*** Dramatic Near Miss, Fatality and Rescue on Denali ***

From: snodawg@aol.com (Sno Dawg)
Reply-To: snodawg@aol.com (Sno Dawg)
Newsgroups: rec.climbing
Subject: Re: Denali rescue?
Date: 17 Jun 1995 03:47:04 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)

I was climbing the West Rib with three other people and came across the
Spanish climbers at 19,000' after about their third or forth night on the
route. Their tent was in bad shape and two of the three were huddled inside
and didn't even come out to see us when we came upon them. Two of us skied
down the Orient Express and two went over to 17.2 to report them as needing
a rescue (we were at out wits ends ourselves and they declined offers of
food, clothing or help - they just wanted to be rescued).

We reported them to the 14.3 rangers and they started to put a helicopter
rescue into action. A Llamma helicopter flew them some supplies, but after
he made the drop his line whipped around and caught in his tail rotor almost
causing him to go down. In any case, the Llamma was out ofaction. A Chinook
helicopter flew Alex Lowe, Marc Twight and Scott Backes up to the football
field at about 19.2 where they set up fixed lines and lowered down to them.

During this time, the Spanish tried to find a new location for their camp
and in doing so, one of them slipped and fell head first all the way down
the Orient Express. We went up from 14.3  to see if he was still alive, but
unfortuantely he wasn't. Using a 30' section of rope, Alex towed the
remaining two climbers up to the football field where they were loaded into
the Chinook and flown off. One was coherant, but the other one kept passing
in and out of conciousness. Both survived.

Andrew
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