Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Fall on MR

I was up on the mr this weekend and a climber fell about a thousand feet. Anyone on the board know if he survived or what condition he's in? I think he was from New York.

I ran into a friend of the injured climber on my way down the MR on Sunday and he said the climber was in critical condition.

Were you on the MR on Sunday? I ran into 3 guys that helped the injured climber.

Where did the slip/fall occur? More details are always welcome.

The information that I got was that the climber slipped on some rocks just below the notch and tumbled all the way down the coulour. He suffered head trauma and was airlifted out.

I wish a speedy and full recovery for this climber. Does anyone know if he was wearing a helmet at the time?

There were three groups on the MR this past Saturday. I was with a group of three climbers who were the first to summit and return down the colouir. A second group of three climbers had two members summit; the other member of the party went to the notch and returned to Iceberg Lake. The fallen climber belonged to a third group with two climbers. Both of these climbers summited, but they appeared pretty tanked on the way up as we downclimbed past them on the last pitch before the summit.

Shortly before 3 pm, my party was at the base of the colouir and the two members of the second party were just above us. We were actually off the route when we heard shouts of "climber down". The fallen climber fell past the second party. One member of my party with WFR training and one member of the second party who was a neurosurgeon provided immediate assistance to the fallen climber, gave him an assessment (no obvious broken bones or internal injuries, but severe head trauma - medical evac necessary), and stabilized him. The climber, who was wearing a helmet, had fallen almost 1,250 feet - according to his partner, he fell while on snow immediately below the rocks at the bottom of the notch and he ended up almost at the bottom of the colouir. According to the partner, the fallen climber was from the Bay area.

One member of my party went down to a rock outcropping above Iceberg Lake to place the 911 call around 3:40 pm. The resuce helicopter first arrived around 7 pm; at this point in time, my party returned down the mountain to our campsite above Upper Boyscout Lake. The helicoipter left after about 5 minutes and returned about 30 minutes later and stayed for approximately 20 minutes. Around 1:30 am on Sunday morning, two rescue helicopters returned to evacuate the injured climber. While on our way down to Whitney Portal, we ran into one of the climber's friends who had come up from LA to pick up the climber's gear from his campsite at Upper Boyscout Lake; he indicated that the climber was in critical condition with head trauma. I have no further information on the incident.

My prayers are going out for the fallen climber.

And glad to hear that he was wearing a helmet. It was no doubt responsible for him to at least survive the fall and be in a position to be stabilized and evacuated.

Hi Sad news when someone slips in the mountains , this is one of the first times I recall the use of Helicopters at night very lucky for two aircraft able to respond . Prayers to the climber and family.Doug

Rob, this is Brendan Daly, thank you for your help on Saturday. It was quite a day. Apologies for not returning the internal support from your backpack to you, carrying your gear back out to the trailhead must have been hard work! Could you also relay my thanks to Jeremy Ellison, the AAI guide you were climbing with, for his work finding cell phone coverage to alerting the Sherriff's Department in Lone Pine and the Search and Rescue team.

The fallen climber's first name is Song, I'm unsure of his last name. Song is Korean, married in San Francisco, and in his mid 50's. For the majority of the time we were with Song he was unconscious as a result of his head and facial injuries, when conscious he seemed generally unaware of his surroundings.

Alex Zouros (Neurosurgeon at Loma Linda, California) and I stayed with Song, and were there to receive the three Inyo SAR guys who came in on a Bakersfield CHP helicopter over two trips. We worked together as a team to prepare Song for evacuation. The SAR guys Tim, Aaron and Wills brought amazing presence of mind, professionalism, energy and stamina to the scene. Alex's experience was of great benefit, we couldn't have had a more qualified guy on the scene.

Unfortunately, the police helicopter was not equipped for night time flight and had to leave the scene. At that point we were committed to spend the night on the mountain.

In order to facilitate a morning evacuation from the mountain we began to lower Song down from the MR couloir to Iceberg Lake, using snow anchor belays and by manually lifting and sliding toboggan style rescue equipment. Exhausting work at altitude. Once down at Iceberg Lake we started digging snow shelters and then received the good news that a military Pave Hawk helicopter was being diverted from a training exercise at Edwards Air Force Base and would arrive at approx 1am. The Pave Hawk is a variant of the Black Hawk, it is equipped with night time flying equipment and used in military SAR missions.

At approx 1am the helicopter arrived in full night flying mode, no lights, just night vision goggles and other high tech stuff. We carried Song to the chopper and lifted off on route to Lone Pine airport. At Lone Pine we transferred Song to a Mercy Air helicopter which brought him to, I believe, a hospital in Burbank.

We were all very glad to be off the mountain and glad that Song was on his way for treatment. Alex and I had been in action for 24 hrs with no sleep and little food, it had been 9 hrs since the accident. The night time hours were pretty cold too, we were both very ready to get some sleep at that stage.

I'd also like to take a moment to thank Jonathan, a climber on our team who hauled all sorts of sleeping bags, jackets etc up to Song to wrap him up and keep warm. Thanks to Quentin the fourth climber on our team for keeping our friends and family informed of events and for being at the airport to collect us and get us back to our hotel.

Good work all, here's to team work, and to keeping each other safe in the mountains.

Thanks for the update, Brendan. Glad to hear that Alex and you made it through the event in good form - you guys are real troopers for spending the whole night at Iceberg Lake with the injured climber. Since Jeremy and I didn't see Alex and you come by our camp shortly after the helicopter left around dusk, we assumed that the two of you got a lift down the mountain. No worries about the pack framesheet - everything was just fine going down the mountain, especially since Jeremy's gilrfriend met us with Easter treats at the bottom. I will pass along your update and thanks to Jeremy. Hopefully accidents like this won't become part of your "traditional" MR climb on Mt. Whitney.

All the best,
Robert

Hello all,
My name is In Kim. I am the fallen climber's (Sang Nam) friend.
First, I want to thank all those that helped my friend on Saturday. Without your help & expertise, he would have been in a far graver situation. And thank you for the post b/c we didn't know exactly what happened after I left him and until he got to the hospital.
Second, sorry for the delay. I just got back to Virginia yesterday and haven't had a chance to get onto the computer.

Sang is from the SF Bay area. He is an experienced climber who has climbed Mt. Rainer w/ me which we climbed last year at 58 yrs. old. When we rested at the notch after descending from the summit, we were exhausted but in good spirits. Both of us felt good and ready for the climb down. This accident came as a complete surprise and shock to myself and our family and friends.

He got flown to Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, CA. He was taken into the Emergency Room then sent into ICU w/ a brain hemorrhage and has been in a coma. He hasn't gotten any worse which the doctors say is a good sign. He also had a broken rib which punctured his lung.

Let's all pray and hope for a speedy recovery.
Thanks again to all that helped.

In Kim, Welcome to the board. Thanks for the update on your friend's condition. We are praying for him. Please update us with his recovery progress. Cheers, Tim

In Kim here, the injured climbers friend.

I have good news to report. Sang came out of his coma a few days ago. Yesterday he started to speak a little and respond coherently to questions. He even drank some juice on his own.

He does not remember the fall, but we're very happy for these positive signs and continue to pray for his full recovery.

Thank you all for your words of encouragement and especially for the climbers there that day and the SAR team. He would not be here without your help.

I'll keep you posted.

Excellent news! Thank you for the update.

InKim or anyone else knowing the details: could you please be more specific concerning exactly where the fall occurred and how it happened? From the recent post by bearbnz on the thread "MR" much of the climb looks treacherous this time of the year. For those of us planning winter visits it would be good to know more.

Thank you and best wishes to Sang, his family and friends.

I was up there that day but did not summit. But from what I heard, it wasn't anything specific. Sang was exhausted and it is rocky and icy at the top of the notch. Seems like it could have resulted from a minor slip that unfortunately led to his decent.

If conditions were at all similar to the way they are lately, both the upper and lower chutes are very hardpacked and very difficult to plunge step down. It would not be hard to slip and fall descending right now, I had to arrest two moderate falls as a result from descending and having my boot not even make a dent in the snow.

"a military Pave Hawk helicopter was being diverted from a training exercise at Edwards Air Force Base and would arrive at approx 1am. The Pave Hawk is a variant of the Black Hawk, it is equipped with night time flying equipment and used in military SAR missions."

Just a correction; it was two Marine CH-53E Super Stallions. More importantly did the climber live?

OOOHHRAAH!!!

Hello to all...
Sorry for the delay in responding on here w/ updates about Sang. I've been extremely busy the past 2 months.

Sang has made almost a full recovery. He remembers almost everything, but not the fall. He can't drive yet and still has some dizziness.

I think his fall started around 13,600ft. So he almost fell about 1000ft.

Sang will probably log on to this site soon to say hello to everyone and thanks.

I would once again like to thank everyone for all their help and continuing prayers for Sang.

In Kim.