Stranded climber
By Walt Walker
It was late in
the afternoon when I was contacted by the Hemet
station of the Riverside County Sheriffs
Department that they had received a report of an
individual calling for help from somewhere up on
Tahquitz Rock. Since there was the possibility or
injure and there was not much more daylight, I
requested the use of a helicopter. The call-out
procedure a put into motion and I quickly drove
home, changed into my uniform, loaded my gear and
drove over and picked up the units No. 2
van.
As I arrived
at the camp Maranatha ball field (used as a
heliport) I was met by fellow RMRU member Ron
Pierson. We discussed the situation and started
pulling gear out of the van. Deputy Reed advised
us that Western Helicopters of Rialto had
dispatched pilot Dorcey Wingo in a Bell 206.
Since Ron was a climber and knew the rock well, I
decided that he and I would go on the first
flight. We were packed and ready when the bird
arrived.
Ron and I
quickly walked over the the Jet Ranger and I
explained the details of the mission to Dorcey.
With the daylight falling fast we took off
immediately and headed up towards Tahquitz Rock.
We spotted the solo climber on the first pitch of
the Trough. Since Dorcey was new to the are I
asked him to circle back around to Lunch Rock, a
60 foot tall boulder at the base of the rock, to
see if he thought we could use it as a helispot.
(Helispot usually a boulder large enough
to put one skid down sometimes both skids, but
power must be continuously held as you cannot
actually land.) After one pass Dorcey headed into
the rock, placed both skids on the rock, and he
gave the nod for Ron and I to climb out. I slid
out and Ron started passing packs and gear to me.
Ron slid out and we both crouched down and I gave
the thumbs up signal to Dorcey. Ron and I climbed
down off the rock and started over towards the
Trough as Dorcey returned to Camp Maranatha to
pick up RMRU members Jim Fairchild and Bud White.
Since there
was a fair amount of snow in the shady areas Ron
and I had to carefully traverse ledges that had
patches of snow and ice on them. We worked our
was to within about 100 feet of the Trough route.
We made voice contact and found out later that
the climber was not injured, just stranded. About
60 feet of a 50 degree slope of hard crusted snow
was the next problem. I set up a belay and Ron
carefully led across the steep slope. Getting
across the slope he climbed upward until he found
a spot that he could place some chocks and set up
a belay for me. Ron belayed me over to him and I
clipped in to the anchors. Jim and Bud were
dropped off at Lunch Rock and while Dorcey headed
back, Ron and I discussed the situation and he
said that he could rock climb the route with no
major problems. I decided that since it was
almost dark and the climber was not injured we
would not have any more members flown in.
Ron started
climbing the route with his boot soles wet and
having to contend with some ice on the rock and
in the cracks. He placed a few chocks for
protection as he led up to the ledge where the 30
year old Michael DePatie was waiting. (Ron made
that somewhat dangerous climb look easy but it
was only because of his skill as a mountaineer.)
When Ron got to Michael he found a somewhat
embarrassed and cold subject who had climbed up
the Trough route without a rope and had become
stranded by ice on he ledges.
The next
problem was setting up some anchors to use so
that Michael and Ron could rappel down. Ron
solved that problem and assisted Michael in
getting ready to descend. Michael rappelled down
to me and I clipped him into the anchor and Ron
then Rappelled down. Ron had set up a double rope
for the rappel and we had some anxious moments as
we started to pull the rope down and it felt like
it had become stuck. With another hard pull the
rope became loose and slid down to us.
Ron then led
back across the steep slope to the first belay
spot and we both belayed Michael across. Ron then
belayed me back across. I then belayed first Ron
and then Michael across a ledge and a small
chimney crack. One more set of belays across some
more ledges found us off the snow and we were met
by Jim and Bud. We then carefully hiked down to
lunch Rock and radioed bas that we were ready to
be picked up.
It was now
dark and there was about a 3 to 5 mph wind
blowing across the face of the rock. We had
planned with Dorcey that we would use flashlight
wants to help in guiding him to the helispot. We
also used Jims new bright Tekna light to
illuminate a large pine tree that was fairly
close to the rock. As Dorcey flew towards us I
advised him of the wind and our plan for loading
the bird. Bud and Michael would be flown out
first, then Jim with all the extra gear and
finally Ron and I.
When Dorcey
was about 500 feet out I turned on the light
wands and held them horizontally in my
outstretched arms. Dorcey turned on the landing
lights and I began motioning to him with the
wands. The powerful bird softly touched down and
I signaled for Dorcey to hold and placed a foot
on the skid to assist in keeping the bird there.
Bud and Michael climbed aboard and I signaled for
Dorcey to lift off. We repeated the process two
more times and we were all back to Camp Maranatha
by 10 p.m. I personally would like to thank
Dorcey Wingo for some very fine flying under
difficult conditions.
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