I saw a horrible fall today
Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2014 8:13 pm
Have you seen "Lone Survivor"? Remember the scenes with them falling down the mountain, smashing against the rocks? I saw that in person today ... only worse.
My girlfriend, two of her co-workers and I went hiking at Little Si in North Bend. On the way back down the mountain, we stopped at the World Wall rock-climbing area to watch the climbers and marvel at them trusting their lives to those little carabiners and bolts into the rock face.
We were watching one climber descend, coming off of an overhang. He was just dangling from the rope, swinging back and forth a little. He was about 50 feet above the ground and started to rappel down when WHOOSH, the rope started flying and he just SLAMMED into the rock ledge at the bottom.
But ... that's not all, since the ledge they started from was still about 50 feet above the forest floor. He rolled off the ledge, fell maybe another 30 feet and hit another ledge, then fell the final 20 feet and slammed into a tree where he came to rest, not far from where we were standing.
Of course we all rushed over. Several of us called 911 (we had a faint signal), and they asked questions, gave us advice, and sent the cavalry.
This dude was in rough shape; I was sure that he must have been dead. But that was one tough SOB, and he was breathing, though unconscious.
He was also very lucky. There was a doctor who had been climbing as well, and she took charge and helped us keep him stable until help could arrive. The three ladies I was with are all physical therapists with medical training, and there were a couple of therapy students there as well.
Between all of us, we produced the stuff that was needed: Two emergency blankets, a knife to cut off his shirt and shoes, and of course cell phones.
The climber regained consciousness after a couple of minutes, and after a bit was able to talk. By "talk" I mean a couple of words here and there, with his eyes closed, sounding absolutely horrible....
About 20 minutes after I called 911, the first search-and-rescue guy (Ben) arrived. This dude had been hauling ass; he was all sweaty, I'm sure from running up the trail. He took charge from there, radioing back to HQ and keeping him stable.
More and more SAR and Bellevue Fire people showed up, and the climber was on the backboard and getting ready to be carried down about 1 hour after he fell.
All I all, I bet there were 50 SAR, fire and medical personnel that made the 1.5-mile climb to get to us. I was pretty damned impressed ... my hat is off to everyone that responded. YOU GUYS WERE AWESOME.
We headed back just before they carried him out, and we were interviewed by the King County Sheriff deputies that were waiting in the parking lot.
Here's a link to the KIRO story. You can see us at about the 1:20 mark in the video; look for the fat guy with the camo WaGuns hat.
http://m.kirotv.com/news/news/climber-injured-little-si-fall/ngGq3/
Non Mobile link: http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/climber ... all/ngGq3/ (bigger video box)
Cliff Notes summary:
- Dude fell, HARD. He's lucky to be alive.
- SAR and firefighters were f'ing champs.
My girlfriend, two of her co-workers and I went hiking at Little Si in North Bend. On the way back down the mountain, we stopped at the World Wall rock-climbing area to watch the climbers and marvel at them trusting their lives to those little carabiners and bolts into the rock face.
We were watching one climber descend, coming off of an overhang. He was just dangling from the rope, swinging back and forth a little. He was about 50 feet above the ground and started to rappel down when WHOOSH, the rope started flying and he just SLAMMED into the rock ledge at the bottom.
But ... that's not all, since the ledge they started from was still about 50 feet above the forest floor. He rolled off the ledge, fell maybe another 30 feet and hit another ledge, then fell the final 20 feet and slammed into a tree where he came to rest, not far from where we were standing.
Of course we all rushed over. Several of us called 911 (we had a faint signal), and they asked questions, gave us advice, and sent the cavalry.
This dude was in rough shape; I was sure that he must have been dead. But that was one tough SOB, and he was breathing, though unconscious.
He was also very lucky. There was a doctor who had been climbing as well, and she took charge and helped us keep him stable until help could arrive. The three ladies I was with are all physical therapists with medical training, and there were a couple of therapy students there as well.
Between all of us, we produced the stuff that was needed: Two emergency blankets, a knife to cut off his shirt and shoes, and of course cell phones.
The climber regained consciousness after a couple of minutes, and after a bit was able to talk. By "talk" I mean a couple of words here and there, with his eyes closed, sounding absolutely horrible....
About 20 minutes after I called 911, the first search-and-rescue guy (Ben) arrived. This dude had been hauling ass; he was all sweaty, I'm sure from running up the trail. He took charge from there, radioing back to HQ and keeping him stable.
More and more SAR and Bellevue Fire people showed up, and the climber was on the backboard and getting ready to be carried down about 1 hour after he fell.
All I all, I bet there were 50 SAR, fire and medical personnel that made the 1.5-mile climb to get to us. I was pretty damned impressed ... my hat is off to everyone that responded. YOU GUYS WERE AWESOME.
We headed back just before they carried him out, and we were interviewed by the King County Sheriff deputies that were waiting in the parking lot.
Here's a link to the KIRO story. You can see us at about the 1:20 mark in the video; look for the fat guy with the camo WaGuns hat.
http://m.kirotv.com/news/news/climber-injured-little-si-fall/ngGq3/
Non Mobile link: http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/climber ... all/ngGq3/ (bigger video box)
Cliff Notes summary:
- Dude fell, HARD. He's lucky to be alive.
- SAR and firefighters were f'ing champs.
