Adams Accident Info???

[ClimbingPanther]

I was suprised not to find any questions/info about an accident I heard about on Adams last Friday. Anybody know more about this besides an oh-so-informative news article? Sorry if this hyperlink doesn't work, I'm new to fancy-schmancy posting tricks.

 

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_070706_news_mtadams_rescue.35c5c028.html

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Probably another person who glissaded with crampons and caught a point.

[fettster]

I've not heard anything besides what you've posted.

[Gary_Yngve]

We saw some folks from a distance doing that on Baker. They didn't get hurt, but we didn't feel like waiting for them (they had to pack up camp which was a ways from where we were) to offer our friendly advice.

[Cobra_Commander]

I'm sure with enough speculation the truth will come out.

[fenderfour]

I'm sure with enough speculation the truth will come out.

 

Quote of the day

[mikeg]

A group of us were on Adams when we saw the helicopter fly in, circle around a bit, and land at the Lunch Counter. We were still about 500ft below. Talked to a couple of guys on their way down, and they said that some guy tried to "test" the glissade (with crampons on) starting at the false summit, slid a short distance, and broke his ankle.

[Cobra_Commander]

And then I assume he was bitten by a king cobra at the lunch counter to justify that helicopter.

[ClimbingPanther]

Seriously! Crampons should come from the factory with a huge disclaimer/warning on them about this because clearly the 10384752 gazillion people that have done this before with astonishingly identical results did not provide enough of a history lesson.

[lI1|1!]

Seriously! Crampons should come from the factory with a huge disclaimer/warning on them about this because clearly the 10384752 gazillion people that have done this before with astonishingly identical results did not provide enough of a history lesson.

 

no one will read it. they need to post a big sign at the top of the lunch counter because this is where most of these accidents take place.

[sobo]

We (CWMR) fielded 9 members, who were put on stand-by while the District Ranger investigated whether or not the FS could get a chopper from the Coast Guard or Oregon's 1042nd ANG. If a chopper proved to be unavailable, then CWMR was to ascend to the climber and perform a ground evac of the 23 yoa male who had suffered an ankle injury.

 

We were called off by YSO at 1615 hours, because the 1042's helo had already lifted the subject from the mountain by 1500 hours. Coast Guard was called first, but could not reach that altitude, so they declined to assist. The subject spent the night in a hospital, and was released the next day. Apparently his injury was not that serious, or they have very good surgeons at that particular hospital.

 

We are still wondering why somebody didn’t call us to say the helo had already picked him off and we could go drinking.

 

Regarding the glissade with crampons folly: We bring at least two or three people down from Adams' Lunch Counter every year because of this tom-foolery. It will never change as long as any idiot can get a pair of crampoons and find his/her way to the trailhead.

[mc_tree]

Why would you wear crampons if the surface is soft enough to slide? It's to much energy wasted wearing crampons on Mt. Adams with our recent 14,000 foot freezing levels.

[Cobra_Commander]

Seems like an odd risk management choice to call in 1042 for an ankle injury at altitude. But perhaps there are unknown details.

[babcock]

Well, I was lucky enough to be the first one to come across this kid as he started to glissade from the false summit on his way back down. He was litterally 20 feet below the false summit when he messed up his ankle. Nice guy...he was out from GA visiting a friend and "wanted to test the snow hardness" before taking his crampons off. The snow set up nice and hard the night before and was quite solid from the lunch counter up to the false summit. I managed to gather together some climbers and we got the guy splinted and warm.

As for the helicopter, I think the origional plan was to take him up the 20' to the false summit so he wasn't sliding down with the bad ankle.

Five hours later we'd lowered him down to the lunch counter where we waited for them to make the call on getting him out of there. The funniest thing was how long it took for someone to make the decision on how to get him out of there. We didn't know if rangers were coming up or if he was getting lifted out for ever.

 

Lesson learned...take a rope on easy climbs because you may have to rescue someone. We were luck to run into the guy we did...he had splints, tape, rope, all sorts of things for a walk up. Everyone else who passed (as well as myself) had minimal gear.

[sobo]

Cobra:

We never seem to get good initial beta on call-outs. I posted the info that we got from our Sheriff's SAR coordinator, since we were never dispatched to the scene. Someone other than us (CWMR) started looking for a chopper.

 

EDIT: babcock- thanks for being there for this kid and helping out. Your level of frustration regarding information flow is shared by this person and our unit as a whole.