SPOT Satellite Messenger - Arizona Climber Rescued From Colorado Peak
I was checking the Arizona news on my Verizon Netbook this morning when I came across this little story. A number of things immediately leapt to mind. First, the locator beacon was a SPOT unit. Second, why didn't the injured climber, who was running solo, have his own SPOT unit. And third, he is incredibly lucky somebody stumbled upon him at all and that they had the good sense to have a SPOT of their own with them.
Come on people. In this day and age of amazing, affordable life saving technology there really is no excuse not to be properly equipped. If you are going to be doing this kind of thing, especially by yourself, do it it right...or suffer the consequences. Relying on luck is a very poor strategy.
TELLURIDE, Colo. (AP) — A helicopter-borne search team rescued an injured Arizona climber from a Colorado mountain in poor weather on Sunday after he spent a night on the mountainside with a badly injured leg.
Joe Yearm, 28, of Mesa, Ariz., was taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction with a lower leg fracture, San Miguel County Sheriff's Sgt. Michael Westcott said.
A supervisor at the hospital said she could not release any information.
Yearm was descending 14,159-foot El Diente Peak alone and in the dark late Saturday when he fell 20 feet onto a snowfield, Westcott said.
In the morning, Yearm crawled to a slope where two other climbers found him.
One of the climbers, Kenneth Nolan of Buena Vista, Colo., activated a personal locator beacon because the site had no cellphone service, Westcott said.
The beacon sent a signal with a GPS locator to the International Emergency Response Coordination Center, and the center notified San Miguel County.
Westcott said he didn't know the other climber's name.
Deputies from San Miguel and Dolores counties organized the search. Heli-Dunn of Medford, Ore., which had a helicopter working on a construction contract in the area, agreed to fly the rescue team to the scene.
Rescuers spotted the climbers on a steep slope at the 12,200-foot level, and the pilot made a tricky "toe-in landing" with a helicopter skid touching the ground and the rotor still turning to keep the craft level, Westcott said.
Westcott said storm clouds were descending, and some mountaintops were obscured, nearly scrubbing the rescue.
San Miguel Sheriff's Cmdr. Eric Berg, a paramedic, got off the helicopter and fashioned a splint on Yearm's leg with hiking poles and duct tape.
Berg and the two uninjured climbers then dug a short ledge for a safer landing site, and Yearm was taken aboard and flown to the Telluride airport.
He was then transferred to an ambulance and taken to Grand Junction.
Glad the guy is gonna be alright and an "atta boy, well done" goes out to SPOT, the pilot and SAR team...that others may live.
Thanks.
Wade Nelson
Editor
Sorting through the fads and fashion of the outdoor equipment industry to identify and promote the very best wilderness gear for high end recreational users, backcountry professionals and government agencies.
We can be educated and persuaded but not bought, bullied or bs'd. Hardcore Outdoor is dedicated to those who can't or won't turn back.
Come on people. In this day and age of amazing, affordable life saving technology there really is no excuse not to be properly equipped. If you are going to be doing this kind of thing, especially by yourself, do it it right...or suffer the consequences. Relying on luck is a very poor strategy.
TELLURIDE, Colo. (AP) — A helicopter-borne search team rescued an injured Arizona climber from a Colorado mountain in poor weather on Sunday after he spent a night on the mountainside with a badly injured leg.
Joe Yearm, 28, of Mesa, Ariz., was taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction with a lower leg fracture, San Miguel County Sheriff's Sgt. Michael Westcott said.
A supervisor at the hospital said she could not release any information.
Yearm was descending 14,159-foot El Diente Peak alone and in the dark late Saturday when he fell 20 feet onto a snowfield, Westcott said.
In the morning, Yearm crawled to a slope where two other climbers found him.
One of the climbers, Kenneth Nolan of Buena Vista, Colo., activated a personal locator beacon because the site had no cellphone service, Westcott said.
The beacon sent a signal with a GPS locator to the International Emergency Response Coordination Center, and the center notified San Miguel County.
Westcott said he didn't know the other climber's name.
Deputies from San Miguel and Dolores counties organized the search. Heli-Dunn of Medford, Ore., which had a helicopter working on a construction contract in the area, agreed to fly the rescue team to the scene.
Rescuers spotted the climbers on a steep slope at the 12,200-foot level, and the pilot made a tricky "toe-in landing" with a helicopter skid touching the ground and the rotor still turning to keep the craft level, Westcott said.
Westcott said storm clouds were descending, and some mountaintops were obscured, nearly scrubbing the rescue.
San Miguel Sheriff's Cmdr. Eric Berg, a paramedic, got off the helicopter and fashioned a splint on Yearm's leg with hiking poles and duct tape.
Berg and the two uninjured climbers then dug a short ledge for a safer landing site, and Yearm was taken aboard and flown to the Telluride airport.
He was then transferred to an ambulance and taken to Grand Junction.
Glad the guy is gonna be alright and an "atta boy, well done" goes out to SPOT, the pilot and SAR team...that others may live.
Thanks.
Wade Nelson
Editor
Sorting through the fads and fashion of the outdoor equipment industry to identify and promote the very best wilderness gear for high end recreational users, backcountry professionals and government agencies.
We can be educated and persuaded but not bought, bullied or bs'd. Hardcore Outdoor is dedicated to those who can't or won't turn back.
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