Crampon Problems on the Triad Glacier

[Dan_Miller]

From today's (07/08/09) NPS Morning Report:

 

North Cascades National Park (WA)

Climber Rescued From Triad Glacier

 

On July 1st, two mountaineers successfully climbed two of the three summits of a peak known as The Triad in North Cascades National Park. While descending a steep snow slope, one of them took a sliding fall of approximately 100 feet. Unable to arrest the fall, he slammed into a rock at the bottom of the snow slope, which resulted in an open leg fracture but likely saved him from free-falling an additional 300 feet below the short rock field. Due to the exposure of the site and limited options for helicopter landing sites near the climber, responding rangers were short-hauled into the site and lifted out with the man to a staging site on the glacier 600 feet below. He was then flown out of the backcountry and transferred to an ambulance. A likely contributing factor was a problem with the climber’s crampons. Wilderness district ranger Kelly Bush was incident commander. [submitted by Kinsey Shilling, Chief Ranger]