On Wednesday, 12.23.09, the ten of us started from Manker Flat on a chilly and windy morning. We intended to climb the bowl but as we got our first view of it from down below we could see the spindrift rising above the ridges. At the hut we took shelter from the wind on it's downhill side, added a layer of clothing, put on crampons and decided the winds made the bowl too risky and headed out on the main trail to reach the summit.
Our friend MC, lives in Vancouver, Washington, where most of her hiking is limited to peaks of 3-5k and fell behind on the ascent. The intense wind eliminated conversation and kept our exchanges short: "ready," "let's go," "be careful" and "it's freakin' cold" kind of moments. We found ourselves breaking into groups of two to the summit and eight of us made it and had a few minutes of trying to keep our balance for congrats and photos before we dropped down to get out of the fierce summit gusts. On the way down we ran into Jeff Scofield and MC. MC was feeling like she had reached her summit and declared so at 9,600' as Jeff went on for a solo summit to meet us again on his way down.
Jeff, MC and I continued down together and what we did not know was that a rescue was already in the works. A young woman, Natalie, from another group climbing the bowl had fallen 1000' when a gust caused her to lose her balance. With the rest of our group ahead of us, two from our group with the most medical training, Sara and Bob immediately helped carry her with others to the hut and staged the scene and offered assistance. To make a long story short, Natalie was suffering from ice burns (abrasions from the fall) over most of her body and abdominal pains. We all offered items from our packs, hand warmers, bivy sacks, extra clothing to try and keep Natalie warm, but she was obviously hypothermic. Some climbers ran down the mtn to get cell service to call 911.
I had an early family Christmas Eve planned for that evening in Santa Barbara and had to make arrangements for Sara to get back to my house where she had been staying so I could (reluctantly) leave the mtn and there. Both Shin and Tracie offered to drive more than 100 miles out of their way to take Sara to my home when the rescue personnel arrived and eventually Tracie did just that. What generosity!
For some reason personnel was not able to carry Natalie down the trail on the litter and when the 3rd rescue helicopter, a Black Hawk, arrived around 9pm Natalie was finally on her way to the hospital. I think we were all impressed by the community of mountaineers that came together to aid Natalie and I am so thankful to have climbed with such generous hikers. Sara, Bob and Blake stayed with Natalie to the end as darkness fell and the temps kept dropping.
Sam ran down the hill to alert firefighters of the injury and later followed Tracie down the mtn when she needed to get gas for a very low tank. I heard he headed home at 7:30pm. Tracie waited out the evening to take Sara home and then drove to Orange County in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Natalie was released from the hospital on Christmas Day with ice burns treated and a broken finger. A very lucky climber for such a long fall.So our little winter hike turned into an epic day with, thankfully, a happy ending. A Christmas blessing if you ask me.
Ready to Rock 'n Roll (photo courtesy of Tracie)
60mph Gusts vs Stout Hikers
Rescue in action (photo courtesy of Blake)
Rest of my pix are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ryan.norma8 ... 0Mph122309#
