Re: Visitor Rescued From Cables On Half Dome

On the afternoon of Saturday, June 6th, Gina Bartiromo, 35, slipped while descending the Half Dome cables and slid approximately 150 feet down the east face, coming to rest on a small ledge. Multiple 911 calls were received from hikers in the area who reported the accident and advised that Bartiromo was unresponsive. A visitor scrambled out to Bartiromo and stayed with her until rescuers arrived. At the time of the incident, Half Dome was socked in with clouds, with snow flurries on the summit and mist on the cables and sub-dome. Four teams were dispatched to the scene, including rangers from Little Yosemite Valley, a hasty medical team up the slabs from Mirror Lake, and a support team up the John Muir Trail. There was a narrow opening in the cloud cover just before 7 p.m. and Yosemite's contract helicopter, H-551, was able to land on the sub-dome and insert two rescuers. The rescuers scrambled up to Bartiromo and packaged her in a KED (Kendrick extrication device) and litter. H-551 then made two attempts to short-haul her from the site, but poor visibility caused those missions to be aborted. A final attempt to retrieve her was made after 8 p.m. and was successful. She was short-hauled to Awahnee Meadow, then transferred to a waiting air ambulance and transported to Doctor's Medical Center in Modesto.

I wonder how exposed her resting position was considering somebody brave/foolish enough scrambled out to her to check on her.

Wow. Talk about a horrible event followed up by a string of good luck. Climbers just happened to be there to offer gear to get an ex-EMT secured to keep her warm until help arrived.

YOSAR also does some pretty unbelievable stuff consistently. Hats off

I was following up on the story mentioned at the HikeHalfDome site:
Check out the congestion shown on June 3, 2009 by looking up "Entry for June 3, 2009 - Leave Early"

http://www.hikehalfdome.com/blog.html?pg=2&cnt=5&t=a
Scroll to picture of line from HD to Subdome at 2pm!

http://www.hikehalfdome.com/blog.html

Are there worse pictures of congestion on the cables??

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2009 05:43AM by Frank Furter.

I'm incredibly grateful that Rick and Kiley did scramble up and stay with me while the rescuers attempted to get to me. Without them, I may not be here.
Gina

I'm sure there are plenty of photos out there in the ether...whether or not they will (or should) surface is another thing...

This was posted on Hikehalfdome.com, the blog portion. The injuries sustained were pretty good, she is lucky to be alive.

I am the ex-EMT referred to in prev. post. "Gina" fell/slid about 100-150 feet before stopping on a very small ledge about 100 feet from the bottom. Mild hypothermia, as well as wet conditions and panic played roles in her fall. She was pretty high up on the cables while the traffic going down was very backed up. Her friend, with her on the cables, said that Gina had could not feel her hands, had tingling in her arms and some slurred speach before she lost her grip and slid down. My uncle, who is the one that helped the prev. poster's wife was on his way up to Gina when she fell and she stopped about 10 ft above and climber's left of where he was. He was the first to reach her. I went up about 10 min. later with a blanket, panchos, etc. to try and keep her warm. There was no way for me to do a medical assesment and any treatment other than trying to keep her warem because I could not get to her. It was not long before two Brazilian climbers, who had come over the face and were on their way down, stopped and assisted by securing my uncle and myself to the rock while we waited for SAR. Then they went back up the cables to assist other hikers that were still stuck. The helipcopter arrived about two hours (I think) after the fall to drop off two rescuers. Once they got her in the litter, the helo had to wait for weather to clear enough to come back and pick her up. It was about 8:30 PM when my uncle and I stared down. My uncle talked to one of Gina's friends yesterday, 6/9/09, and found out the extent of her injuries to be: Broken Scapula, Broken Arm, Shattered Jaw, Fractured Cranium, Fractured Thorasic Vertabrae. She is extremely lucky to be alive. We are all extremely thankful for all the Brazilians and hikers at the bottom of the cables that pitched in and supplied pancho's, jackets, and one hiker, Kan, gave me a climbing harness (returned the next day) that allowed me to get up to her. Also hat's off to the pilot of the helo...truly amazing bravery and skill on his part. And hat's off to the YOSAR teams that booted up the Mist Trail from the valley to the Little Valley ranger station in two hours with full gear, then proceeded to escort the 10 in my group back to the bottom. This was my first time to Yosemite. I will definately be back, but more prepared next time. No one in my party will ever go up the cables without harnesses and being clipped in again.

Only several years delayed but I just found this link and the comments. I am wanting to learn all that I can about that day and even this small thread has much to teach me. Kiley, I didn't realize that you and Rick were harnessed in. Thank you, Kan, for loaning your harness!!! Wherever you are, you deserve my deep gratitude along with all the others that contributed and waited with my friends during that horrendous 3 hours.

I am so fortunate that you were an ex-EMT and were able and willing to wait with me.

I'm now writing a book about my fall and the process of healing I've been going through for the last 6+ years. It's been quite a journey.
I commend each and every one of the amazing, caring people and rescuers that were there that day. YOU made a difference.

If you were there that day and have anything you'd like to share about your experience, I'd love to hear from you.

Please visit my blob page for my writing of the experience:
The Unfolding Self - Gina Bartiromo's blog
http://theunfoldingself.wordpress.com/my-half-dome-dance/

Or you can follow me on Facebook at Facebook: The Unfolding Self

In deep gratitude,
Gina



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2016 08:50PM by Gina.

Quote
Gina



I'm not writing a book about my fall and the process of healing I've been going through for the last 6+ years.

Hi Gina, Welcome to the forums here. Did you mean to write you are now writing a book?

Oops yes, I'm NOW writing a book. Thanks for catching that. I've fixed it.
Thanks much,
Gina

Gina I wish you the best. Old Dood, myself, and Bee ... were across the way on that day...
atop Mt. Watkins. Really sorry that people decided to summit on that day. It was nasty.

In the morning... It was a typical Yosemite day... just gorgeous..

by about 1pm it was looking nasty...

View from Tunnel View:


View from Turtleback Dome area:


View from Watkins: (about 7pm)


it stayed socked in and snowing and bad... barely visible in distance...

(from Watkins)


glad you are alive and recovering. really wish you hadn't gone up that day... we heard the helicopters from across the way...
and knew there were problems...

next day was gorgeous...

(again from Watkins)


wish you the best

if this helps in any way... ok
if it doesn't and want deleted ... please say ... I will not be offended any way

kindest regards,

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2016 08:32AM by chick-on.

It certainly didn't look like that to us that day. We saw sun in the AM and started the trek.
Maybe a poor choice in retrospect but we made our judgement based on the weather we saw and were aware of.
Thanks for your flexibility to delete if needed. I think it's ok tho... just like life, there were different vantage points and different perspectives and we make our choices from our individual vantage point.
All the best,
Gina



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2016 01:17PM by Gina.

Gina, my apologies. It was indeed gorgeous in the morning.
We did a hike near El Portal to start the day... then went to Tunnel view and
Turtleback area to enjoy some waterfall views...
The first photo above from Tunnel View was taken around 1pm!
I have edited the post to say so.



Kindest regards,

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