7 replies to this topic

[Aaron]

On Wednesday, August 4, park rangers received a cell phone call around 11:00 am that a 31-year-old man was injured on Longs Peak. He had been found by other hikers in "The Narrows" area close to the junction with "The Homestretch" at roughly 13,800 feet. The initial reports indicated that he had hiked to Longs Peak the day before and had spent an unplanned night in the backcountry. He was conscious and able to walk slowly with assistance but was unable to recall what had caused his injuries. At 12:30 p.m., the Minnesota man was reported overdue by friends. They indicated he had hiked to Longs Peak yesterday and had not returned.

Continued phone calls to park dispatch by visitors along the route, indicated that visitors were assisting the man down the route. They were also providing dry clothing, food and water. A park trail crew in the area reached the man at 1:10 p.m. on "The Ledges." Due to an assessment of injuries at that time, it was determined that the man had been struck by lightning sometime late the previous day. He had numerous burn injuries.

The trail crew was able to provide immediate care and continued to walk the man to the Agnes Vaille shelter, a primitive historic shelter, located at "The Keyhole." They waited out an intense storm with lightning, hail, heavy rains and low temperatures. Once the severe storm passed, they began walking slowly down the route and connected with park rangers at 4:10 p.m. at "The Boulderfield." Rangers provided more emergency medical care to the man.

The first litter team of park staff reached the patient at 5:25 p.m. Due to the severe weather in the area during the beginning of the rescue, helicopters were unable to fly. Weather conditions improved and at approximately 6:30 p.m. Flight for Life flew the patient to St. Anthony Central. Approximately 35 people are involved with this rescue in the field, including a paramedic from Estes Park Medical Center. Park rescue personnel hiked back to the trailhead and were out of the backcountry by 11:00 p.m.

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[Mr. Jinks]

Wow. So apparently a man was alone in the Narrows late in the day, was struck by lightening, spent the night on the mountain and remembers nothing of his ordeal. Crazy.

[shirbie]

Actually, he was first found about a third of the way up the homestretch. I hiked by him on the way up - honestly didn't pay close attention to him. He was just kind of sitting there, much like someone who is mentally or physically exhausted would be. I feel really bad because I don't think anyone really knew what was going on with him on the way to the summit, but once those coming down found him sitting in the same spot that is when they realized something was wrong. By the time I came down, others were already assisting him.

[John]

Great first post! Wow!

[BigAl]

I talked with one of the rangers who responded to the call for help. He said the guy had an entrance wound about the size of a cigar, with a "nasty" exit wound on the back. They think he probably was unconscious laying on the rock for a large portion of the night. Apparently he summited about 6pm the night before. He said that he was wearing fairly good outer gear, but with a cotton t-shirt underneath. He's very fortunate he didn't freeze to death after nearly dying from the lightning hit.

[Rhonda]

I saw the guy very briefly on the national news the other night.

[hector]

Do many people summit that late at night? That seems really weird to me.

[BigAl]

hector, on 09 August 2010 - 07:42 PM, said:

Do many people summit that late at night? That seems really weird to me.

The way the weather pattern had been for several days leading up to the incident, I would say that summiting that late would be close to suicidal.
In the normal summer weather pattern, a lot of people will hike up to the summit in time to watch the sunset after the normal afternoon T-storms are through.