After climbing the west side of the bowl face (out of the trees but not up any of the chutes) and summiting around 9:30am, we hiked back to the hut using the normal trail down through the trees and the boulder field. About 300 yards west of the spring we came upon two men, one sitting down in obvious pain and another providing basic medical attention to the man sitting down. The injured young man, a 22 year old solo climber, had attempted to climb directly up the center of the bowl without an ice axe. As he neared the top of the bowl his legs gave out from fatigue and he fell about 400-500 feet before he luckily slid into some exposed scree and came to a stop. Below is a picture of his fall path (from the victim's description - I also circled another climber just for perspective)
After assisiting with basic first aid we helped the climber (who was able to walk unassisted) to the ski hut for further evaluation.
The climber suffered severe scrapes to his face, hands, forearms, stomach, side torso, and knees. He lost all four finger nails on each hand from trying to dig his hands into the snow during his fall. And he had two severe puncture/lacerations on his right calf from his crampons.
After some further first aid at the hut the climber refused our request to call SAR (he was determined to hike out solo) so we helped him hike back to his car at Manker Flats. We drove behind him until we all reached the fire station at the top of Mountain Ave, where he stopped to call his parents.
It is lucky he survived his fall.
What makes me REALLY mad though is that he fell past two other climbers -- one of them even retrieved and hiked his trekking pole down about 75 feet to him -- but neither of them offered to help assist him after the fall they just continued on their own climbs up the bowl. Leaving him to descend 500 feet injured and alone.
There are probably many opinions on one's obligation to be a good samaratin, but it seems to me that those of us that climb all share the same passion and we all take a certain amount of risk while we enjoy our sport so we ought to be willing to help when someone is in need -- I know I would want help if I fell and I would guess those of you reading this would also welcome the help if injured.
My last thought. . .never climb without an ice axe. It may not save you but it will sure give you a better chance at self-arrest than your finger nails.
Climb safe.