Re: Hiker Rescued From Illilouette Canyon

On Saturday, September 5th, the Yosemite Emergency Communications Center received a cell phone call from a park visitor hiking in the Illilouette Canyon east of Glacier Point. The visitor reported that a 43-year-old man had fallen while hiking along Illilouette Creek, hit his head on river rocks, and lost consciousness for a period of time. Wawona rangers responded via the Panorama Trail and located the man above Illilouette Falls. Park ranger/paramedic Heidi Schlichting provided ALS care, then requested an evacuation via the park’s contract helicopter. Park ranger/medic Matt Stark heli-rappelled to their location and packaged the man for helicopter short-haul to Yosemite Valley.

"Hi honey, I'm home - I fell down and got packaged by a heli-rappeler today...."

Guess it's a good thing cell phones work up there.

Going to have to think hard about volunteering for SAR now.

Wawona rangers? Is this normal or was the Valley short-staffed? Wawona rangers just happened to be in the area?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2009 10:10PM by sierranomad.

Quote
sierranomad
Wawona rangers? Is this normal or was the Valley short-staffed? Wawona rangers just happened to be in the area?

They're probably as close as anyone is.

Maybe hikers and climbers should stop putting themselves in harm's way.