teejay
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- Sep 4, 2003
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I don't usually post trip reports here, I'll leave that up to others. And I certainly wouldn't feel inclined to report a hike up mighty Mt. Jo in the Adirondacks, unless it were more memorable than usual in some way.
I stayed last weekend at the ADK's Wiezel Trails Cabin at Heart Lake with members of the Burlington Section of the Green Mountain Club. Saturday morning started out bright, sunny and warm, in the mid-thirties. I had no epic summit pursuit planned so headed in to Lake Placid with another of our group for breakfast. Returning to the Cabin, I changed into real hiking clothes (at least look the part of a hker even though it should be a real slacker day), packed a lunch and set out for Mt. Jo.
The crew in the Information Center had been warning people about trail conditions and to be very cautious of extremely icy conditions. I stopped at the Nature Center to put on my snowshoes and had thrown my Microspikes® in my pack at the last minute, just in case. Soon after signing the trail register at 11:00 I met a woman from our group coming down. She said that she had started with two men from our group and that one of them was hurt and she was heading to the Loj to alert authorities. I asked if it were that serious. She thought it was. Knees. She continued down.
Due to the many exposed rocks, snowshoes were more of a hindrance than help except in the steeper, icy sections, as it would turn out.
I continued on toward the summit on the long trail and reached the injured and his partner about 20 minutes later. Both were wearing crampons. Apparently he had fallen backward and slid on the ice into the woods and whacked both knees on rocks and trees until he stopped. He could not support any weight on either leg and was in excruciating pain. Together we made painstakingly slow progress down for the next 30-45 minutes, covering just 100-200 hundred feet, with another 3/4 mile left to go. At one point, though, he refused to move any further. We did the best we could to make him comfortable. He was warm, well-clothed and, save his pain and admitted embarrassment, in surprisingly good spirits, and they had plenty of water and food.
I left them and continued down the trail to see if I would run into anyone aware of the situation. After going for a few minutes and stopping often to listen for any sounds of activity, I heard something. It wasn't a chain saw, or generator, or outboard motor. "When did they start allowing snowmobiles on ADK property?", I wondered. Within a few minutes two uniformed rangers reached me. I gave them my assessment of the injured hiker and his location and we all headed back up to him, exactly where he was earlier.
They did their assessment of the situation and splinted both knees. Meanwhile another ranger and an assistant came up with a two-part Stokes basket. After he had been secured in the stretcher and being assured they would handle the situation, I switched to Microspikes (fantastic) and headed down to wait at the bottom of the Mt. Jo trail.
Meanwhile, the rangers had bushwhacked straight down the fall line to the snowmobile parked on the shore. By the time the rest of us had returned to the Loj, the injured was waiting for us being the first one of the party out, ironically.
His hiking partner put him in the back of his Jeep and they left for the hospital in Lake Placid. The last I heard he had fractured his patellae, that's both of 'em, was mildly hypothermic and would be taken to Fletcher-Allen in Burlington by ambulance. I'm awaiting further updates.
Some things of note: The average age of the original party of three was older than me, by decades. Rangers know what they're doing. Even little mountains can be dangerous. Rangers have radios, that work. Bushwhacking down was the easy way with the stretcher.
Lighter notes: The rangers all commented on what a trooper he had been. They're used to "Are we there yet?", "How much farther?" and the classic, "I have to pee." "What do you do then?", I asked. "Just turn the stretcher over and tell 'em to go for it."
"Reach the summit?"
"Nope."
"Bad day?"
"Not the best."
teejay
I stayed last weekend at the ADK's Wiezel Trails Cabin at Heart Lake with members of the Burlington Section of the Green Mountain Club. Saturday morning started out bright, sunny and warm, in the mid-thirties. I had no epic summit pursuit planned so headed in to Lake Placid with another of our group for breakfast. Returning to the Cabin, I changed into real hiking clothes (at least look the part of a hker even though it should be a real slacker day), packed a lunch and set out for Mt. Jo.
The crew in the Information Center had been warning people about trail conditions and to be very cautious of extremely icy conditions. I stopped at the Nature Center to put on my snowshoes and had thrown my Microspikes® in my pack at the last minute, just in case. Soon after signing the trail register at 11:00 I met a woman from our group coming down. She said that she had started with two men from our group and that one of them was hurt and she was heading to the Loj to alert authorities. I asked if it were that serious. She thought it was. Knees. She continued down.
Due to the many exposed rocks, snowshoes were more of a hindrance than help except in the steeper, icy sections, as it would turn out.
I continued on toward the summit on the long trail and reached the injured and his partner about 20 minutes later. Both were wearing crampons. Apparently he had fallen backward and slid on the ice into the woods and whacked both knees on rocks and trees until he stopped. He could not support any weight on either leg and was in excruciating pain. Together we made painstakingly slow progress down for the next 30-45 minutes, covering just 100-200 hundred feet, with another 3/4 mile left to go. At one point, though, he refused to move any further. We did the best we could to make him comfortable. He was warm, well-clothed and, save his pain and admitted embarrassment, in surprisingly good spirits, and they had plenty of water and food.
I left them and continued down the trail to see if I would run into anyone aware of the situation. After going for a few minutes and stopping often to listen for any sounds of activity, I heard something. It wasn't a chain saw, or generator, or outboard motor. "When did they start allowing snowmobiles on ADK property?", I wondered. Within a few minutes two uniformed rangers reached me. I gave them my assessment of the injured hiker and his location and we all headed back up to him, exactly where he was earlier.
They did their assessment of the situation and splinted both knees. Meanwhile another ranger and an assistant came up with a two-part Stokes basket. After he had been secured in the stretcher and being assured they would handle the situation, I switched to Microspikes (fantastic) and headed down to wait at the bottom of the Mt. Jo trail.
Meanwhile, the rangers had bushwhacked straight down the fall line to the snowmobile parked on the shore. By the time the rest of us had returned to the Loj, the injured was waiting for us being the first one of the party out, ironically.
His hiking partner put him in the back of his Jeep and they left for the hospital in Lake Placid. The last I heard he had fractured his patellae, that's both of 'em, was mildly hypothermic and would be taken to Fletcher-Allen in Burlington by ambulance. I'm awaiting further updates.
Some things of note: The average age of the original party of three was older than me, by decades. Rangers know what they're doing. Even little mountains can be dangerous. Rangers have radios, that work. Bushwhacking down was the easy way with the stretcher.
Lighter notes: The rangers all commented on what a trooper he had been. They're used to "Are we there yet?", "How much farther?" and the classic, "I have to pee." "What do you do then?", I asked. "Just turn the stretcher over and tell 'em to go for it."
"Reach the summit?"
"Nope."
"Bad day?"
"Not the best."
teejay
You sure don't have to be climbing on of the "big boys", or climbing at all for that matter, to get into trouble, do ya?
