing, get well!

[mneagle]

I talked to Sam and he gave me a sickening first hand account of the ordeal. He may want to post the story himself, so I won't steal his thunder but one thing I can say is that I hope to never feel myself going into spinal shock the way he did (imagine being paralyzed with your whole body on fire while sporting a big boner). He's out of traction but has to wear a brace for 12 weeks or so. He's looking at 6-12 months of rehab but if all goes well he should be back to normal with only a 10-20% decrease in neck mobility. He admits to a huge amount of luck in not being paralyzed but completely credits Dave and Pax with saving his life. Come out and climb with me in RMNP and I'll buy you guys some 's.

 

Hang in there dude.

[jmckay]

Guinness Gully Field BC

December 20th 2005

Temp: –11

Wind: light/west

Sky: over cast 800’ ceiling

 

10:30 am

Arrived in field parking for Guinness. One car parked and older white Subaru. Hike up to Guinness suspecting that people will be there from the tracks. It is just a day to get some exercise and I don’ feel in any shape mentally or physically to climb anything harder. Sure enough there is a party of four that work together on the first pitch. As the last two get set to leave I scampered up to the base of the route.

11:30 am: The ice was cold from the sub 20C temps the previous week. Not much for snow in the area. Steep wind effected gully features would be suspect? My climbing partner for this day was a park warden. Just before setting off I was trying to figure out how to get by without the second pack. We could do it if we left the radio behind I was thinking. I also knew that there wasn’t a snow flakes chance in hell of her leaving that brick behind. What ever happened to just being out there? I gave her half hearted “why don’t you leave the fuck’in thing here look” but pulled my punch cause that wasn’t going to happen and I would just make trouble for myself. Take away the safety net and fly solo. Anyhow we ended with the pack, brick, first aid kit, something else but I am not sure what.

 

The route has been climbed tons and if you’re making pick placements your climbing it wrong. You can get screws when you need them without too much problem. The ice brittle but solid with natural foot placements kicked in at every stance.

12:15pm:

Things move along and I catch up to the group ahead. The have broken into two teams the girls on one rope wearing near matching jackets. The guys on the other rope. 60 meters takes me just to the base of the second pitch. I placed a screw in solid ice threw on a plakette and proceeded to bring up my coffee loving, doughnut laden partner. You can see this not recommended technique demonstrated in the first picture. I didn’t want to chain myself to one spot so I walked down a little further in case the parties above knocked down ice. They did but barely enough to fill a scotch glass. I also didn’t want to give the impression that I was in any hurry to get anywhere. I had already started a beer and burger chant. I knew that if we got stalled out and I continued the chant I could get out of this deep freeze.

The warden that I was with joined me quick enough and we proceed to wait or queue. Making small talk I found out that they were old friend getting together for a little climbing before Christmas. 2 from out of province a Canmoron and Edmontonian. The group showed a pretty solid skill level placing the belayers out of the way. Sinking screws without too much problem. In fact it was perfect text book the only thing that didn’t belong in the picture was I.

 

 

I was the wild card. Here I am this force who like anything has the ability to change events simply by existing. Do people feel pressured when this big ugly fat ape of a man comes steamrolling up your ass? Is there a subconscious force that makes you do things different then you might have done otherwise? Is the key to space travel the mastering of time travel? What is the US going to do about Bolivia and the legal Coca trade? What do the Tim Horton’s security people do with all their warden footage? These are just a few of the things going through my head.

Lisa I can see is reliving the events that had happened pretty much in the exact same spot 2 weeks earlier. She had been attending a wild beast feast in Lake Louise when a call came out that there was an injured climber on Guinness Gully in Field. To late to fly and to make a long story short she worked the night with her warden buddies and they managed to get the climber out lowering him in a sled. Part of the reason for coming was to have a look at the climb after the accident but 99% of it is that it is easy enough for me to climb comfortably.

 

Approx 12:45 pm

A body comes flying off the top of pitch 2. It is the girl on the twin ropes. She falls roughly 20 meters before the ropes come tight on her last piece of pro-located right at the top of the second pitch. (Above that point the pitch kicks back on to grade 2 ices but bullet proof as hell from the cold temps.) Mid height on the waterfall her leg touches the waterfall I am guessing this is when her leg broke. The brunt of her impact was on the right scapula area. Severe bruising and perhaps a slightly fractured hand. Her head impacted with the ice and she lost consciousness. Her partner held the belay which prevented her from sliding farther. Had she been soloing with no ropes her momentum would have carried her over the first pitch.

12:45:03: I ended up being first responder. I first supported her torso and head. Her breathing was irregular and she was snoring. Speckled white foam was coming from her closed lips. . Her eyes were closed and she had a severe laceration above the right eye. (Later identified as coming from the tool) Spinal was definitely a consideration and the primary reason for keeping her where she was. Which was a 30-degree compact snow slope 10 cm thick (sorry Dave, about as thick as your fist in a ski glove) on water ice.

12:46:30 Lisa has ordered a helicopter sling rescue

 

12:46:35 Lisa the warden does this sort of thing a lot so I figure I will just let her call the shots. After all she is trained for this. (I am trained at nothing so when it comes to doing nothing don’t be giving me no advice.) We gather a couple down jackets. Her belayer tyes her off and comes down to support the head. By this time she has regained consciousness is not aware of what happened, where she is, or events leading up to fall. She is starting to shiver.

1:00 pm the lead climber on the second rope has walked on the west side of the pitch, around and joined us. He had made it to a safe spot before the accident happened so could untie safely at that point. Shortly after this the ambulance arrives in the valley next to the barn. This is the staging area for the forth-coming heli-sling rescue.

 

1:35 PM Mark Ledwidge NP public safety slings in with splint and some gear. The patient has become more oriented and let s out a stream of profanities that would make a sailor blush. She can feel her legs and tells us we can rule out spinal. Not being the best source of information we decide to ignore her advice. At this point we had slipped packs under her to insulate her from the ice. She was still suspended from ice anchor although transferred to a new one. Safety lines had been set to hook up equipment and tether visiting rescuers if required.

 

1:40 Brad White NP public safety slings in with additional equipment.

 

 

1:40 – 2:00 patient splinted and packaged and airlifted to ambulance.

 

 

 

 

 

2:20 Mark Ledwidge flies out with one of the climbers and the extra gear but not before dissin my climbing Helmut.

 

2:30 there are just the two guys my climbing partner and myself in the gully. A tougher man might have carried on and finished the climb. I however had all the excuses I needed to retreat back to my couch. With that we stripped the gear that was left and headed home. We stopped in at the Mineral Springs hoping that they were yuppie billionaires and were going to leave us a small fortune. Turns out they were people just like me but younger, better looking probably smarter. So we settled for their gratitude and hope it wasn’t us that caused the whole thing in the first place.

[still_climbin]

WOW! Very lucky you two were there, radio and all.

[billcoe]

Great pics and story: best line "(I am trained at nothing so when it comes to doing nothing don’t be giving me no advice.) "

 

Thanks for sharing that jmkay. BTW, get well dude(and dudette) to your health !

 

Moral of that story: bring bricks!

[iceclaws]

Hi

 

I post this to provide, for those of you interested, an update of my injury, and to thank you for your well-wishes posted above.

 

As mentioned, my fall was December 2nd 2005, around 5 pm, at the end of a week of ice climbing in Canadian Rockies, with Dave and Pax.

 

It was, if you will, a hiker’s injury: a misstep along an unroped traverse of low angle terrain amid our descent off Guinness Gully on the Northeastern slope of Mt. Dennis outside the small township of Field, British Columbia.

 

A front-point of my right crampon stubbed upon something, pitching me forward. My left crampon skated across a rock and gravity finished me off. I fell approximately 15 feet, head first, laden with too much climbing hardware to complete the summersault.

 

When I awoke the air was dim, the scene was blurry, and I thought I was in some city park I couldn’t name. A lightning bolt had struck my upper back and neck. I stood up and took twenty steps, which were twenty too many and I essentially collapsed into my partners’ arms.

 

My confusion was short lived. My pain was not.

 

“You know the drill,” Dave said to Pax.

 

Dave is a member of Seattle Mountain Rescue. He rappelled down the remaining two pitches of the waterfall to summon the Canadian Parks’ rescue wardens. On his way down he fixed our two ropes with high strength tie-offs he knew would need to support the ascent of multiple rescuers and rescue gear.

 

Meanwhile Pax, whom I had met some 4 years earlier while providing a lecture to his EMT class in North Seattle, stayed on the hill with me. He kept me warm, immobilized and hydrated, and he continuously checked in with my psyche. He strapped his headlight to the prong of a nearby tree branch, in strobe mode.

 

It was a cold scene, the temperature dropped to minus 15 degrees Celsius according to the Banff newspaper’s coverage of these events. I rubbed my cold feet together in attempt to avoid frostbite.

 

Which explains, I think, the guilty pleasure I had when a sudden wave of intense tingly heat washed over my hands and feet and I, um, maintained an erection I neither asked for nor deserved. My feet stopped rubbing together, because they lost all power. Nor could I move my upper extremities. Pax and I assessed limb by limb, muscle group by muscle group, all of which had zero strength. My limbs were floppy. I was tetraplegic.

 

I thought of my family and the faith my parents place in my ability to make sound decisions. I recalled the wheelchair of a ventilator-dependent tetraplegic teenager whom I cared for as an intern here at Harborview. A strong puff made it go forward, a strong sip put it in reverse, soft puff for right, soft sip for left. Daily, he would ask me to disconnect his ventilator.

 

Ten minutes after it started, my spinal shock resolved. The intense stocking-and-glove heat, the erection, the flaccid limbs, gone, but never will be forgotten.

 

But this story is about something more than me. I believe it’s about quality first responders. Or let’s call them what they are: rescuers. Beginning with Dave and Pax. They knew the drill and executed it precisely. I could not ask for more qualified climbing partners. The fire engines from Field and Lake Louise spotlighted the entire length of the waterfall, turning night into day. The foot of the waterfall is a good quarter-mile from the road. Spotlights, to me now, mean hope.

 

Ten Canadian Parks wardens involved themselves in my extrication. Four of them climbed the two pitches of waterfall to my location. They integrated the skills of Dave and Pax. They executed a highly technical litter rescue. Their communication during the rope rigging was deliberate and reassuring. I was immobilized in a cervical collar and full body vacuum splint, which one crampon stab could have rendered soft. Pax, having shared the experience of my tetraplegia, promoted the log roll routine to an act of religious veneration and advertised it to everybody on its every occasion. An ice shield was lowered over my eyes, and Dave helped one ace climbing warden, Brad White, attend the basket as we lowered - more smoothly than I would ever have imagined - down the ice.

 

What I’m trying to say is: my rescue was a perfectly choreographed one.

 

It had to be. My spinal cord had no room to wiggle. None. I had multiple unstable spine fractures from C5 thru T3. C6-7 and T1-2 were fracture-dislocations. What you see in this CT scan reformat:

 

 

is a scary 8mm of anterolisthesis, or forward slip, of the vertebral body T1 upon the vertebral body T2 (the vertically-oriented lucent space between the two bony stacks is the spinal canal and you’re correct, it should be aligned). Vertebral bodies C7,T1,T2,T3 all were fractured with multiple posterior element fractures behind the spinal cord. A bone fragment was afloat in the spinal canal. Cerebral spinal fluid leaked from a tear in the dura, and an epidural hematoma tracted from C2-T2. That my spinal cord was spared permanent damage is almost unbelievable.

 

I was handed over to paramedics by 3 a.m., still able to move my limbs. Plumes of goose feathers littered their rig when they cut off my parka. The medics monitored me, preserved my immobility, treated my pain, and missed every pothole and bump en route to Banff, and again en route to Calgary.

 

So, I didn’t just receive ordinary help. With certainty, I received a standard of help that preserved, against great odds, my neurologic function. Millimeters, or a single millimeter, shy of that standard could have rendered me seated for the rest of my life.

 

So what’s a hero anyway? You may have read David Roberts’ recent book about heroism in mountain climbing where by the end he concludes that it hardly exists. He gives Sebastian Junger credit for the most meaningful distinction between heroism and courage. Apparently Junger was frustrated that Perfect Storm was popularly lumped into the adventure genre with Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. He cited the difference between those so exhilarated by risk that they take, if you will, risky vacations, and those who take risks for a living like the fishermen who sank with the Andrea Gail, or miners, or to the point, rescuers. Heroism, Yunger said, is more than courage. It is, rather and specifically, “courage in the service of others”

 

None of the climbers I climb with mistake climbing for heroism, so I doubt Junger’s distinction is lost on most all of you. I only raise it to consider that by no fluke was my rescue and pre-hospital care executed so professionally. Dave didn’t join Seattle Mountain Rescue for mere high adventure. Pax didn’t seek it in his EMT training. The Parks Canada rescue wardens were much more than ace climbers. All their training and their teamwork with the fire departments of two townships and their paramedics produced for me something far beyond what any group of overeducated thrill seekers could have accomplished.

 

I spent 5 days in traction in a Calgary hospital, and on Dec 8th traveled home from the Rockies in a manner I never would have intended, upon an Airlift Northwest medical Learjet with my boss, Dr. Michael Copass, medical director of the Harborview Medical Center Emergency Services, accompanying as a flight nurse. I was handed over to Medic One at Boeing Field, and driven to Harborview. It’s hard to describe what feeling of homecoming is being wheeled into my work place, halo screwed into my head, traction vest ratcheted to beyond 50 pounds, to be cared for by colleagues. The following day, I was fused from C4 to T4. My operative report reads like a novel.

 

For deeds so heroic as the first-responder care to which I owe my neurologic function, I am forever indebted.

 

“You know the drill” Dave said to Pax.

 

And they all did. They knew it perfectly.

 

Thank you again, for your comments on this site,

 

Sam Warren

[Dechristo]

Thanks, Sam, for taking the time to give us a truly marvelous and inspiring account.

[pup_on_the_mountain]

Thanks very much for sharing Sam. Wish you all the best for a speedy recovery.

[Weekend_Climberz]