Re: SNOW - Questions, Forecasts & Reports About Snow
Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 11:16 am
A girl from an Outdoors Club hike died there in '08. She slipped on the ice and fell down one of the chutes. There were also some rescues later that month. What seems to happen is people cross the snow during the day when it's soft then it ices over in the afternoon when they try to go back but they don't have crampons and ice axe to cross it safely.edenooch wrote:Is it true the last 2.5 miles upto wilson summit are iced over?
Some one told me last night thats the shade side of the mountain and the chutes off the side ofhte trail are bad and some one died there already!
New ice team gets work out
By Mary O’Keefe
From a vantage point in La Crescenta, Mt. Wilson looks clear of snow, but snow still covers the north face of the peak. It is this winter blanket that has kept the Montrose Search and Rescue Team members busy the last two weekends.
“March 2 was an extremely busy day,” said Mike Leum, a longtime rescue team member. The team was first activated at noon on a call concerning a 20-year-old mountain biker with a broken leg.
The cyclist was on the road near Red Box and Switzer Falls when he fell from his bike and injured his leg.
The team responded at first with assistance from Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Air Five helicopter, but the wind was too strong for the chopper.
“We had to carry him out,” Leum said.
Later that afternoon the team received a rescue call for another mountain biker in his mid-20s.
“We were notified that a man had slipped and broken his ankle on the north side of Mt. Wilson, on the other side of the radio towers,” Leum said.
The biking partner of the injured man had made it to an area where his cellphone could get reception. As he was waiting for the rescue, seven hikers, two men and five women, came upon him.
“We came around the corner and found this guy in basketball shorts and a T-shirt,” said hiker Tracy Andreen of Los Angeles.
Andreen said that she and her companions were just beginning to put more layers of clothing on because of the weather. They were hiking on DeVore Trail to the top of Mount Wilson.
“It was a shock to see this guy dressed like that sitting there,” she said.
The man explained what happened and Andreen’s brother Keith walked the path and found the injured biker in a tree. He helped him back to the path and they waited for the rescue.
Los Angeles County Air Five helicopter was the first on the scene. Air Five rescue members cabled both the injured man and his friend into the helicopter.
They advised the seven hikers that they should not go any further due to weather, but they continued on the path to the top of Mt. Wilson.
“We went forward because we didn’t see any ice and we didn’t think it would take much longer [to reach the top],” Andreen said.
The seven were experienced hikers and are training for a Mount Whitney climb in June. Although they were prepared for the original planned their schedule was altered by the injured biker.
“We couldn’t just leave him there,” Andreen said.
Not long after continuing on their they realized it was getting a lot colder and the ice was increasing.
“We were prepared, we had walked through the snow, but we weren’t prepared for the ice [that had since developed],” Andreen said.
About two feet of snow and ice covered the area. The rescue team was notified by Air Five that the seven hikers now needed help.
Team members Robert Sheedy, Jason Johnson and Leum had to use ice equipment and crawl across the “rock-hard ice,” Leum said.
“This [stranded] group had also started from the back of the mountain and were not prepared for climbing in the ice,” Leum said.
Andreen said that by the time they saw the Montrose Search and Rescue team members they were relieved, although they were only about a half a mile from the top Mt. Wilson so the emotion was mixed with a little regret.
“We were so close,” she said.
“We spent the rest of the night walking them out,” Leum said. “We had to put harnesses on them and guide them across the ice.”
“People look up at Mt. Wilson and it looks bone dry. What they don’t realize is the north facing side of the mountain doesn’t get much sun,” Leum said.
Andreen said that being rescued was a surreal experience but she was glad to see them.
“We cannot say enough good things about these guys,” Andreen said.
“They were professional and we had a delightful chat the five hours it took as we hiked out of the area,” she added.
The upside of the rescue was the information Andreen and the other hikers learned from the team members about ice and snow.
“Who would ever think I would own an ice ax, but I do now,” Andreen said.
The snow caught four Burbank men, also in their early 20s, off guard on Sunday, March 9, when they had to call for a rescue.
“We [rescued] all four guys,” Leum said. “They didn’t have one jacket among them.”
Team members continue training this weekend when they travel to the Mammoth Lakes area to scale a frozen waterfall.
