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

[cvano at tmail.com]

Please feel free to repost if there is a lesson to be learned.  I am not 
a member of this forum and have about 400 emails to answer this morning 
- doped up!  C

On Wed, 5 Dec 2007 8:42 am, Greg Kesselring wrote:
> 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
>>
>>
Beyond this point
There be dragons...

Chris ~ S/V Drifter
Anacortes, WA. ~~~_/) ~~~