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roy
Social climber
New Zealand -> Santa Barbara
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 30, 2008 - 02:22am PT
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There appeared to be a serious accident at Lover's Leap on Saturday. The rescue involved about 1/2 a dozen emergency vehicles and two helicopters. I was there for a wedding, as were a number of the other climbers that day, but it didn't involve any of our group. Quite of a few of the wedding guests climbed in the morning, but were probably off of the rock by the early afternoon accident. Rumors were as usual conflicting, and suggested that one or more had fallen on Corrugation Corner. But real information was hard to come by.
I hope that this wasn't as bad as it seemed, and my sympathies are with anyone hurt. If anyone has more concrete information I would appreciate hearing it.
Thanks, Roy
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Salamanizer
Trad climber
Vacaville Ca,
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Jun 30, 2008 - 03:26am PT
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I was first on scene. A climber fell at the base of Mainline/Magnum Force when attempting to place a cam. He had a small nut in just below which failed. The fall (though short, 10ft to 15ft) caused a 8in long by 1 1/2in wide laceration to the left schin as well as a possible dislocated or broken right ancle.
The bleeding was under control quickly and the victum was treated for shock. No apparent head injury or loss of consiousness was observed, though the victum was in considerable pain. Due to the condition and statement of the victum it was decided a rescue was needed as walking (even with much help) would be difficult and dangerous as the decent from the main wall is steep, loose and long. 911 was called from a party on Corrugation.
I ran down the decent to meet the rescue team and lead them back up to the scene. Within 45min rescuers were on scene. The victum was treated and administered an IV and meds. More rescuers arrived shortly after (guided by Petch, Chuck and friends) and it was decided a heli pick up was needed. The victum was put on a back board and bagged for transfer. The heli transfer went without insident. The victum was transfered to an ambulance (read meat waggon) and carted to the nearest hospital.
If anyone knows the victum or climbing partner and has there contact info, please email it to me. I have there Blue Alien they left on the route. I'd like to return it.
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Bboi
Trad climber
San Francisco
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Jun 30, 2008 - 11:12am PT
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My climbing partner took a fall off of Magnum Force and sustained injuries to his left shin and a broken bone on his right heel. He's in great spirits.
The rescuers are an amazing crew of people who assisted my partner and made him as comfortable as possible for the heli-transport to the hospital. A HUGE THANK YOU.
Also, we'd like to thank Salamanizer to be first on the scene and to the climbers on Corrugation Corner who called 911. We knew the climbing community is a tight knit group of people and it really showed Saturday afternoon when we needed help.
Mark
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couchmaster
climber
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Jun 30, 2008 - 11:29am PT
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LOCKER
is back!
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roy
Social climber
New Zealand -> Santa Barbara
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 30, 2008 - 12:35pm PT
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Thanks for the info; I'm glad it wasn't as bad as initially rumored. I can sympathize with ankle injuries now having 10 pieces of steel keeping my together. Good luck for the recovery. Sounds like great work on the rescue too.
Cheers, Roy
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nikki trauma
Trad climber
san francisco, ca
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Jun 30, 2008 - 03:16pm PT
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hey guys, this is nikki, the accident victim. i actually DID break a bone in my heel and i'm waiting for an orthopedic surgeon to make a final assessment on whether or not i need surgery. i want to thank my partner mark for taking care of me and chad for retrieving the firefighters and helping out as well. it would have been a much more painful experience with out you. i also want to thank the climbers that called 911 and the others that came up to help and support. i love this sport and community.
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Bart Fay
Social climber
Redlands, CA
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Jun 30, 2008 - 03:23pm PT
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We have a long and proud history of coming to the aide, en mass, of injured female climbers.
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Jingy
Social climber
Flatland, Ca
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Jun 30, 2008 - 03:26pm PT
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Salamanizer - Thanks for the report. I''m thinking this could have been much worse.
Hard times, but will live to tell another story.
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apogee
climber
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Jun 30, 2008 - 03:40pm PT
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Nikki- first of all, glad to hear your injuries are relatively minor, and that your recovery should be rapid (I hope).
It is ironic that air flight transport was used in your evacuation, following the tragedy in Flagstaff yesterday. Not to downplay your injury, but a lower leg laceration and a fracture of a heel bone are relatively minor injuries, and in the 'risk-benefit' determination of evacuation methods, heli-transport seems overly risky and unnecessary.
Again, no intent to marginalize your injury, but the timing is very interesting. As mentioned, helicopter use has become more and more commonplace in recent years, while the rate of accidents and fatalities is unacceptably high (by orders of magnitude as compared to commercial air traffic). It would be interesting to hear why that form of transport was chosen by whichever EMS resource that was responsible for the rescue.
Glad to hear you will be on the mend, and that all went well.
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Tahoe climber
Trad climber
a dark-green forester out west
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Jun 30, 2008 - 03:59pm PT
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Glad to hear you're fundamentally okay, nikki.
TC
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davidji
Social climber
CA
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Jun 30, 2008 - 05:00pm PT
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Nikki, best wishes with your recovery!
Salamanizer, props for the effort you put in to assist!
Apogee,
Are you familiar with that location? How would you try to evacuate someone with this type of injury? While trying not to make their injury worse? I'm not familiar standard procedures to get an injured person down steep, loose ground like that, but I can understand why rescuers avoided it.
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apogee
climber
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Jun 30, 2008 - 06:11pm PT
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Please take this view in the context of someone with limited experience at LL, and I am hesitant to 'armchair critique' what happened with such limited information. There may very well have been more to consider than what has been divulged thusfar that may have influenced the decision (i.e weather, time of day, # of persons present, available resources, medical training of those present, and on and on).
That aside, I would agree with Fatty that litter carryouts are quite possible and common, especially if a litter wheel were present. It is quite possible to have assessed Nikki for the presence of other significant injuries (i.e. spine, shock), and rule them out, thus further minimizing the complexity of the evacuation. Her leg wound is extremely unlikely to have resulted in shock (the word 'shock' is commonly misused), and the musculoskeletal injury could be stabilized relatively easily with a little creativity.
As was demonstrated in a recent accident at Suicide a few weeks ago, other climbers may have been at least as good a choice for evacuations- perhaps moreso than any SAR or EMS agency, and possibly a whole lot quicker.
This is obviously speculation based on incomplete information, so please don't take it too literally. Helicopters are too often resorted to as a first option, sometimes with tragic results.
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nikki trauma
Trad climber
san francisco, ca
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Jun 30, 2008 - 06:51pm PT
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Hey guys - first off, Nikki is short for Nicholas. I know the spelling is deceiving, but i used to be really into glam-rock.
Although excessive, I honestly feel that the airlift was necessary. The route we were climbing was in an awkward place with an even more awkward approach/decent (especially for the Leap). The injury may not have been life-threatening and all, but I needed medical attention ASAP.
I knew they were going to have to airlift before 911 was even called. There was very little chance I could have been hauled off that mountain without somebody getting hurt...
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atchafalaya
climber
Babylon
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Jun 30, 2008 - 06:56pm PT
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Are there stokes litters at the leap, and if so, where?
I have done at least 5 carries down from different areas at Granite Mtn. AZ to the parking lot. I can't imagine the leap being harder than those.
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nikki trauma
Trad climber
san francisco, ca
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Jun 30, 2008 - 07:00pm PT
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Last year there was an old stretcher behind some boulders, but I saw nothing of the sort this time around.
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Ricardo Cabeza
climber
Meyers,CA
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Jun 30, 2008 - 07:09pm PT
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The litter was leaning against the mushroom cap boulder as of 9:30 this morning.
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Dr. Rock
Ice climber
Castle Rock
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Jun 30, 2008 - 07:19pm PT
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Hey Nick, what happened with the nut?
It broke, or the rock let loose?
What happened while you were reaching to place the Jardine?
Foot slipped?
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Jun 30, 2008 - 09:06pm PT
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apogee,
A possibly more targeted example of the risk of a helicopter evacuation was the accident and subsequent rescue on 6/13/2002 on the Braille Book in Yosemite.
Note: this is an example of the risk of helicopter evacuation; what can go wrong. This is my recollection from posts on supertopo at the time and from the posts and articles linked below. I might have some of the facts wrong. Obviously it was a tragedy, and fortunately most of the time the evacuation goes well. There have been crashes during rescues, though.
The initial accident was a soloist (Richard Zuccato, from Baytown, Texas) who fell on the first pitch of the Braille Book. His belay device failed and he did not have backup knots in place, and he fell to the ground. I am not sure exactly what his injuries were. Some posts on supertopo said he had a broken arm; the yosemite.org post says he was in critical condition before he was evacuated.
The Braille Book is quite high above the Valley floor with a large talus field, so a litter evacuation would have taken very many hours.
On the helicopter evacuation, Jason Laird (Naval airman) was the litter attendant. The litter was hooked up to the ship with a cable and they lifted off. Shortly after, there was red light on the panel, and the pilot attempted to jettison the load to save the ship. He released the cable, but it was backed up by a rope, so he Jason and Rick were not actually dropped much. Then the pilot made an emergency descent to try to land in El Cap Meadow while he still had some power. In the process of this emergency descent, Jason and Rick were slammed into a big tree in the Spires Gully. The impact actually broke off part of the tree. The impact injured Rick fatally, and Jason got a collapsed lung, broken ribs, broken pelvis and severe lacerations. The pilot managed to land the ship in El Cap Meadow and Jason was hospitalized.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=3937&msg=3939#msg3939
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=366321&msg=366507#msg366507
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=39284&msg=39310#msg39310
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=254144&msg=258755#msg258755
http://www.yosemite.org/newsroom/clips2002/june/061502.htm
http://www.mymotherlode.com/News/article/kvml/news5352
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pvalchev
Ice climber
Bay Area, CA / Calgary. AB
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I was on a climb on Lower Buttress and saw there were at least 2-3 litters carried by, as the rescuers walked to the scene... and a big litter wheel was carried to the base of the Lower Buttress. So there was plenty of equipment and dozens of people, I imagine the terrain from there onwards was deemed too hard to carry though, and/or the helicopters were already in the area... this discussion aside, happy to hear that it wasn't more serious!
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Mtnmun
Trad climber
Top of the Mountain Mun
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That is one long loose steep descent from the main ledge, I fully understand why they would helivac the climber. A speedy recovery to you Nikki.
Several years ago, my knee blew out up there, from a mountain biking accident the day before. It was one long, painful descent back to camp. I needed ice and a lot of medicine that night. Uncle Lars took good care of me.
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