[pct-l] Two hikers dead in avalance near Snoqualmie Pass

[Greg Kesselring]

What an amazing story!!  Thanks for writing it up and sharing it with 
us.  Have you considered posting it on www.nwhikers.net  ?

Amazing that you all survived and that your feet FROZE and it looks like 
you are not going to lose even one toe!

Congratulations on surviving and getting found and getting out safely.

Greg

cvano at tmail.com wrote:
> Actually, the bottom paragraph in this article IS about me.  The first 
> group was in fact avalanched.  We opted to leave the trail and go cross 
> country (down and away) to avoid this very situation.  We left on a 
> short overnight hike with a forecast of 3 to 5 inches of snow followed 
> by rain and wind.  Perfect to test new gear.  What we got was 3 to 5 
> FEET of powder followed by torrential rain.  We just couldn't make it 
> out without snowshoes.  Took 7 hours to go 1 mile.
>
> So it ended up with 4 of us in a 2 man Sierra Designs tent for 2 
> nights.  We immediatly went on reduced rations and pulled together.  We 
> had one synthetic sleeping bag.  The other 3 were down and worse than 
> useless, everything being thoroughly soaked by this time.  I had my 
> alcohol stove and a full Capt Morgan bottle of fuel.  We used that for 
> cooking, melting snow, and warmth every hour during the night.  We also 
> all had to cuddle.  BTW, I'm the 55 year old.
>
> The first night, the snow beneth my butt kept sinking and water came in 
> through the tent floor.  Next morning a river appeared on our left about 
> 10 feet away.  Another appeared on our right also about 10 feet away.  
> We packed up and I postholed into a third river directly under where the 
> tent had been.  Hypothermia was also a big concern along with 
> dehydration.  I got to witness a couple of avalanches, new waterfalls, 
> mudslides etc.  There is no way to describe the power of water in these 
> conditions.  Unbelievable!  It takes big trees and boulders along on the 
> first wave like nothing.  Sounds like a turbine engine on take off.
>
> It took 3 hours to move 100 yards across the river and up 100 feet to a 
> tree where we again set up camp.
>
> SAR took 36 hours to reach us on snowshoes.  A helicopter made 2 passes 
> Monday but didn't see us.  One came yesterday and we flipped our 
> Thermorest pads at it and were spotted exactly where we told them we 
> were.  In the meantime we had made a path to a clearing so we could get 
> out and do that quickly when we heard them coming.
>
> SAR arrived on foot about noon Tuesday with dry clothes, med gear and 
> food including Gummy Bears and snowshoes.  They did first aid to my 
> feet, and we set off.  We all walked out!
>
> We all had adaquate gear for the conditions.  What happened was I had 
> waterproof socks.  Unbeknownst and unexpected by me, they got full of 
> water from postholing (above waste) and actually froze on my feet.  I 
> couldn't get my shoes off.  This was Sunday about noon.  I had 4 pairs 
> of dry wool socks.  Didn't help.  We chose NOT to warm them with any 
> heat (body, stove) for fear of it happening again.  That was the right 
> choice.
>
> I will probably not loose any toes.  When we got out, between the 12 or 
> 14 hikers that came in, 2 helicopter crews, 2 ambulances, command post, 
> snow plow, sherriff, there were more than a hundred volunteers involved 
> in this rescue.  The hospital fed me twice and I was a celebraty there 
> because most of the staff had never seen frostbite!  Anyway, they also 
> gave me warm IV, blankets, and hung all my clothes to dry.  The also 
> gave me morphine even though I was in no pian.  My toes felt like they 
> had a shot of novacane.  No feeling at all.  Then they put them in 85 
> degree water.  Cool to the heal but OMG did it burn my toes.  This went 
> on for several hours with progressively warmer tap water.
>
> This morning most of the purple color, waxy appearance and white colored 
> nails are gone.  My feet have both swelled to near twice their normal 
> size and they hurt.  Its also very hard and painfull to walk.  Doc says 
> it will take several days or a couple of weeks to regain normal size and 
> feeling.  Got some good drugs though....  Taking today off work (hate 
> when THAT happens!)
>
> Bottom line, $hit happens, even to me!  Be prepared!  This was only a 
> 4.4 mile and 2000' gain hike.  Don't ever wear waterproof socks in 
> freezing conditions.  It was only about 20 degrees.  We were all warm 
> other than me feet, although very cramped in the tent but we survived a 
> great adventure.  Each of us had some piece of gear that contributed to 
> group survival.  Synthetic bag, alcohol stove with pleanty of fuel. A 2 
> man tent, one ice axe, one set of hiking poles, 2 orange sleeping pads, 
> one cell phone (low battery), we pooled the food and shared everything 
> equilly.  The one thing we lacked was snowshoes.  Even with them on we 
> postholed and fell a lot on the way out.  Even the SAR team did that.  
> We all pulled together as a team, no one got scared, mad, or even 
> testy.  Even moral stayed good considering..  A grand adventure!  BTW, 
> the differance between ordeal and adventure is attitude.  That helped a 
> lot.  Thanks everyone for your concern.  We did have to cashe some gear 
> on the mountain.  It was just too wet and heavy to get it all down.  
> Confidence is high that it will be there when we go to retrive it.  Its 
> 100 yards off trail and well hidden in a rugged area.  It will probably 
> be a couple of weeks to months before we can get back up there to get 
> it.
> C
>
>