Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board East Face, Christmas 1973

I hate to post so much, but I know some are interested in Mt. Whitney rescues. Here is one I will always remember. I bring it up now because of the ease at which slides can be turned into jpegs, and I’ve recently converted a number of mine.

It was around 9 PM on Christmas Eve, 1973, that the Inyo County Sheriff's Office telephoned Carl Heller and requested our team (the China Lake Mountain Rescue Group). Those able to go would leave home in the morning, Christmas day, well before dawn.

When I got the call the kids were in bed, Santa already had the gifts under the tree, and the stockings were hung by the chimney with care. My wife and I had a brief conversation. Daddy has missed family events before, and this was a major one. But the decision was a no-brainer.

You might want to first read the <a href="http://www.ridgenet.net/~rockwell/Climbing/Xmas_SAR_writeup.jpg">operation report</a>, and then look at the <a href="http://members12.clubphoto.com/robert634908/1458675">pictures</a> (last 23 pictures in the album). Follow that with the <a href="http://www.ridgenet.net/~rockwell/Climbing/Xmas_SAR_wrapup.jpg">wrapup</a>.

30 years is a long time, but Al, Bill and I are still on the team.

Usually, Mt. Whitney is not much of a problem. But the picture below, taken at Iceberg Lake, suggests a different side. Winter climbers take note.

<img src="http://a1.cpimg.com/image/11/5B/22247441-093b-028001B0-.jpg"width=720>

Great photos, Bob, and good job on the rescue.
Having once been on the receiving end of a mountain rescue (broken hip above Yosemite Falls, I have a keen interest and appreciation of the effort and heroism involved. After my rescue I've tried to return in kind, but I nevertheless salute those who get the call on Christmas Eve and go. Keep on posting your stories and pictures. It's a welcome break from some of the less substantial yawking and wondeful human history for those of us who love these mountains and have spent much of our lives in them.

Bob R...great story and pics...you are a living history of Mt Whitney....keep the stories coming!

Thanks for your post. It was very informative and I appreciate the knowledge and experience you share with us.

"I hate to post so much..."

Too bad because your posts are amongst the best, Bob. Please help keep the S/N ratio high enough to bother reading this forum.

You people are too gracious and kind.

The two rescues on that photo album were pretty straightforward, and not really exciting as technical rescues go. (Although I am sure the victims were appreciative!) I wish I could have put pictures of the more thrilling ones there, but I have almost never had a camera along. Same goes for climbs. But now I have my little digital camera, and it almost always goes with me.

I posted the East Buttress one because of the Christmas setting, which made the story interesting. Also, there was the issue of the poor guy stuck on the East Buttress, in winter, through a storm, his 6th day there - 5 of them with his buddy dead beside him. It must have been terribly traumatic. What made it a little exciting was the race with the clock on this nearly shortest day of the year. The last helo trips were made with very little remaining light.

The other rescue, on the East Face (also rather mundane from a technical viewpoint), was included to answer questions a couple of people had about the Van Aken exit at the top of the Grand Staircase. I remembered the rescue, and remembered that my friend Al almost always took his little Rollei along. Sure enough, his pictures showed the place I wanted to describe.

Martin, I too have been the subject of mountain rescue activity. Three times, actually. Twice I was just overdue, and got to a phone before things started rolling. The other time was when my partner came down with HAPE above Karstens' Ridge on Denali, but I'll save that story to share on the trail sometime.

By the way, virtually all mountain rescues in this country are conducted by volunteers, so your tax dollars do not enter. Sometimes such things as helicopters must be paid for, but not military ones. When rangers are involved, they are of course salaried, but they don't get paid extra for this work.

Thanks for posting the interesting stories on Mt. Whitney. Please keep them coming because I'm interested in any history on it.

Hiiker

Thanks, Bob, for the story and the pictures. I, too, appreciate and enjoy your posts.

Mountainering accidents are always unfortunate and the best we can do is to learn from other's mistakes.

Not to be dumb, but I although I've heard about the China Lake MRG I really don't know that much about them. Can anyone fill me in?

If any of you have the opportunity to get out there with Bob, do it! I was having e-mail converstions with Bob for about two years before I finally went on a climb with him (and some other members of CLMRG) in Spring 2002. I've since been on a few more, and each time is a great experience...the stories are always interesting and seem to make the miles on tedious trails (Shepard Pass approach is a good example) pass by more easily.

Bob R,

How was the trip to Flagstaff. Did you climb Humphrey's? I might be up their in the next week and was wondering what the weather was like. Also I love your club photo albums,I have it under my favorites and will use some of the picture routes for some of my trips.

Thanks, Matt

Bob R. - great post, thanks. In Yellowstone, the SAR is done by the rangers. I've done some work with them and they're first rate. This was a recent rescue:

Grand Teton National Park (WY)
Lightning Strike Kills Climber, Injures Five Others

On the afternoon of July 26th, two groups of climbers, separated by 150 feet, were ascending the upper Exum Ridge around the 13,000 foot elevation when an active lightning storm moved over the Tetons. The lead group was climbing the Grand's Friction Pitch, a 5.5 climb, when lightning struck and killed Erica Summers, 25, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and injured five others. Clinton Summers, Erica’s husband, was sitting next to her and belaying Rodrigro Liberal, 27, when the single lightning strike traveled down the ridge, severely burning Liberal who fell off the pitch. Liberal was found swinging in a pendulum fashion, mid-face on a vertical wall. He was unconscious, hanging from his harness and bent over backwards from the waist. Three other climbers - Jacob Bancroft, Reagan Lembke, and Justin Thomas - were standing and anchored at the base of the Friction Pitch when the lightning struck. The impact blew all three of them off the ledge; they fell 70 feet and were stopped only when their rope wrapped around rock horns and caught in cracks. Rangers launched one of the most complex rescues in the history of the park. A contract helicopter flew 11 rangers to the Lower Saddle and inserted them at the top of Friction Pitch via short-haul. The short-haul technique involved flying two rangers at a time, suspended below the helicopter on a 100-foot long line, and inserting them directly at the top of the pitch. Rangers began setting anchors, retrieving stranded climbers, performing medical assessments and packaging the five patients who were all perched on steep technical terrain. By evening, the patients began suffering from hypothermia from the cold mountain temperatures. One by one, the helicopter short-hauled them to the Lower Saddle, where they were loaded into another helicopter and flown to the valley floor. Liberal was packaged into a litter mid-face on Friction Pitch and raised to a ledge 60 feet above. In fading light, Liberal, the last patient to be removed from the mountain, was short-hauled from the Exum Ridge to Lupine Meadows, then flown to a regional trauma center via medevac helicopter. All five patients were admitted into area hospitals. This marks the eleventh major search and rescue in the park this year and the third fatality.