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DEM #001-036 January 7, 2001 |
The Unit was contacted by the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management at 4:14 A.M. on Sunday the 7th of January. They requested as many Mountain Rescue volunteers as were available to help recover the body of a 22-year-old male who had fallen approx. 80 feet near waterfalls on the Mashel River south of Eatonville, WA.
The subject and some friends had decided to have a beer party on the river on Saturday night. Early in the morning the subject told his friends that he was going for a walk. When he didn't return after a couple of hours his friends became worried and hiked out to their cars and called the Sheriff. They also called the subject's family. The Sheriff decided to wait for first light before beginning the search. The family however began their search of the area with flashlights. They discovered the subject's body at the bottom of an 80-foot cliff near the waterfalls. The Sheriff was able to call in paramedics to check to see if the subject was still alive. They accessed the body by following a 30 to 45 degrees sloped trail to the bottom of the cliff. It was at this time that Mountain Rescue was called to recover the body.
A page was made at 4:30 to meet at the cache a 6:30 A.M. or at the University of Washington Experimental station at the Pack Forest off Highway 7 at 8:00 A.M. Eleven Members responded to the call: Chris Berryman, Rod Lott, Rick Wire, Jim Andrues, Rick Lorenz, Jeff Sharp, Mike Mixon, Alan Givotovsky, Piro Kramar, Ken Capron and Talis Abolins. Also, six members of Pierce County ESAR were called to help with the carry out.
After everyone arrived at the site of the Search Base at Pack Forest it was decided to raise the body up the trail the sheriff and paramedics had used. While Jeff, Mike, Rod and Alan took the litter and body bag to the subject to begin packaging him for the haul, the rest of the team set up a haul system using the 400-foot rope. While some worked on building the system the rest went down the trail setting up change of direction pulleys to make the haul as smooth as possible to the top. After the haul started it went smoothly and the body was raised to the top and turned over to the Pierce County Medical Examiner. Alan called Gus Bush, the in town coordinator, around 10:00 A.M. and said the mission had been completed. Everyone returned safely to their homes
Tacoma Mountain Rescue |
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