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Hiker fell and slid 600 feet
By Kevin Walker
It seems that
sometimes old mother luck just is not in your
favor. My dad and I had just finished painting
the front door to our house, and were preparing
to have a late lunch (2:30), when the pager went
off. We hastily re-hung the door, grabbed some
snack food, and went out the door.
Leaving behind a disaster of
uncleaned paint brushes and cans for my mother
and sister to clean, we headed for the Idyllwild
fire station where the team was to meet. Enroute
we had a wonderful view of the San Jacinto
Mountains, looking up to the mountain we could
easily see why there would be people using the
backcountry. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and
the temperature was in the upper 70's. What
better conditions could one have, except for one
little item, deep snow still carpeted the ground,
and in the shade, ice was also a problem. For
this reason RMRU was called. We were informed
that a young man hiking on the Devil's Slide
trail had slipped and fallen some distance. It
looked as if it would be a long afternoon and
evening before we completed our task.
Upon reaching
Idyllwild we were told by the informant that the
young man in question had indeed fallen and
injured himself, but the location of the injury
was not where we had been told. He had slipped
off the snow and ice covered ridge just below
Tahquitz Peak. According to the informant he had
fallen approximately 600 feet down an ice chute,
severely burning himself on the ice, and possibly
fracturing his right ankle. Walt immediately
requested from Capt. Ray Canova of the Banning
sheriff's office that Don Landells be contacted
and asked to fly to the Camp Maranatha ball park.
We then headed over to Camp Maranatha where base
would be set up. Shortly after arriving at the
camp we were joined by fellow team member John
Dew. As we were preparing our packs for the task
at hand, Capt. Canova arrived followed by Jim
Fairchild in Riverside 2, the newest of the two
vans that RMRU has. The plan was as follows, Walt would
go in with Don to find out what the situation
was, and find out what kind of equipment would be
needed for the operation. If he needed
assistance, he would be followed in by Jim and
myself.
Not long after
we had finished packing we heard the familiar
sound of the chop-chop and high pitched whine of
Don Landells jet Ranger. Upon his arrival at the
camp he told Walt that he had seen a young man on
a large rock about 6,50 feet below the summit.
With the gear in the bird, Don and Walt departed
for the steep icy chutes of the mountain. After
what seemed like years (actually only 10
minutes), Don radioed that he was returning to
base to pick up Jim and 1, and that we would need
a full leg air splint. We quickly pulled a splint
out of the first aid drawer and made ready for
the flight in. We were also told that we would
not need our packs, so with Don just arriving, we
buckled in, and in what would take several hours
on foot, we did in less than five minutes. We
were fortunate enough to land in a one runner
mode on the same rock that the young man had
crawled to after he finally came to rest. With
Don hovering out about 1,000 feet away from us,
Jim Fairchild with camera in hand, I lifting the
young mans pant leg, and my dad placing the air
splint on the swollen ankle, only one task
remained, blowing the air splint up. Guess who
had to do it the newest support member, ME . . .
With all being
ready, we called Don. Don came back and pushed
one runner in to the snow bank and held power to
the other, Jim and Walt lifted him in on one side
while I reached through on the other side and
helped pull him across. Jim joined the hiker in
the back seat, and with the old thumbs up from my
dad Don pulled up on the collective (rotor blade
pitch) and lifted up for the flight back to base.
After a short wait, which was not
long considering just how great the view was, Don
returned. We climbed into the bird and headed up
to Tahquitz Peak where we had been asked to pick
up the informants pack. With that task completed,
RMRU's work was finished.
After the
usual hand shake and compliments to Don for his
SUPER flying, which makes our job a whole lot
faster, we said goodbye to a really super person.
After all the
gear was placed back in the van, the question
arose, where are we going for dinner? Jokingly
John Dew said why not the Chart House ... and the
Capt. said fine, so off we went for a really fine
steak dinner.
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