The news indicates that rescuers are having difficulty with an aerial approach. Having lived my entire life in a region with neither mountains nor snow, it’s not clear to me why some sort of harness can’t be lowered to the poor fellow and dragged out by hand or winch, if he’s able to put himself in it. Obviously it’s not feasable, or somebody would be doing it, but I don’t understand exactly why.
Could somebody clear up this little point of confusion for me?
The climber fell more than 1,500 feet down a 70 degree slope into the crater of Mount St. Helens. The snow is unstable. The rockface is unstable. There are swirling winds above and around the mountain, not to mention within the crater itself. Visibility is very poor. He was not wearing the extra clothing he had when he climbed the mountain, having removed his jacket and backpack prior to his fall.
The Coast Guard rescue helicopter (from Astoria, OR) and a private helicopter were both unable to reach him yesterday because of the weather and swirling winds, not to mention dwindling sunlight. A US Navy rescue helicopter (Whidbey Island NAS) is enroute to the scene, however, if the weather is poor (as it is right now), it will have to sit on the ground near the Skamania County Sheriff’s office at the southern end of the county (Mount St. Helens is at the extreme northern end) until conditions change.
This is an edited video story about the Mt Hood climber rescue from May 2002. Note that the rescue helicopter is operating in quality conditions (visibility, bright sun). However, the clear air turbulence (CAT) catches the chopper and brings it down. The winds around Mount St. Helens are much worse.
IMHO, the climber is dead. There will be no rescue. I doubt there will be a recovery anytime soon. If they cannot recover the body in time, it may be encased in the glacier.
So the reason the other climbers didn’t throw down a rope is because it is 1500 feet, and they don’t have a long enough rope. Add to that, the weight of such a length of rope my be too much for the group of climbers to haul up themselves. There’s also the fact that the climber appears to be unresponsive, so getting a rope to him would be of no use. The helicopter can’t really get to him either, since he’s partway up the side of the crater (they mention a survival backpack thrown by the other climbers as being 100 feet below the “Crater Man”), so the helicopter cannot hover directly overhead and lower rescuers that way.
Here is a (random) photograph of the Empire State Building in New York City. The building, complete with TV mast, is 1,454 feet tall. Now imagine attempting to lower a rope the height of the Empire State Building to a climber who is definitely injured (if still alive). Even if you could fly a helicopter to within 100 vertical feet of the climber you still need to drop a rescuer down. With a 70 percent slope, the helicopter cannot be directly overhead. Now let’s add swirling winds and poor visibility. You can do the math.
One thing they COULD do is try to lower survival gear down to the guy with a chopper, till climbers can actually get down to him. He is gonna need that tonight. Assuming of course he is somewhat mobile, if not mobile enough to get what was thrown down to him (heck, he may not even know that its there).
I’m not sure I understand the question. They were able to fly down to near his body, not sure if they were able to land or if the dropped rescuers on lines, secured the body and hauled it out of there. It’s difficult terrain, and nasty weather makes everything more complicated, but skilled pilots and rescue teams are able to land and extricate people from very difficult places. The previous day’s weather conditions weren’t good enough to perform that operation, apparently.
Dad’s favourite joke (apparently): Joe fell down a very deep well. Townspeople came round to rescue him, but the well was too narrow to send anyone down to get him. So they lowered a rope and called down, ‘Hey Joe! Tie this around your waist and we’ll haul you up!’ Joe yells back, ‘Can’t! Both arms are broke!’ So they bring the rope up and tie a loop in it. ‘Hey, Joe! Work your legs through the loop! When it’s around you, we’ll haul you up!’ ‘Can’t!’ replied Joe, ‘Both legs are broke!’ The townfolk though about it and then, ‘Well, can you hang onto it with your teeth?’ ‘Yeah, I can do that!’ So Joe chomps down on the rope and he’s inches from being out of the well, when one of his friends asks, ‘Hey, Joe. How ya doin’?’ ‘GREEeeaaaaaat!’
The weather all day on the mountain had been quite windy. The low cloud cover was constantly on the move from west to east. However, about midday there were increasing breaks in the clouds and the crater was fully accessible by air. Better weather today, combined with a bigger helicopter, probably did the trick.
