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 Foster City native honored for Mount Whitney rescue efforts
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Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 4
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OP
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 4 |
https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/loca...2137a27077.html "A Foster City native and San Mateo High School alum has been honored for helping rescue three climbers after they fell 500 feet down a steep stretch of Mount Whitney... They later found out that one woman was in her early 20s and suffered severe head trauma. The other woman, who was in her mid-30s, sustained spinal, hip and leg injuries, possibly a broken hip and spine. Wu didn’t think she was paralyzed. He heard that the first woman began tumbling after she slipped and the second woman attempted to glissade down the mountain to help, but lost control. The three fell at an approximate elevation of 13,000 feet and finally came to a stop at an elevation of about 12,500 feet."
Last edited by climb415; 09/05/18 05:56 PM.
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Re: Foster City native honored for Mount Whitney rescue efforts
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 8,529 Likes: 107
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 8,529 Likes: 107 |
Thanks, Climb415. Here's a post from June 14, reporting on that bad accident:
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Re: Foster City native honored for Mount Whitney rescue efforts
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 584 Likes: 13
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 584 Likes: 13 |
Very graphic description. We should archive this as a cautionary tale. "helping rescue three climbers after they fell 500 feet down a steep stretch of Mount Whitney...
There were intermittent streaks of blood down the mountain for hundreds of feet.
The first woman Wu got to was on the ground with her boyfriend standing over her. She drifted in and out of consciousness, her face covered in blood. She was spitting up blood and coughing. Her eyes were completely swollen like grapefruit, Wu said.
Wu was in shock himself, but his medical training kicked in. He and the boyfriend repositioned her so she was parallel to the slope and that seemed to help her breathe. Wu had no idea what her injuries might’ve been; she wasn’t lucid enough to effectively communicate how she felt and he couldn’t cut through her clothing because it was so cold and she was lying on ice.
Her lips had turned blue and she was shivering so Wu wrapped her in spare layers he brought and was able to warm her up. Wu then proceeded to examine her entire body, checking for a reaction to the pressure.
“Our main concern was brain swelling, but there wasn’t much we could’ve done to mitigate that,” he said.
He performed similar procedures on the other woman. Her right thigh had swollen to the size of a watermelon, Wu said, and he was worried her femur had snapped. Such a break could cut the femoral artery, which means bleeding out in seconds...
They later found out that one woman was in her early 20s and suffered severe head trauma. The other woman, who was in her mid-30s, sustained spinal, hip and leg injuries, possibly a broken hip and spine. Wu didn’t think she was paralyzed.
He heard that the first woman began tumbling after she slipped and the second woman attempted to glissade down the mountain to help, but lost control. The three fell at an approximate elevation of 13,000 feet and finally came to a stop at an elevation of about 12,500 feet." Please, please, please, please, please do not attempt the chute without proper gear, and training!! NEVER glissade without training!!
@jjoshuagregory (Instagram) for mainly landscape and mountain pics
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Re: Foster City native honored for Mount Whitney rescue efforts
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 8,529 Likes: 107
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 8,529 Likes: 107 |
Snacking Bear,
This brings to mind my Shasta climb in June. I tried glissading, and it was treacherous and awful. The reason: temperature.
The afternoon before, the ranger advised people to get up at 3 and get to the summit early. In hindsight, I am really clueless as to why. It was terrible advice! If I had gone an hour or two later, it would have been a completely different experience.
I got to the summit by 9 AM, and tried descending/glissading at 10 AM. Unfortunately, the temperatures were so cold that the glissade chute was almost solid ice. It was almost impossible to get any grip in the icy snow to keep my speed down. I inched my way down the chute, but it was a bad scene.
The day before, some hikers came down and told the guy camped next to me that he didn't even need an ice axe! They had climbed and descended later that day, and found glissading slow. What a difference a few hours make!!!!
Note that on Whitney, this accident occurred pretty early in the morning -- a similar situation. The glissade groove was more of a luge track! No way anyone could slow down without the ice axe being used aggressively.
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