*** Rescuer Dies attempting a Rescue on Mt. McKinley ***

From:Bruce Bowler [Bruce_Bowler@dot.state.ak.us]
Thursday, October 22, 1998 10:47 AM
To: Martin Colwell 
Subject: Would-be rescuer ended up a victim
Anchorage Daily News 10/22/98
RANGER'S JUDGMENT LED TO FALL - Would-be rescuer ended up a victim
By CRAIG MEDRED  Daily News outdoors editor

   "Rescue fever" - the suspension of judgment in the rush to save someone's life - may have led volunteer National Park Service ranger Mike Vanderbeek of Talkeetna to his death five months ago in hellish conditions high on Mount McKinley, investigators have concluded.

   A board of inquiry convened by the Park Service recommends hiring more experienced mountain rangers as well as training volunteers better to minimize the chances of an accident.

   Vandeerbeek was descending near 17,000 feet on McKinley's well-traveled West Buttress on May 24 when his climbing partner, volunteer ranger Tim Hurtado from Chicago, witnessed the fall of Canadian mountaineer Daniel Rowarth.

   The Park Service uses several volunteer rangers during the height of climbing season."Hurtado had turned around to see how Jason (Sinnes) and Daniel were doing and saw Rowarth 50 feet below the ridge crest, catapulting downward," accident investigators wrote.

   All four climbers - the pair of Canadians and the volunteer rangers - had been trying to get back down to the 14,000-foot McKinley camp in worsening weather. When Rowarth fell, the wind on McKinley's summit ridge was estimated at a steady 30 mph, gusting to 60 or 70.

   Before starting down, according to the report, Vanderbeek and Hurtado discussed the "need to be very careful with foot placement since 'a misstep could be fatal.'"Raworth made that misstep near Washburn's Thumb at about 16,900 feet. After he fell, according to the report, Vanderbeek immediately crossed 100 feet of mountainside to where Rowarth had been and found the climber's ice ax. Hurtado, meanwhile, called Park Service mountaineering ranger Daryll Miller for permission to go after Rowarth. Accounts vary on what happened next.

   Miller, in command of the ranger station at 14,000 feet, thought he gave the volunteers permission to descend an easy slope and "take a look" to see if Rowarth was in sight. Hurtado thought the two volunteers had been given permission to descend a steep slope toward Peters Glacier in search of
Rowarth. The Canadian climber had died in the fall, but at the time rescuers believed he might be alive.

   Ralph Tingey, an experienced Alaska climber, Reynold Jackson, supervisory climbing ranger for Grand Teton National Park and others on the Park service's serious accident investigation team noted the danger of "rescue fever." It is "not uncommon in life and death situations, whether among firefighters in burning buildings or on mountainsides," they wrote. "It is most common among people who have not had experience in emergency situations. The heightened sense of urgency produces a desire for speed and a sacrifice of personal safety."

   Vandeerbeek, course director for the Alaska climbing program run by the Colorado Outward Bound School and the most experienced of the two volunteer rangers, did not panic or make any rash decisions, according to the report.
But he did take unnecessary risks, it concluded. Vandeerbeek led his partner onto steep ice without being protected by ropes. Hurtado eventually expressed concerns about that, suggesting the two rope up and anchor themselves to the side of the mountain for safety.

   The two volunteer rangers were moving toward some rock where they could stop and do that when Vanderbeek fell perhaps a couple thousand feet to his death. "Hurtado," according to the report, "heard the sound of nylon on ice. He heard nothing else and shouted for Vanderbeek and received no answer."

   At that point, the report continues, Hurtado took off a pair of fogged up goggles that had limited his visibility and "realized that his position was precarious. He was on a 400- to 500-foot sheet of hard, blue-water ice that was 45 to 55 degrees." Recognizing the danger, Hurtado sank his lone ice screw into the ice, clipped his climbing harness to it and waited for help.

   He was eventually rescued by Adrian Nature, one of a group of volunteer rangers Miller had dispatched from the 14,000-foot camp to assist in any attempt to rescue Raworth.   Vanderbeek's body was never found.

   * Reporter Craig Medred can be reached at cmedred@adn.com