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Woman slid 800 feet down ice chute
By Walt Walker
Saturday had
begun very early (5 to 6 a.m.) for most RMRU
members. It had been necessary to arise while it
was still dark so we could be out to Desert Hot
Springs by 8 a.m. Shortly after 8 a.m. we began
our annual Helitac training at Don Landells
heliport. We finished training about 1:30 p.m.,
broke for lunch, then began our annual van
clean-up and inventory of equipment. It was after
dark when I left Desert Hot Springs.
When I arrived
home I jumped in the shower to remove the dust
and dirt that had accumulated during training.
During dinner I told my wife, Sondra, about the
days events, especially our practicing aerial
pickups using long sling ropes. We turned on the
TV and started to watch a movie, when the phone
rang. You guessed it, an urgent call for RMRU,
from the Banning Station of the Riverside County
Sheriff's Department. My son Kevin, picked up the
No. 1 RMRU van, stopped by my residence and
picked me up. We arrived at the lower terminal of
the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway at 11:45 p.m.
The captain of
the Banning station, Ray Canova, was there
waiting for us. He advised us that a 23 year old
woman had slipped, fallen, and slid out of sight
down one of the ice chutes near the top of the
tram. he also, advised us that the Mt. San
Jacinto Wilderness State Park Rangers were
descending the chute in search of the young
woman.
In less than
an hour we had packed our own packs, assembled a
tram car load of RMRU equipment, rode to the top
of the tram and started over to the top of the
chute where the young woman had fallen. We were
met by some of the state park rangers and they
told us that some of their people had descended
about 200 feet and had not located anything,
except for one after ski boot.
While Jim
Fairchild and I prepared to descend, Kevin
Walker, Mel Krug, John Dew, Joe Erickson, Mark
Hebert, Cameron Robbins, Ed Hill and Randy
Iwasiuk started setting up anchors for the
descent. Mary Bowman was in the upper station of
the tram, along with Sgt. Dave Weekly. Mary had
to run base out of her pack that night.
We of RMRU
have a natural positive attitude and I was hoping
to find Dorothy Goldsmith less than 300 feet down
and only slightly injured. I swung on a heavy
pack, clipped into the rappel rope, switched on
RMRU's portable spotlight and began my rappel in
the darkness of the chute. When I got to the end
of the 300 foot rope I used the light to look
down-ward for disturbances in the snow, nothing!
I set up another 300 foot rope and started down
again. Jim started down on the rope I had just
gotten off of.
Approximately
500 feet down I located a sock and an after ski
boot that matched the one found above. Descending
further I found some marks in the snow. just
before I had descended the complete length of a
third 300 foot rope, I found the young woman. You
did not have to be a doctor to observe that she
had died sometime during her 900 foot fall. With
a heavy heart I radioed, by code words, that I
had located the body.
It was decided that Bernie McIlvoy
would descend also, and in the morning he would
help Jim and I move the body to a small clearing
in the trees on the very steep slope. Shortly
before 7 a.m. Mary radioed that Don Landells
would be coming in with a cargo sling attached to
a sling rope that would be connected to the
bottom of the Jet Ranger Helicopter.
It was hard to
get moving after sitting for better than two
hours during the wait for morning light. We
placed the subject in the body bag, secured a
rope to it, and while Jim lowered the rope,
Bernie and I descended with the body.
In a very
short time we could hear the helicopter coming up
the canyon. When Don came into sight, we signaled
to him. He hovered over us and we disconnected
the cargo sling from the 100 foot sling rope. Don
applied power and flew a short distance away.
Both to make it easier for us to hear and more
importantly, to not have a blast of cold air
blown onto us from the main rotor blades. As
quickly as possible we loaded the body into the
cargo net and radioed for Don to return. Once
again he was hovering over us, we connected the
cargo sling to the sling rope, gave the up hand
signal and Don flew back to the lower tram
parking lot. A sadness overcame me as I attached
my Jumars to the rope for the ascent up the steep
chute. We had not been able to be a 'rescue' team
in the sense I, and others, like to think of.
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