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Captain...or Skully
climber
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"Nice"? That was a Helluva story. I can SEE it. Feel the rotor wash.
Holy sh#t balls, as Leggs would say....
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WBraun
climber
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A helicopter flew in from Livermore
That's not "Livermore" but "NAS Lemoore" Naval Air Station.
http://www.cnic.navy.mil/lemoore/
Anyways very well written ........
I also remember you had that one guy on Washington Column piggy back on your back getting him down off Diner Ledge I believe it was.
Only a big guy like you could have managed that!
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GhoulweJ
Trad climber
El Dorado Hills, CA
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JL
As usual, great writing!
Quite a story, glad I got to read it.
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Leggs
Sport climber
Home away from Home
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Goodness ... JL, the experience you've shared is chilling...(great writing)
This entire thread is... I'm not sure I can find the right words, except to say *thank you* to all who risk their lives to save others ... or perhaps my words would be "Holy Sh#t Balls". (hi Capt.)
Thank you all for sharing your experiences... my condolences for the loss of your cherished friends and fellow climbers and/or rescue crew members.
~peace, Leggs
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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That's not "Livermore" but "NAS Lemoore" Naval Air Station.
Gene Malone just got hold of me per this error. Thanks for clearing that one up. My notes for this story were pretty sketchy per place names.
And Warner, I'll have to write up that crazy rescue off Dinner Ledge when they lowered me all the way to the deck with Lurch (225 lbs) strapped to my back. But not here. This is Ed's chopper thread.
JL
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Anyone have more pics of these events? It's like MASH or something.
JL
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Gene
climber
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I have vague memories of watching an injured climber pulled off of Middle Cathedral by a chopper in about 1972-1973. As I recall, it took place midway between the EB and NB. I think John Long's story happened a few years later.
Anyone?
g
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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This thread has become a classic. Thanks for riveting contributions from all sides.
JL- Loved the story! Evokes those first trips to Yosemite when our great aspiration was to feel like we belonged there.
Tim Setnika’s book, Wilderness Search and Rescue (Appalachian Mountain Club 1980)has an account of the Barton crash from Tim’s perspective, just below the chopper on a ledge:
The pilot was grinning at us, and we could see [ranger] Henry preparing to pull the litter into the ship as it rapidly rose on the hoist cable. The crew chief started to reach out and grab the litter when suddenly the helicopter rocked once to the left. We both thought that odd. An instant later the engines suddenly altered pitch and the helo dropped without warning and banked hard to the left, narrowly missing us on the ledge. I saw the surprise in the crew chief’s face as he braced himself and shot a glance at the pilots before the helo fell from view…
The photos prompted memories of Peter Barton around C4. Nice guy.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Largo...Was it Lurch or his harpsichord...?
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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A terrible crash that had close ties to Yosemite climbing, but happened in Nevada.
In about 1974 or 1975 that I joined a rescue on Half Dome where the Camp 4 contingent was Bev Johnson, Sybille Hechtel, Mike Graham, Richard Harrison, John Yablonski and a couple of others I can’t recall. I’ll never forget being ferried up, two passengers at a time, in the glass bubble cockpit of the Bell B-1, my first ride in a helicopter.
It was an “E-ticket ride” as the old saying went, with a superlative view. Some cold and wet climbers were successfully pulled off the Northwest Face a couple of pitches from the top and all went well. I am not sure, but I believe that the pilot of that contract helicopter may have been a man named David Walton.
David Walton was also the pilot of the helicopter that crashed in a heli-ski accident in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada in 1994. The crash killed Walton, Bev Johnson, Paul Scannell, and Frank Wells, the president of the Walt Disney company. Mike Hoover, Bev’s husband, was the only survivor.
I found on the internet a letter Hoover wrote after he settled his products liability lawsuit against Bell. It details the catastrophe that lurks if a helicopter’s engines happen to fail. Hoover states that Walton knew Bev Johnson from her days on helicopter rescues in Yosemite.
[url=" http://bobschuster.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/helicopter_maker.pdf"]
The cause of this crash that killed four may have been snow ingested into the engine, perhaps as little as what you can fit in a shot glass.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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It is very different to read these accounts on the internet compared to hearing the stories told after a few beers in C4 with nobody listening.
There is this one guy who would take the most gory details imaginable and have you busting a gut over it.
Gallows humor, you might say, but no. Just twistedness.
I could start typing and get kicked off of ST in 15 minutes...
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WBraun
climber
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Rick A
a couple of pitches from the top
Dave Diegelman (sp?) and Bill Price they were the guys we rescued on that one.
They were much farther down (several hundred feet).
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bhilden
Trad climber
Mountain View, CA
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Note to Ken Yager... [not Yeager]
are these helicopter crash sites some good work projects for a future Yosemite Facelift?
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Good for Mike Hoover. The man must be seventy this year.... Thanks Ricky. An utterly heartbreaking, incredibly well put together piece of great power and even-handed brooding.
Tom Carter has told me that Bev died in his arms that day in the snow. I guess he was with another helo or was planning on going down differently somehow.
I am still in denial that Bev has left us. Still, 19 years later. It just doesn't seem possible.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 9, 2013 - 11:45pm PT
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But not here. This is Ed's chopper thread.
it's not my thread, it's our thread... come on Stonemaster... we're all in this together!
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Captain...or Skully
climber
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Apr 10, 2013 - 12:04am PT
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Right on, Ed.
Note to everyone. It's "Yager". He's too kind to correct you.
Cheers!
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WBraun
climber
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Apr 10, 2013 - 12:11am PT
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There were 2 choppers Peter.
Hoover told me the whole story when we were in Amazon ......
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Apr 10, 2013 - 12:14am PT
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Werner,
Sorry my memory omitted you (of all people) from the Camp 4 contingent and mistated the distance.
I was trying to visualize the faces of those of us in the galley crew on the rope line. You were on the sharp end of the lower, it now seems to me.
This probably gave you a greater appreciation of how far down you went! Did someone else get lowered down after you, Kauk maybe?
Rick
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Apr 10, 2013 - 12:15am PT
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Rick A, I can assure you that a 'shot glass' of snow is not going to put out the fire in any turbine engine that is being properly operated, or even improperly operated in any conceivable circumstance. Without actually reading an unbiased analysis I can only assume that this was a case of product liabilty justice run amok. If that were the case there would be 500 crashes a day at Sea-Tac, on a good day.
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