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First time climber fell hundreds of feet
By Ron Barry
My wife and I
had just returned from a five day trip in the
Sierra Nevada, and I was opening the windows to
air out our house, when the phone rang. It was Al
Andrews, and he had some bad news. I realized
there would be no fireworks for me tonight, as he
told me of a climbing accident on Tahquitz Rock
with a badly injured climber to be evacuated.
After talking to Al, I called Bernie McIlvoy to
arrange driving up with him.
On the drive
up to Idyllwild, Bernie and I ate fruit pies and
milk - that was to be our dinner. Humber Park was
enveloped in darkness when we rolled up to the
tight knot of vehicles at base. At the RMRU van,
we were informed that our operation status had
changed from "rescue" to
"recovery". The story was that a young
man, on his first ever rock climb, had plunged
several hundred feet to his death, his body
coming to an abrupt stop on a ledge in a vertical
chute 270 feet above the base of the rock. Walt
and Kevin Walker were presently climbing up to
the accident, as a large group of us below were
pulling out several 300 and 150 foot ropes,
assorted hardware, and the litter out of the van.
After we had divided up the gear, we started the
long, steep haul up to the base of Tahquitz Rock
to the vicinity of the White Maiden Route.
Eons later,
our "merry" crew arrived at the foot of
the vertical granite monolith. Hundreds of pounds
of gear was sorted out and set up at a point
directly below where Walt and Kevin were above
us. Walt and Kevin had gotten to a ledge fifty
feet below the victim and had set up a fixed rope
to the ground, Bernie McIlvoy Jumared up quickly
to their position and the lead the final section
up to the victim. After a fixed rope was set up,
Walt and then Kevin followed up.
Meanwhile,
down below, Don Chambers, Rick Pohlers, and
myself slipped into harnesses, and proceeded to
Jumar up to the intermediate ledge directly fifty
feet below Bernie, Walt, and Kevin, I went up
last, trailing along one end of a 300 foot line
that would be attached to the litter eventually.
I continued on up past Rick and Don, into the
darkness above and soon was with Bernie and the
Walkers. Bernie installed anchors and pulleys
quickly, as the Walkers and I hauled up the
litter (which sent off several rocks down onto
our guys below), and eventually placed the
deceased into a body bag.
This
unfortunate fellow had fallen for quite a ways
after stumbling off a ledge in the blackness far
above us. The most obvious injury was a radical
femur fracture, though the cause of death
appeared to be a broken neck. With our cargo
lashed away Kevin and Bernie lowered me and the
litter over the ledge and down. Rick Pohlers
helped me get by the intermediate ledge, and in
no time I was down onto horizontal again, at the
base of a rock.
But now, the
really hard work began. Attaching the wheel back
to the litter, we proceeded to thrash our way
through the thick stands of pines, shrubs, and
other assorted obstacles, back down to Humber
Park. It was just like going to war, with several
casualties: Kevin tangled several times with
thorns of buck brush; Walt had a large rock
dislodged onto his shin; Don took a flying branch
in the eyes - and then another one; John Dew
received a puncture wound from some unknown
assailant, and all of us were bathed in sweat,
and a thick layer of dust from that cursed trail
(if you want to call that a trail!)
It was a quiet
group that ate breakfast in Hemet at dawn, and by
7:00 Bernie and I were heading home as I dozed
off.
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