10 replies to this topic

[Aaron]

At 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday, July 20, park rangers were notified that a 27-year-old climber was off route on her descent on a section of The Diamond on Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. Carolyn Davidson, from Fort Collins, Colorado, and her climbing partner, had been climbing the Casual Route and had left the base of the climb at 4:30 a.m. She had climbed this specific route twice last year.

While descending, Davidson found herself off the fixed rappel route and was unable to ascend or climb to the correct rappel station. She and her climbing partner tried for roughly two hours to resolve the situation. Davidson was able to set up an anchor and attach herself to the wall. She was well prepared with clothing to help her weather the elements; a heavy rainstorm moved through the area at 5:30 p.m. Her climbing partner rappelled to the base of Mills Glacier to find help. He contacted a park trail crew that was in the area.

At 7:15 p.m. four park rangers, who specialize in climbing and mountain rescue, were flown to the 14,259 foot summit of Longs Peak by the interagency United States Forest Service/National Park Service helicopter from Bridger-Teton National Forest and Grand Teton National Park. The helicopter was still in the area after assisting Rocky Mountain National Park during the Cow Creek Fire and responding to initial attack on another fire in Colorado.

The rangers descended from the summit to Table Ledge on the upper part of The Diamond where they established an anchor system to lower one ranger to Davidson. The ranger reached her at 12:15 a.m. The ranger gave her dry clothes, food and water. The ranger was able to assist the stranded climber up the fixed ropes to the Table Ledge and then climb back up to the Summit of Longs Peak via the upper Kiener's Route, a vertical gain in altitude of approximately 700 feet and a distance over terrain of approximately 1,200 feet. They reached the summit at 3:00 a.m.

According to Rocky Mountain National Park Chief Ranger Mark Magnuson, "Given the location of Davidson in highly technical terrain at 14,000 feet, with no equipment to self-rescue and the extended weather forecast that predicted low temperatures and heavy rains, we made the decision to perform careful, well planned night operations by a highly skilled team. An unexpected bivouac half way up the Diamond in poor weather is not a good predicament."

Rain continued off and on through the evening and temperatures were 39 degrees. Davidson was rescued without incident, warmed and fed at the summit and then flown out at 8:00 a.m. this morning. Due to inclement weather, the last ranger and helicopter crew member flew off the summit at 10:00 a.m. There were roughly 25 people involved in this rescue operation including 5 members from Rocky Mountain Rescue who were on standby to assist park rangers if a carry-out was necessary.

There have been numerous incidents in Rocky Mountain National Park in the last month where rangers and injured visitors have benefitted from having an available helicopter and trained helitack crew in the area. After this operation the interagency United States Forest Service/National Park Service helicopter from Bridger-Teton National Forest and Grand Teton National Park left Rocky Mountain National Park for other commitments. It is crucial for visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park to realize if they are injured in the backcountry, depending on available resources, it could take hours for assistance to arrive. It continues to be vital that backcountry visitors are prepared to help themselves and others in the event of an emergency. Another reminder to backcountry users; seasonal weather patterns appear to be changing bringing monsoonal conditions, which contribute to elevated hazards and challenging conditions in the mountains.

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[glasstones]

This has already been a CRAZY year for the park and the various rescue teams. Once again props to all those involved in this rescue, all things considered she is a very lucky woman. Not sure what the park's gonna do without the Grand Teton rescue crew!

[AliceH]

I have a stupid question...

The Denver Post article (http://www.denverpost.com/ci_15570576) says that the gal did not have self-rescue equipment with her. What sort of self-rescue equipment should she have been carrying to self-rescue herself?

[Jim K]

AliceH, on 21 July 2010 - 11:18 PM, said:

I have a stupid question...

The Denver Post article (http://www.denverpost.com/ci_15570576) says that the gal did not have self-rescue equipment with her. What sort of self-rescue equipment should she have been carrying to self-rescue herself?

Just guessing, but I'm wondering if a set of ascenders would have allowed her to climb back up the rope she had just rapelled down. Without them you can only go down.

Jim

[Swimswithtrout]

Jim K, on 22 July 2010 - 11:38 AM, said:

Just guessing, but I'm wondering if a set of ascenders would have allowed her to climb back up the rope she had just rapelled down. Without them you can only go down.

Jim

There's been lots of discussion about this on the local tech-climbing forum. Details are still not available as to what went wrong.

[Swimswithtrout]

OT: You think it's been a bad season on Longs ? 16 climbers had to be rescued yesterday afternoon off the Grand Teton , and a 17th is missing and presumed dead.

A vicious lightening storm moved in ~ 11am and many of the victims were hit multiple times.

STORY

[Igloo Ed]

Swimswithtrout, on 22 July 2010 - 12:52 PM, said:

A vicious lightening storm moved in ~ 11am and many of the victims were hit multiple times.

To only lose the one they are presuming dead, those are some very lucky people.
The Grand is certainly one of the more exposed peaks for electrical storms.

[Swimswithtrout]

For those who are interested, after many days and many forum pages of finger wagging and idle conjecture, the individuals who had to be rescued posted their story of the incident at MountainProject.com

Here is her report from page three of the above link.


" Here is our story; we have no problem sharing it, especially if it will be of use to other climbers. I do think it was preliminary for people to be requesting this from us without giving us the time to reflect and gain perspective. I’m sure posting this will open us up to further criticism- but hopefully any such criticism regards mistakes we haven’t already recognized ourselves- if not, rest assured we have beat ourselves up far more over the last couple days than anyone else could.

My partner and I reached the base of Mills Glacier at 4:30 am Tuesday morning. Admittedly, we knew that weather later in the day did not look good, so we agreed to climb quickly and bail if the weather turned bad earlier. The climbing went smoothly, the weather held and we reached Table Ledge at 12:30 pm. We were alone in the cirque, except for a party that finished Kieners around 11 am. We had settled on the rappel route as opposed to summiting prior to starting due to the poor weather prognosis. We agreed to alternate finding the rappels. My partner rappels first and finds the next anchor. When I rappelled to the next anchor, I was hastily looking too low, and passed the rappel anchor. About 10m from the end of the rope, I still didn’t see it, so I swung over to a sling anchor to climber’s left and went off rappel. Contrary to the press release, I had self rescue gear in the sense that I had ample prussiks, slings and locking biners- that is, I had the means and knowledge to ascend the rope at this point. If I had foreseen the predicament we were about to get in, I would have ascended the rope prior to releasing the rope, but I didn’t. This was my mistake- I should have been more carefully watching for the rappel stations and considered ascending after it was clear I had missed them. My partner rappelled next, found the correct anchor, and we agreed that he would reset the rappel anchor here, assuming the fall line would enable him to rap down and get the rope to me with a no more than a small traverse. Pulling the rope and resetting at the lower anchor was our largest mistake. We were unable to get the rope to me- we had essentially tied our hands by pulling the rope. I had all of the gear, so my partner was unable to aid up to get the rope higher. My prussiks clearly did me no good at this point. To describe our predicament- I had both of our rain layers, two wool caps, gloves, a headlamp, a rescue whistle, food, water, and a cell phone that had no service and a loud thunderstorm had moved in.

The options we discussed were:

a) me solo aid down climbing/ traverse using my cordallette and slings as a rope/daisy.
- I didn’t see continuous enough cracks to make this possible. Even if I had, this was the riskiest option.

b) My partner staying with me and waiting
- This was the least sensible option since we had exhausted the possibility of reuniting and descending together. It was very clear that no one was coming, we had been alone the whole day. My partner would be at high risk of exposure without raingear or layers on his person, which could only worsen our collective situation.

c) My partner descending, ascending another route solo, and then rappelling the correct line to me
-This was the most feasible alternative. Kieners did not seem like our best option since the rock was very wet and my partner had no gear. The Keyhole would be safer, but take longer and his headlamp was in the pack. The storm had turned into a full blown lightning storm at this point. He did not have clothing to weather a storm and a night out. If we had been in a remote location, he would have bivyed in a sheltered location below and ascended in the morning, hoping the storm blew over and hoping I was OK. Still, this seemed risky

d) My partner going for some sort of assistance (note we had no expectation of a heli rescue)
To us, this was our best option. The storm was our biggest unknown. We didn’t know how long it would last or how severe it would be, but it looked unlikely that it would blow over quickly. Together, we decided that given the weather and his lack of gear/headlamp, it would be best that my partner look for assistance ASAP.I felt ashamed to ask for help, but I think this was our best option, given the mistake we had already made and what we knew about the weather.
My partner began to descend, and is due credit for a speedy and meticulous descent. He ran into trail crews with radios above the treeline and reported the situation. I’d also like to note that when my partner got reception, he had no confirmation that a rescue was underway, and called a friend who agreed to come up and help him get me down the next day. It rained and hailed all night, with a respite from about 7-9 pm and again at 11. SAR arrived around midnight, and the rain worsened considerably around 1 am and continued until around 5 am. Before they came, I was quite chilled, but kept moving. Of course I will never know if I would have been ok in that weather, but my guess is I would have been colder than before, but fine.
Did we do the right thing? We are both alive and uninjured and by that measure we certainly did. We could have tried other options, but the outcomes associated with them will never be known. The main point is that we are both ok and that we are both learning an incredible amount from our mistakes. We are both embarrassed by our poor decisions, but we are confident that we have gained the wisdom necessary to do things differently. If it's not too much to ask, hopefully the climbing community learned something, and my partner and I can begin to move on."

[DeeCeeM]

I don't even climb, and I found her explanation informative and helpful! Thanks for sharing the details, SWT.

[jflo]

That must've been really scary... I couldn't imagine! Yeah, Thanks for the info!!

[AliceH]

I almost feel worse for the climbers that the community at MountainProject is so unsupportive of them - I've done more than my share of stupid things when I've been out tromping around, any number of which could have resulted in me and the kids getting seriously injured, but I'd never expect the disdain and vitriol that came from that group. I come back here and share my stupidity so that people can make a mental note of what not do do; the gal involved has brass cojones to post there given the reaction of the community prior her posting her trip report.