Climbers Stranded on Liberty Cap DEM #97-1040

Stranded climbers (on right) talk to Park rangers after rescue on summit of Mt. Rainier

On Tuesday June 17th at 3:00 P.M. Gus Bush was contacted by Heidi Reick at the Mt. Rainier communication center. Two Climbers had been stranded on the top of Liberty Cap by a weekend snow storm. They requested eight strong mountain rescue volunteers with Mt. Rainier summit experience to commit to a three day climb. Gus then contacted John Wilcox, chief ranger at Mt. Rainier for more information. John said that the two climbers (Mike Catlett and Don Willcox) had left the White River Ranger station on the 12th of June for a four day climb of Liberty Ridge. They had reached the summit of Liberty Cap (14,112 Feet) when they were caught in a white out. While the had the equipment to wait out the storm they were running out of food and fuel when they finally called park rangers on a cell phone on Sunday. The weather forecast called for the storm to last till Thursday. Initial attempts by helicopter had proved unsuccessful.

Tracy Berryman started a callout and eight members responded; they were: Ed Hrivnak, Jim Lewis, Chris Berryman, John Kirkman, Fran Mcfarland, Jeff Sharp, Tom Miner and Andrew Cull. They met at the Cache at 5:00 A.M. Wednesday morning and drove to the White River Ranger station. After a briefing by Park Rangers they were tasked to climb to Camp Schurman to assist a team of Park Rangers who had left the night before. Around 11:00 A.M a Chinook helicopter was able to land on the summit during a break in the weather and extract the stranded climbers. The TMRU team was turned around on the Inner Glacier. They returned to the Cache by 5:00 P.M.

The following letter was received by the unit from Donald Willcox:

Dear Members:

Donald Wilcox and Mike Catlett talk with news crews at White River Parking Lot (Photo videocaptured from KSTW News coverage)

Due to unrelenting zero visibility and severe weather including thirty hours of snow squalls with winds of 70-100 miles per hour, my partner and I were forced to spend four days at Liberty Cap (14,100 ft.) on Mt. Rainier, WA. On Sunday June 15th, 1997, we reached Liberty Cap at 11:00 in clear weather, leaving over nine hours of bright daylight to descend to Glacier Basin (estimated travel time 4-7 hours).

Given clear weather and a good forecast through Wed. June 18 we melted 1.5 liters of water and ate the last of our food for lunch. We reasoned that this would refresh our energy and hydration and allow for a more rapid descent. Unfortunately, as we began our descent at 12:00- 12:10 p.m., an unpredicted weather front entombed the summit in a veil of clouds allowing no better than 20 foot visibility until sometime early Wed. morning.

Through a deliberate and calculated process of energy preservation and a system of melting snow in our sleeping bags, we managed to maintain our precious heat-producing energy, without food or fuel over the next four days. Despite these efforts, had the weather not broken on Wed. our very survival would have depended upon you and the other ground crews advancing on our camp at 14,100. My climbing partner and I were made aware of your organization's efforts in the rescue operation on June 18th 1997. We regret that we were unable to acknowledge the critical role you played in assisting in our rescue in media interviews (unfortunately, our thanks to the U. S. Army was edited out of many of the news reports as well).

We fully understand the sacrifice that each of you made on our behalf. Leaving jobs, families and accepting risk to your well being, you advanced towards Liberty Cap in a selfless effort to preserve our lives. For this we thank and are indebted to each and every one of you. We would also like to acknowledge that we recognize that each climber is ultimately responsible for his or her own actions. While we took every reasonable precaution on this climb and were actually complimented for our decision making by the National Park Service, we regret that events involving our climb endangered your members.

Again, on behalf of my partner Mike Catlett, our wives, families and friends I would like to thank you all for your dedication to climbing safety and particularly to the extraordinary courage and caring exhibited in rescue efforts on our behalf.

Emotional Health

As Mountain Rescue volunteers we seek to meet the needs of victims and families that have become lost or hurt in the mountains. As we seek to fill this need we become exposed to an environment that the general public never sees. We hope every mission has a happy ending , but when a rescue mission turns into a body recovery you can see sights that leave a lasting impression.

Most individuals who are exposed to a traumatic event will react both physically and emotionally.
Physical Responses:

1. Physical shock, numbness. disorientation, i.e., frozen with fright,
2. Fight or flight reaction; adrenaline is released, physical senses may become acute, heart rate increases, hyperventilation and sweating.

1. Shock , disbelief and denial,
2. Anger, rage, fear, grief, confusion and guilt,
3. Emotional ups and downs that lead to equilibrium.

Tacoma Mountain Rescue Board Meeting June 25, 1997

Call to order 19:31 hrs.

Board members in attendance:

• Balance sheet was read and motion was made to accept treasurers report. Motion was seconded and passed.
• A donation from Robert Kunts was received.

• Mt. Rainier, stranded climbers on Liberty Ridge (See Opening Article).

• Wednesday night class was survival skills taught by Air Force instructor.
• Unit climb and weekend training was canceled due to lack of participation.

• Motion was made to allocate not more than $300 for new rappel simulator. Motion was seconded and passed.
• Ed Hrivnak reported that new life preservers for helicopter flights over water are now in the truck (four) and in the helo-cache (six).

• Reported updated pager numbers.

• Nothing to report.

• Larry Lorentson was voted in at Field Support.
• New member check bounced, first time!
• Ed Hrivnak wants new members to get New Member packets.

• Mountaineers are charging for our use of the Club House for Banquet, Chris Berryman to contact.
• Discussion of two investment plans for Unit funds. Motion was made to invest $5,000 into each. Motion was seconded and passed.

• Second phone line to become fax and event line, Tracy Berryman to set up.
• Simacs, Tegners, and Williams to be life time members of Unit.
• Alan Givotovsky gave report on MRA Conference in Provo. We should comment on NFPA Standards by end of July.
• Recommend we submit accident reports to MRA.
• NASAR. sent representative.
• Web site page samples were shown to the Board, final draft to be reviewed by the Board before posting.

• Gus Bush suggested that the Unit purchase copies of the Riggers Handbook for resale to Unit members, motion was made, seconded and passed to purchase 20 books .
• Jeff Sharp presented a copy of the first year report on the helicopter program.
• Ed Hrivnak is teaching a CPR class on July 26 at McCord.
• Ed also mentioned the Memorial Grove on McChord as a possible location for memorials to Unit members.
• Alan Givotovsky commented on the quality of some of the MRA Unit's videos and is looking into having one produced for the Unit.

Prez's Corner

I was hoping with the summer months upon us that the mission load would pickup. We are averaging about 1 rescue mission a month now instead of our normal 1 mission every two weeks. What is the cause for this? I'm not sure. So if you feel like you're missing out on the rescues, you're not.

To compensate for the drop in missions the Unit has adjusted just like a peace-time army. We have plenty of training to choose from this year to keep individuals busy.

If there is a particular area that you would like to help teach, please step forward and ask.

I'd like to get some new instructors for the 1998 training schedule so we don't have the same old faces teaching year after year. Tacoma Mountain Rescue has always prided itself with our training tempo. We logged over 4,500 hours of training time in 1996. A new record for us. Impressive when one takes into account that we have about 50 active members.

The Unit is designing a brochure for our survival kits and for the unit itself. If you have ideas for a brochure please give them to me in writing so they can be applied to the brochure.

Finally, if you're looking for an odd job within the unit to help with (cutting grass, inspecting rescue equipment, prepping survival kits, cleaning the truck, checking gear, etc... ) please let me know and I'll get a task assigned to you. Thank you.

Ed Hrivnak, President

Mountain Rescue Picnic

Mountain Rescue will hold a picnic on Wednesday August 20th, 6:30 P.M. at Tom Miner's house, 8210 Sehmel DR. in Gig Harbor. The Unit will provide hamburgers, hot dogs and sodas. Bring the wife and family to meet the other members.

Take the North Rosedale exit off Hwy 16, take a left to Burnham, go west approx 2 miles to Sehmel Dr (see Map).

Mountain Rescue Around the World

THE AUSTRIAN MOUNTAIN RESCUE SERVICE ...The Austrian Mountain Rescue service has over 2800 trained men and women in addition to a helicopter squadron with 120 specialists. For avalanche rescues, they have 257 avalanche search dogs.

Each year, these rescue teams, organized into 292 local units, respond to 7000 missions. In the last ten years, they rescued 64,488 people with 1988 fatalities.

The number of missions has been steadily increasing over the past 50 years, especially rescues of uninjured subjects. Last year alone, 8191 injured subjects needed help.

The number of fatalities has decreased during this period from a record high of 3278 in the ten years prior to 1975, to less than 2000 in the last ten years.

Austria is a relatively small country compared to the United States but is one of the alpine countries of Europe where climbing has been a national pastime.
The Osterriech Reporter, Seattle, May 1997

Training Dates for 1998 Calendar

MONTH	KIT PARTY	WED TRAINING	SAT/SUN TRAINING	BOARD MEETING
JAN	7	14	17-18	28
FEB	4	11	14-15	25
MAR	4	11	14-15	25
APR	1	8	11-12	29
MAY	6	13	16-17	27
JUN	3	10	13-14	24
JUL	-	8	11-12	29
AUG	5	12	15-16	26
SEP	2	9	12-13	30
OCT	7	14	17-18	28
NOV	4	11	14-15	25
DEC	2	9	12-13	30

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

• Children's Safety Fair
• State SAR Conference
• Unit Climbs
• Unit Picnic
• Unit Banquet
• Bigfoot
• National MRA Conference
• Helicopter Training extra weekend

Basic Rigging Class

Purpose: To give Unit members specific instruction on rigging rope systems commonly used in rescue work.

When: Aug 14, 1997 7:30 to 10:0 p.m.

Where: Rescue Cache.

What to Bring: bring a note pad and pencil for notes and to diagram systems.

Instructor: Chris Berryman.

Attendance: RSVP 581-6614.

Note: No previous knowledge of systems is required.

©Copyright 1997 Tacoma Mountain Rescue