Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion SAR Operations

2AM phone call from Sheriff, there has been a 911 SPOT activation.

Unfortunately, most SPOT calls are non-emergencies, but this one was a true emergency.

2AM call from dispatch, Spot activation, Sheriff and I decide to send a hasty team to access the situation. The computer callout system is offline so we get the callout sheet and start waking people. We need 2-5 members who are in good shape, medical & technical trained, know the Whitney Zone well enough to travel and possibly search at night with no moon, and they must travel fast, the coordinate for SPOT is Trail Camp area.

Choices are few as we know many members are out of town can not get off work the next day etc, things get worse as we find voice mail after voice mail, one member who had been celebrating a bit toO much to go and one who answered his phone on the East Coast. OK there are two of us available, one in Lone Pine and one in Bishop. Wake up, gear up and haul... Between the time, not normally spent on phone calls getting from home to the Posse hut gear up, drive to portal and laying out what equipment I can and cannot carry to trail camp fast, also find out there are an additional subjects 3 overdue marathon runners doing a day hike due out yesterday, missing!!

Left the parking lot 4AM, much slower than I would have liked, which makes you hike just a little harder to try and make up time. (We hope to interview people coming down so we can take the appropriate gear, but tonight nobody was coming down that knew anything, sent info down trail, names situation etc. About outpost camp find a hiker who confirms there is a real emergency guy is very sick and was pulled down from trail crest at midnight.

There are only two of us so a carryout from trail camp will be long and brutal. So we requested a callout to the rest of the team in case weather and aircraft do not cooperate. We call for air support at first light. Arrive trail camp 7:30 fairly tired begin search thru every tent finally someone knows of the situation and we head to far south west to find a subject being taken care of by several good Samaritan soldiers on leave. (They pretty much saved his life)

Patient has HACE but is coming out of it with rest and oxygen, eventually a little food and electrolytes. Cold shivering disoriented, hands and feet swollen, nauseous, pupils constricted. The good news he is one of the 3 missing day hikers, the other two left as soon as we arrived, at least they did talk to me first. (That is always strange to me people leave others on Whitney like it is survival of the fittest. Wave even had a group leave a man with his deceased wife sitting in a tent. Very strange behavior for civilized people. Seems to happen up there)

Several bystanders offer to help and they happen to have medical training, none with much altitude experience but still extremely valuable. They help assess patient, and interview witnesses. I find out someone gave the patient a shot of something!!! I find high blood pressure meds in his pack!!!! He thinks he is allergic to some kind of medication but can't remember!!!!! (He is still kind of out of it mentally) put heat packs all over him help him go to the bathroom, keep him warm. Oxygen. Vitals start getting more normal for altitude, Can't find the person who gave the shot but was told it was for nausea they think zofran?? We find a close landing zone, carry him a ways load him at @10:30 AM and he flies away. Not sure when or if we will hear anymore about his condition (pretty normal).

He felt bad on way up starting at Mirror Lake kept going, (3 competitive runners who would guess they would keep going) made it to summit at 2 PM. Patient is so bad could not carry his day pack. They and others helped him to trail crest 8PM, got more help from trail camp (the soldiers, carried him down the 99 switchbacks to trail camp, those guys were heroes! At midnight a person with the SPOT pushed the button for the others. Our Patient was in shorts with a wind breaker his day pack had jack for useful gear. Be prepared and listen to your body otherwise the mountain wins!

No rides down for us. Pack up head to Trailside Meadow to rest a few minutes and head down hill.

On way down get a another call, 200 lb person bucked off a horse above South Lake Bishop, suspect broken or dislocated hip, luckily we did not need the team we had backing us up so they were recalled out for the broken hip and made a quick successful carry out of about 2 miles, with a lot of steps.

Refuel, replace med supplies, oxygen etc. Home by 5PM. 15 hours door-to-door is a pretty normal mission, but with 3 hours sleep the night before, up with no breakfast or lunch, and a life saved, I can say I slept very well.

Next day 4pm phone rings callout... torn ACL at trail camp off we go again.

While I was just finishing the above, before I could send it I got a call at 8 PM, SPOT activation again, from Mt Humphrey's summit. A technical climb, in the dark, winds gusting to @30-40, cold. Rough 4wd road for 45 minutes then start the climb. Up and over the top to a fallen climber two raps down the backside, found broken or separated ribs, wrist sprained maybe slight fracture. Two people were very cold having spent a miserable night out looked very pale. Oxygen helped, good sports. Moved them to a pick off point; helo running very late, weather coming in so started down in case helo might not fly in the worsening conditions. Halfway down injured climber picked off with winch flown to waiting ambulance, team continued down, helo returned to remove team (very much appreciated).

Before that mission was over... person over 50 at Consultation Lake Whitney main trail area, in out of consciousness in bad shape was report, flew B-3 helo up in high winds found person in very bad shape flew straight to hospital Lone Pine.

This was a lucky turn of events. It happened so fast, team members were on standby for the other mission if it went bad, and a helo just happened to be in Lone Pine refueling. Otherwise it was a small hasty team hiking in, who would have had to call for back up for a carry out which when all said and done would have been over 8-12 extra hours before the person would make it to hospital.

So we now have had two SPOT activations that were true emergencies. On these two, I cannot say whether the peace of mind the device fosters leads people further into trouble than they would have without it.

The Inyo SAR is always looking for more volunteers. The team holds meetings at the Posse Hut (tan metal building just before the Bishop airport), general meetings the first Thursday of every month at 7 p.m., a classroom training every third Thursday of the month at 7 p.m., and a full day hands-on training the following Saturday.

The Inyo SAR is always looking for more volunteers. The team holds meetings at the Posse Hut (tan metal building just before the Bishop airport), general meetings the first Thursday of every month at 7 p.m., a classroom training every third Thursday of the month at 7 p.m., and a full day hands-on training the following Saturday.