Heard about this a few days ago...been up that slope too.
http://www.krem.com/news/164267116.html
Happy to hear of a good outcome....

Glad the out come was good, but this troubled me:

"Instead of panicking, the group relied on their wilderness training.

...triggered an emergency beacon called a SPOT.

...Weed was finally airlifted."

Yes, quite impressive wilderness training. Trigger the emergency button and wait for a helocopoter. Is this what wilderness training has come to?

ExcitableBoy wrote:Glad the out come was good, but this troubled me:

"Instead of panicking, the group relied on their wilderness training.

...triggered an emergency beacon called a SPOT.

...Weed was finally airlifted."

Yes, quite impressive wilderness training. Trigger the emergency button and wait for a helocopoter. Is this what wilderness training has come to?

Agree. However, no helmet? And the "[n]ext time, he'll probably wear his helmet, he said...

[Just] one thing he did right -- picking a group of climbing partners who came to his rescue when he needed it most.

...and still considers it a safe activity.

I don't have an answer or explanation; all I know is I'm here, I get to live and I get to do positive things with what I learned."

Am I missing something here or it's poorly written??? Glad he survived.

While I can understand the opinions of dissent, I'm not all too sure I agree, at least in full. I have a SPOT device given to me 4 years ago that has never made it out of the box, nor will it.

However, in this case rescue seems far from the "we ran out of water" type scenario. Long slide/tumble/fall, experienced a LOC of unspecified duration, sustained injury of unspecified type and magnitude, etc, etc, etc. By the article, we have no indication of his condition at the time he was hoisted out, none of us were there to assess neither the victim or the scene.

Around 12/13 (roughly) miles in at that point, you hang and reassess while hoping for a walk out, fine, I understand the approach. On the flip side, if the guy worsens, blows a pupil, he's toast as rescue is far out, especially if he crumps during the night. If he crumps on carry out by his companions, let's say down in the Access Creek drainage, good luck initiating rescue at that point.

We read of and hear about complete wastes of resource time and again every year, it's easy to become jaded and rather understandable. Yet by what I read within the posted article, I'd estimate this incident was one that at least moves into the grey area between go and no go by the little information made available. All the "wilderness training" in the world is not going to give one a wealth of clarity, take all the classes you wish, work with some of the equipment and such, get a cert... great, congrats. However, know that clarity comes with REAL LIFE experience in facing such REAL LIFE scenarios over and over again.

So let's not be in such a hurry to rush in judgement, there's plenty that is unknown.


Addition: Perhaps I should have considered the concern being over the article's implication of WM being reduced to activating SPOT.

ExcitableBoy wrote:Yes, quite impressive wilderness training. Trigger the emergency button and wait for a helocopoter. Is this what wilderness training has come to?

What else could they have done for an unconscience, definitely in shock, not knowing the extent of internal injuries, completely immobile etc. victim?

Appears they did everything right in this case and bought him enough time to get out and into the trauma unit asap.

I would not bag on their valiant efforts (including triggering the SPOT) in what I can assure you was a very critical wilderness situation.

I would have done the same including sending someone out to confirm the SPOT actuation with a cell/sat phone.

Sounds like he slid all the way back down to the creek. I heard his interview on the radio. Amazing.

This group of climbers did everything right after the accident took place. I know some of the people involved and have climbed with some of them and they are experienced and intelligent climbers.. some of who have climbed (in the N Cascades) for decades. It's easy, in retrospect, to second-guess things or shape a perfect scenario in your head about how things should have gone, but the fact is we have all put ourselves into situations where a fall like this could occur. To me, this serves as a good reminder that this type of thing can happen to anyone and it's also a reminder that we should wear our helmets the majority of the time in the mountains.

I know on a hot day, I have put away the helmet in lieu of keeping myself cool. I'm not saying it's right, just that I've done it and I understand how others might do the same thing...