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DEM #99-0524 March 21, 1999 |
The Unit was contacted by the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management at 11:00 A.M. on Sunday the 21st of March. Mt. Rainier Park Rangers had requested six Mountain Rescue Volunteers for a 56 year old climber who had fallen on the Upper Nisqually glacier.
A callout was made by Gus Bush and Fran McFarland and seven team members responded: Jim Andrues, Stan Kartes, Mike Mixon, Rob Penny and Ken Capron. Members Chris Berryman and Cheryl Wells responded from a Mountaineers training near Irish Cabin on the north side of the mountain by the Carbon River entrance to the Park.
The subject, E. Dawes Eddy, was ascending the mountain solo with permission from the Park. He had reached the 12,500 foot level around Gibraltar ledge when he fell down the area commonly known as the Nisqually chute, landing at around the 10,500 foot level. His fall was witnessed by a team of four other climbers who notified the park by cell phone. While one climber went down to Eddy to assess his injuries the rest returned to Camp Muir for rescue supplies.
Tacoma MR members were told to report to the Cache at 12:30 P.M. or at the Paradise Ranger Station at 2:30 P.M. When they arrived they were told to gear up for a climb to Camp Muir. They would be the back up to carry the injured climber off the mountain in case an attempt to get a helicopter to the injured climber failed. The weather was intermittently clearing up and then clouds would surround the mountain. A small Long 208 helicopter was able to land below the injured climber and remove him to the Kautz Creek Helipad around 3:30 P.M. Both Chris and Cheryl were standing by at the helipad and helped remove the subject from the park litter for transfer to the Northwest Airlift Helicopter's stretcher. He was then airlifted to Harborview Hospital where his injuries were determined to be a broken right lower leg (a very lucky man, Editor.) Our team met with Park Ranger Rick Kirschner who was the incident commander at Longmire to debrief and then returned home.
Tacoma Mountain Rescue |
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