June 4th - Mt. Baker, WA

June 12th - Waterfall Rescue on Mt. Baker, WA

Sunday about 3:45 3 of us were crossing back across the Baker flats when we noticed there was an unusual amount of people gathered around the waterfall, this is NEVER good. We rush down to hear someone say "Bring everything you have to lift a woman out of the waterfall". This is when it dawns on me as to what I'm looking at, above the waterfall stand about 10 men with ropes leading down into it! I get there just as they are pulling her up; I recognize her beautiful eyes – Stephanie! HOLY CRAP... My heart sinks even more. They have more than enough people around her so I ask about her husband, Dave, wondering if he's inside there too?? No, he's down below getting warmed up... he HAD been down there with her for over a half hour trying to get her back out. This is a glacier fed waterfall running out from under 15’ of snow. FREAKING COLD! I see Dave hopping around so I go down to assess, of course he's telling me he's fine to take care of her she's almost dead he says. I look back; the guys have Steph under control, getting her out of her boots as they are obviously filled with water. I turn my attention back to Dave. Since I know he’s worried about his wife I instantly think that when I ask him if he’s wet (and he says no) that he’s lying to me; he’s shivering uncontrollably!  So I unzip his coat and start feeling around to see for myself. His lower half is wet; luckily his top half is dry. I then ask him if he’s shivering because he’s cold, hurt or adrenaline, he answers adrenaline. I’m trying to get more of the story while trying to get a grasp of his mental state and physical state. He tells me they had been down there for 30 to 45 minutes trying to get her out!  I zip Dave up, give him a huge hug, find him some gloves and give him a duty “walk to that sled over there and come back”. This is to hopefully give him a focus and also get him warming up.

I then return to Steph. They have her in C-spine, boots off. Someone is bringing up a snowboard to use as a backboard and transport her down to a more level spot. Other guys are building a stairway down, clearing out backpacks and gear. People are selflessly undressing themselves at this point, piling on the clothing. I bend down and speak to her, tell her I’m there and she says my name. Good sign. One of her hands is ungloved and I try to get a glove on her, can’t as her muscles are rigid and her hand is clamped tight. Team effort and a slow walk gets her down to the flats where others pull seats off of their sleds, lay them on the ground with a space blanket on top to make a platform up off the snow. While this is going on one of the hikers, Leif, let Rich know that he had stayed the previous night on the hill; his tent and sleeping bag were just ¼ mile away. They load up on a sled and hauled butt down to gather his down sleeping bag up. Rumor is he enjoyed this short ride, but that’s a whole other story. Upon arrival back we strip her pants and cut her shirt off. Wrap a jacket, then a small space blanket around her now bare feet then slide her inside the down sleeping bag.

She is in pain, dislocated shoulder is visible, and rope burns on her torso from them lifting her out of the hole are very visible. She’s too incoherent to get a feel for anything else that might be wrong but is complaining of her stomach being cold therefore we are proceeding with the thought that it is all wrong! Part of the group that had helped get her out was 5 hikers on their way UP the mountain for a 5 day training exercise. They took time out to stop, help, loan their water bottles full of http://www.hotpack.net/ultimate_hot_pack.html.  Without this hot water I feel we would have been in quite a bit of trouble. From the 2^nd set of hikers that had stopped to help one was a Forest Service employee, Brandon, who climbed inside the waterfall with climbing gear to help get Steph out then stayed on scene as he was an EMT! Thank goodness. I guess at the time that they got Dave up and out of the hole he grabbed his SAT phone and called 911 to a heli coming. This was probably about 3:40ish.

Steph was not completely coherent and was repeating her questions. She had lost vision, she was grey. This was serious. Everyone pulls off more clothing to help get her body temps up, we stuff 4 water bottles full of the “HOTPACK” inside the sleeping bag in various locations on her body. One guy was still kneeled at her head holding c-spine, I was to her left holding her clenched hand; at this point her muscles were rigid. Brent was laying his warm hands on her stomach, one guy was holding her feet (for warmth and stability), another gal was lying on the legs, and others were touching her to give body heat. It was incredible to see. The gentleman holding cspine did not get to move for about 3 hours, his feet went to sleep, he had on a t-shirt and it was getting cold, yet he never let go and never complained. Others that were standing around were cleaning up the area, finding spare jackets for those who had given up theirs, bringing us water and snacks when needed.

It took a good 2 ½ hours to get her to a point where she wasn’t saying she was cold, but she never completely stopped shivering. As her body warmed up the pain set in. While this is a good sign for us, horrible for her. We kept talking to her, reminding her to take big breaths. We were alarmed as she has asthma, but luckily this didn’t come into play. Finally we get word that the Coast Guard heli is on its way as the Naval heli is unavailable. Good to know we have several options in the future! However the Coast Guard does not carry medications on board and so she had to wait another 12 minutes for the ride to the hospital.

It takes about 30 minutes for them to arrive and when we spot them we start telling Steph it is almost over, the heli is just 1 minute away. They start flying in a pattern several miles away, has us wondering why? They are in a marine heli that is use to flying at sea level, not at 4500 feet! They have to dump fuel and need to test the air/wind/temps to make sure this is safe. They make a few passes over us and I’m getting ticked! Just land already! LOL Then word comes they are not landing, they are dropping a rescue swimmer (kind of funny really!) and a litter to hoist her up. This was quite interesting to watch. The guy gets to us and is calm and in control and things go so smoothly. Compared to what they normally do, this was probably not that exciting. We get Steph bundled up in the litter (which was excruciatingly painful) and they take her up. The rescuer stayed on the ground with a rope attached to the litter to keep it from spinning. Then it is his turn, he has Brent hold on to the rope to keep him from spinning, once he gets in the heli Brent lets go and they drag the rope as they start to fly away. The rope drug across a sled and got caught in the handlebars…. For one second we all though OH CHIT! But the rescuer had been holding the rope in his hand and just let it go. Whewwwwwwwwwww.

The group gets Dave loaded up with what he could carry down. Another guy had rode up double with a friend and took the 2^nd sled down. Everyone gathered everything up, didn’t leave one single rubber band or Power Bar wrapper behind. Brandon and Leif had originally planned on breaking camp that afternoon and heading home, but with stopping to help out had now been put 4 hours behind schedule. There was no way they’d make it back down before dark, so we went to their camp, strapped their stuff on sleds and doubled them out. It was the least we could do since Brandon had selflessly thrown himself in the waterfall to help out, kept us medically on track of Steph’s condition, Leif sacrificed his sleeping bag and they both helped immensely throughout the whole ordeal!

Stephanie’s injuries included dislocated shoulder, cracked vertebra, broken ribs, rope burns and I’m sure lots of bruises.