Feb 20, 05, Paradise to Puyallup ski-toboggan-AMR
2/20/05
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3978
7
Ken and Wendy W and I got off to a leisurely 11 AM start from the Paradise lot Sunday morning, in cool weather with light 8K - 9K cloud cover. We were hoping it would burn off by the time we got up the Glacier Vista side to the base of Pan Pt, to soften up the sun crusted snow. Variable, but mostly light breakable and styrofoamy. There was some nice windblown unconsolidated stuff on west-facing slopes from Saturday night's east breezes, and some unconsolidated powder in trees.
Still cloudy at the base of Pan Pt. We took a right on the route down to Edith Creek making some turns on kind of icy snow down to the creek where we had lunch and waited for the sun. It looked like it should be doing its magic on the slopes at Golden Gate, so I tried that, but it was icy and really tracked up from the day before with a lot of spilled ice cube texture to survive on the way down. Then a much better west slope to the east and below Golden Gate gave us some real turns near two others who got there just before us.
We traversed east below Mazama Ridge, booted down a steep, icy slope to south and skied the lower slopes toward the lower road. It never did soften on these slopes, and at 3:30 while I was trying to turn around a little sapling, my right ski got away right, my left hooked the treetop and stopped me in a faceplant while my right kept going for a painful second. I didn't hear a pop or crack so was hopeful but I might have been screaming too loud to hear.
I've skied this area solo a number of times. Today it was really good to have company. Ken got me extricated from my skiis. After a few minutes lying still and breathing down the pain I started moving things and could wiggle toes and knees while Ken checked for damage. No blood or funny angles. HR 60 above and below the hurt. My upper right thigh and hip hurt like hell but nothing else seemed damaged. I got to my feet on ski poles and knew right away that wouldn't work. Excruciating pain with any torque or weight on the leg. Not shocky except when I tried to stand. Ken called over two passing skiers, Rick and Sue Moore, who helped generously. We got me settled with warm clothes, pads, foil blanket, bivy and Rick's down jacket. After discussing a an improvised ski tow, we decided to send to Paradise for help since it was pretty close and we were in a good spot.
Rick, Sue and Wendy went for it, leaving warm gear and padding. I can tell you now, don't leave home without it! While they were away, I enjoyed the sun and the rest of my hot cider, all wrapped up and thinking the altitude angle from sun to ridge was getting pretty small. I also decided this was going to take awhile and I was pretty well hydrated so I learned a new skill: peeing into a zip lock bag that luckily did not have any holes in it while scooched and padded into a bivy with a bonged up leg. Didn't spill it! Nice to have that out of the way before a potentially bumpy long ride and big crowd. Next time I will work on ski skills. Rick and Sue reported to rangers who got things going.
Two friendly Volunteer nordic patrollers, Beck and ___, showed up at our spot about 4:30? Wendy heard that Mike Gautier was at the Visitor's Center and about to leave, so she turned on the afterburners and skied up the road to find him which was pretty good for her first outing of the year. It was a little embarrasing for me to find out that the head climbing ranger came in almost parallel to Paradise to haul me out. He and Rick RAN a toboggan to us and with a few more volunteers (Lee, and others) got me very gently on a back board and then strapped into the sled with really excellent communications and smooth lifts. All you volunteers with MOFA training can be proud. It sure helped to have lots of willing hands. The ride down wasn't real appealing to think about, especially wondering about the bank at the bottom but turned out to be easier on snow than the ambulance was later on, and with low snow, not much bank. Unlike on all my camping trips here with scouts, the sled did not tip over. When we got to the road they said they'd just leave me there, which was fine. Nice moon and star show beginning and I was still warm. But it was just a little joke, they hauled me on up to Paradise. It seemed like a long time before the moon moved from my left to behind us and I knew we were making the curve to the lot. There, the Wilderness First Responder crew and ranger Chris Trotter were ready to go with the body wagon, and an AMR ambulance was coming to the Park from Puyallup and was maybe a half hour away. It was dark but I decided one transfer would be better than two so we just wainted and told stories till AMR 97 showed up including ranger ____' crushed foot in remote Patagonia which was a good one. Did I mention how nice it is to have warm stuff you don't think you'll need?
The AMR crew was good, despite the bumps on some of those 70 miles, AND they gave me morphine along the way, which was the first nutrition in a few hours. When we got to cellphone range I called and gave my wife the good news from the source. Stopped at Good Samaritan in Puyallup at about 10:30 (?), just seven hours later. Could have been a lot worse if we'd been farther out. Got x-rayed, found out it was a broken right hip with a straight fracture across the neck and curving spall on the bottom, got a bed and all hooked up and two full box lunches and a couple quarts of water before they cut me off at midnight.
Next morning with nobody wanting surgery on the holiday I got into the sparkly new OR right away and Dr Steedman screwed it all back together. Later that afternoon I was able to walk down the hall with a walker. Today I'm home on crutches and doing my PT excercises I promise, and just feeling pretty stiff in that leg.
Thanks to all who helped. If you have names or details to correct or add, please let me know. Hope to see you again soon in a more upright position. And I guess if I have to miss a spring of skiing, this is not a bad year to miss.
53 year old male.
Still cloudy at the base of Pan Pt. We took a right on the route down to Edith Creek making some turns on kind of icy snow down to the creek where we had lunch and waited for the sun. It looked like it should be doing its magic on the slopes at Golden Gate, so I tried that, but it was icy and really tracked up from the day before with a lot of spilled ice cube texture to survive on the way down. Then a much better west slope to the east and below Golden Gate gave us some real turns near two others who got there just before us.
We traversed east below Mazama Ridge, booted down a steep, icy slope to south and skied the lower slopes toward the lower road. It never did soften on these slopes, and at 3:30 while I was trying to turn around a little sapling, my right ski got away right, my left hooked the treetop and stopped me in a faceplant while my right kept going for a painful second. I didn't hear a pop or crack so was hopeful but I might have been screaming too loud to hear.
I've skied this area solo a number of times. Today it was really good to have company. Ken got me extricated from my skiis. After a few minutes lying still and breathing down the pain I started moving things and could wiggle toes and knees while Ken checked for damage. No blood or funny angles. HR 60 above and below the hurt. My upper right thigh and hip hurt like hell but nothing else seemed damaged. I got to my feet on ski poles and knew right away that wouldn't work. Excruciating pain with any torque or weight on the leg. Not shocky except when I tried to stand. Ken called over two passing skiers, Rick and Sue Moore, who helped generously. We got me settled with warm clothes, pads, foil blanket, bivy and Rick's down jacket. After discussing a an improvised ski tow, we decided to send to Paradise for help since it was pretty close and we were in a good spot.
Rick, Sue and Wendy went for it, leaving warm gear and padding. I can tell you now, don't leave home without it! While they were away, I enjoyed the sun and the rest of my hot cider, all wrapped up and thinking the altitude angle from sun to ridge was getting pretty small. I also decided this was going to take awhile and I was pretty well hydrated so I learned a new skill: peeing into a zip lock bag that luckily did not have any holes in it while scooched and padded into a bivy with a bonged up leg. Didn't spill it! Nice to have that out of the way before a potentially bumpy long ride and big crowd. Next time I will work on ski skills. Rick and Sue reported to rangers who got things going.
Two friendly Volunteer nordic patrollers, Beck and ___, showed up at our spot about 4:30? Wendy heard that Mike Gautier was at the Visitor's Center and about to leave, so she turned on the afterburners and skied up the road to find him which was pretty good for her first outing of the year. It was a little embarrasing for me to find out that the head climbing ranger came in almost parallel to Paradise to haul me out. He and Rick RAN a toboggan to us and with a few more volunteers (Lee, and others) got me very gently on a back board and then strapped into the sled with really excellent communications and smooth lifts. All you volunteers with MOFA training can be proud. It sure helped to have lots of willing hands. The ride down wasn't real appealing to think about, especially wondering about the bank at the bottom but turned out to be easier on snow than the ambulance was later on, and with low snow, not much bank. Unlike on all my camping trips here with scouts, the sled did not tip over. When we got to the road they said they'd just leave me there, which was fine. Nice moon and star show beginning and I was still warm. But it was just a little joke, they hauled me on up to Paradise. It seemed like a long time before the moon moved from my left to behind us and I knew we were making the curve to the lot. There, the Wilderness First Responder crew and ranger Chris Trotter were ready to go with the body wagon, and an AMR ambulance was coming to the Park from Puyallup and was maybe a half hour away. It was dark but I decided one transfer would be better than two so we just wainted and told stories till AMR 97 showed up including ranger ____' crushed foot in remote Patagonia which was a good one. Did I mention how nice it is to have warm stuff you don't think you'll need?
The AMR crew was good, despite the bumps on some of those 70 miles, AND they gave me morphine along the way, which was the first nutrition in a few hours. When we got to cellphone range I called and gave my wife the good news from the source. Stopped at Good Samaritan in Puyallup at about 10:30 (?), just seven hours later. Could have been a lot worse if we'd been farther out. Got x-rayed, found out it was a broken right hip with a straight fracture across the neck and curving spall on the bottom, got a bed and all hooked up and two full box lunches and a couple quarts of water before they cut me off at midnight.
Next morning with nobody wanting surgery on the holiday I got into the sparkly new OR right away and Dr Steedman screwed it all back together. Later that afternoon I was able to walk down the hall with a walker. Today I'm home on crutches and doing my PT excercises I promise, and just feeling pretty stiff in that leg.
Thanks to all who helped. If you have names or details to correct or add, please let me know. Hope to see you again soon in a more upright position. And I guess if I have to miss a spring of skiing, this is not a bad year to miss.
53 year old male.
Wow Don I hope you're doing as well as you sound given the circumstances.
I'm pretty certain I was one of the two skiers who skied the "real snow" just before you in east Edith Creek Basin. I called it a N aspect in my report because that is where the first ~8 turns were before turning onto the the W aspect for the runout. And the NNW aspect is where we dug our pit. We watched you and others poking around Golden Gate and above and it didn't look like anyone was having much fun, so we stayed low in the softies we saw there at "Geech's Face." We also dropped into Edith Creek from the Pan Pt. area and had spotted the soft snow across the basin from there... I suppose I should have taken the time to track you down and have a chat, but we'd hit yoyo mode and wanted to track in a few runs before the sun cooked that patch of good snow. You looked like you were in the same frame of mind...
We were the rando guys skiing off the little knob that seperates Edith Creek Basin from the Fourth Crossing area.
The top of Bundy's was a good hard fast ski then things got crusty and dicey nearer the bottom and it became a survival ski to the road...
When we got back to the car at Paradise I overheard a fellow reporting an injured skier near Fourth Crossing. Souded like a hip injury...sound familiar?
Here's to a speedy recovery! And I promise to take the time to say "hello" next time.
I'm pretty certain I was one of the two skiers who skied the "real snow" just before you in east Edith Creek Basin. I called it a N aspect in my report because that is where the first ~8 turns were before turning onto the the W aspect for the runout. And the NNW aspect is where we dug our pit. We watched you and others poking around Golden Gate and above and it didn't look like anyone was having much fun, so we stayed low in the softies we saw there at "Geech's Face." We also dropped into Edith Creek from the Pan Pt. area and had spotted the soft snow across the basin from there... I suppose I should have taken the time to track you down and have a chat, but we'd hit yoyo mode and wanted to track in a few runs before the sun cooked that patch of good snow. You looked like you were in the same frame of mind...
We were the rando guys skiing off the little knob that seperates Edith Creek Basin from the Fourth Crossing area.
The top of Bundy's was a good hard fast ski then things got crusty and dicey nearer the bottom and it became a survival ski to the road...
When we got back to the car at Paradise I overheard a fellow reporting an injured skier near Fourth Crossing. Souded like a hip injury...sound familiar?
Here's to a speedy recovery! And I promise to take the time to say "hello" next time.
Wow, Don, that's a bummer about your hip.
Sounds like you made some pretty good calls after getting hurt, tho.
Glad you weren't solo.
Heal fast.
Sounds like you made some pretty good calls after getting hurt, tho.
Glad you weren't solo.
Heal fast.
JibberD,
Yes, that's what I thought when I saw your post above. Two on maybe matching pairs of yellow skis. We said a quick hi at the bottom of that little run. Good to see you out there, and thanks for the kind words.
Yes, that's what I thought when I saw your post above. Two on maybe matching pairs of yellow skis. We said a quick hi at the bottom of that little run. Good to see you out there, and thanks for the kind words.
Ouch!
Best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery.
Best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery.
I saw you getting loaded in the ambulance.
Hope you have a speedy recovery!!!!!!
Hope you have a speedy recovery!!!!!!
Don,
Have a speedy recovery, from another 53 year old male. I'm curious whether you were on telemark or randonee gear? A friend of mine broke his hip at Alta a few years ago(also a 53 year old male) in a weird spin out type of fall without binding release. Your report was a good wake up call for a season with low cover. Good luck.
Have a speedy recovery, from another 53 year old male. I'm curious whether you were on telemark or randonee gear? A friend of mine broke his hip at Alta a few years ago(also a 53 year old male) in a weird spin out type of fall without binding release. Your report was a good wake up call for a season with low cover. Good luck.
Mike, I was on light tele gear -- fairly skinny Atomic TourCarve skis with soft Targa G3 bindings and Garmont Excursion boots. My experience has been that my boots have popped out of the bindings when torqued sideways. In this incident, the ski on the leg that broke did not get hung up, it just kept sliding while my left leg was hung up by the sapling, so I don't think releaseable bindings would have made a difference.
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