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DEM #98-0747 May 3, 1998 |
The Unit was contacted by the Pierce county Department of Emergency
Management at 12:57 A.M. on May 3rd 1998. The Unit was asked to help in
the rescue and recovery of two injured hikers on McClellan Butte near
Snoqualmie Pass. One of the hikers had fallen about 200 feet, and the other
had fallen about 30 feet while trying to rescue the first hiker. What follows is
a compilation of two first person accounts from team members Russ Brinton
and Fran McFarland.
The page came about 1:30 a.m. to meet at the Cache at 4 a.m.. 9 members responded Jeff Sharp, Tom Miner, Ken Capron , John Kirkman, Dave Treber, Jim Creamer, Russ Brinton, Rob Penney and Fran McFarland. We went directly to the trail head of McClellan Butte. There were a lot of vehicles there already: 4x4, KCESAR, KC police and SMR. The parking area was very organized though, with room for our truck and shuttles for our members who drove themselves.
The three subjects (hikers? climbers?) were near the top of an avalanche chute (one of two that leads to a point high on the Butte.)The chute at this location is steep and snow covered, and depending on the conditions, the snow can be either hard and treacherous, or firm and good for plunge stepping. Someone stated that the first person to fall had little or no ice axe arrest training nor skill. The first subject fell, suffering serious injuries. He had slid into an area of trees and came to a stop when his body(chest) struck a tree. It was reported that he was incoherent from the outset and slipped into unconsciousness soon after. He may have been alive for a couple hours. The second subject attempted to get down to the person and fell twice, incurring his injuries during the second fall. He sustained pretty major injuries, a compound fracture of the leg(knee area), and a fracture and gash of his arm. The third member assisted both victims and then went for help.
Jeff Sharp was the operations leader; during his briefing he learned that the
injured man was still on the mountain, at a site suitable for a helicopter hoist
operation. The previous day's attempts at heli-extraction were unsuccessful
and another attempt was to be made a little later that morning. Chances
looked good as the weather appeared to be improving. We were assigned to go
up and relieve the King Co./Seattle Units and to initiate transportation of the
patient if the helicopter extraction was unsuccessful. If the heli-extraction was
successful, we were to proceed to the accident scene and initiate the recovery.
We left Base somewhere around 6:00 a.m. and were shuttled up a logging road
by the 4X4 unit. At about 7:00 a.m. we heard the helicopter come up the
valley, make a few passes, then begin hovering, about 20-30 min later we heard
him leave, and over the radio they announced that the pickup was
successful..(A large amount of cheering could be heard over the radio and on
the mountain) We arrived at the King County ESAR bivy site a few minutes
later, and took a break. They had a cascade litter that we borrowed and a litter wheel prepared for use upon our return. At
about 8:00 a.m. we encountered the Seattle Units descending the mountain, and received additional information from them
regarding the location and condition of the third subject. SMR needs to be commended for their work. The terrain was
steep and rough and moving a victim with the above injuries to an open site had to be very challenging.
We arrived at the scene a little after 9:00 a.m., packaged the subject and began lowering at about 10:00 A.M. A series of lowers (about 5) was performed to get the litter to the trail in the woods. Since this was a recovery, very simple systems were used - 200' 9mm rope, carabiners and webbing and a couple of attendants holding the webbing to control the litter. The lowers went fairly fast. We lowered down the chute to a place where we could traverse across the adjacent avalanche chute. Three members of SMR and SPART were there to assist. The trail was snow covered and fairly steep. A haul line was attached to the front and 4 pieces of webbing to the downhill side of the litter. 4 members controlled the litter from the uphill side with the webbing while others hauled forward. This too went remarkably well and fast. Once we reached the "trail" the litter was placed on the wheel and transported down to the intersection with the logging road, arriving there at 2:00 p.m. Everyone assisted in getting the litter down the trail to the road.
Some footnotes:
Jeff commented that this was one of the better run operations that he had been on, and seemed to be quite pleased (regarding how the Sheriff's office, etc. handled things -- very efficient and well organized!) 4 of the Seattle Rescuers were inserted by helicopter on Sat. night. The Seattle and King Co. volunteers deserve a lot of credit for the work they accomplished under difficult conditions (rough trail, poor weather, low or no light etc.). Our Unit did very well also, including the new members who were out on their first (or second) call-out.
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