***  Gully Rescue on the Squamish Chief, B.C. ***

From: dharris@mindlink.bc.ca (David Harris)
Newsgroups: rec.climbing
Subject: Re: Accident on Squamish Chief, BC
Date: Sat, 20 May 1995 15:50:41 GMT

hurd@sfu.ca (Peter L. Hurd) wrote:

>The CBC is reporting that a rescue is underway on the chief, apparently a
>man (has fallen? and) is trapped in a hard to reach gully....

I watched the choppers (one looked like a Bell Long Ranger and the other
was a huge twin-rotor job) circling around from high on a nearby route,
but couldn't really tell what they were doing. When I got back to town I
was told that the climber had had his/her accident on the Angel's Crest
and that rescuers and a stretcher had been dropped in on a longline.

If the story about the hard-to-reach gully is true, then the climber would
have fallen into the North Gully, which wouldn't be a real fun place to
stage a rescue.

David Harris     dharris@mindlink.bc.ca

Lee Purvis <Lee_Purvis@mindlink.bc.ca> wrote:
>Does anyone have any information on the accident that occured in Squamish,
>B.C. last weekend. I was climbing at the Smoke Bluffs and watched
>helicopters come and go all day in a big rescue.

>>The only thing that I have heard is that head injuries were sustained, but
>the climber is alive and in the hospital. This was essentially his status
on Monday. Critical but stable. I don't know how he is doing now. 

> Does anyone know what route he as on? (Angels Crest?)

   Angel's Crest, roughly pitch 6. (The 5.9 pitch arround there)

> What happened?
  He fell.

His partner did not see the fall. They were moving together; it seems most
likely that the spot where he fell is where this pitch gets a little tricky
and protection is not "free", but this is conjecture. If this was the case,
then the fall would have been observed if they were pitching it out, but
they weren't. Since his partner did not see the fall, one can't say much
about the possibility of other factors such as rock fall (not very likely
there, though).

> Was the climber wearing a helmet?
No.

I got the above info from his partner who set up a "donation stand" to raise
funds to help the victims mother fly over from back east.
Kudos to his partner (Joe Filapino), and thanks to all who donated (or will
donate - I think he is still working on it).

His efforts were apparently paying off, in that he had managed to get 300$
(I think that is what he said) before noon on Monday.

It seems that the climbing community is not so bad after all!

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