Injured hiker rescued, Yosemite Falls

All I can do is shake my head in disbelief . . .

The victim didn't know where he was so they had to dispatch to multiple sites! Lucky guy, wonder what he would have done if his cell phone didn't work?

He ended up at one of the most dangerous locations in the park. The middle cataracts is one of the black holes of the park. You fall in there and you may never be seen again, no trace!

I have to hand it to SAR for their patience in dealing with situations like this. I wonder how much of the story we're not getting.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/2013 12:32PM by qumqats.

Common reasons:

1. Taking a shortcut
2. Scrambling for a better view
------
3. Losing the trail & not realizing it.

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Ohnivy-Drak
Common reasons:

1. Taking a shortcut
2. Scrambling for a better view
------
3. Losing the trail & not realizing it.

And sometimes: http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?1,65835

On the afternoon of Saturday, April 27th, the park communication center received a transfer call from an injured hiker from the California Highway Patrol. Fernando Celis reported that he was at the base of a waterfall in between some boulders and that he was badly injured and couldn’t walk. Celis couldn’t identify his location, say how he’d become injured, or advise the location of the group he was with. Rangers were dispatched to the bases of Lower Yosemite, Bridalveil, Nevada and Cascade Falls to search for Celis and other rangers were placed on standby to search other park waterfalls if necessary. Rangers found Celis’ hiking group within about an hour and learned that they’d hiked the Upper Yosemite Fall Trail and that Celis had become separated from the group along the trail between the bottom of Upper Yosemite Fall and top of Lower Yosemite Fall. Hasty teams were sent up the Upper Yosemite Fall Trail and to Sunnyside Bench (on the opposite side of the river) to search for Celis. A helicopter was ordered as a search platform and for a possible hoist mission. California Highway Patrol helicopter H-20 from Auburn, California, arrived around 5 p.m. and began an air reconnaissance of the area. The crew spotted Celis on a ledge near the top of Lower Yosemite Fall after about an hour and successively inserted rangers Aaron Smith and David Pope by hoist to the ledge. The rangers packaged Celis in a KED and Stokes litter. He was hoisted from the ledge, transferred to a medical helicopter at Ahwahnee Meadow, and flown to Doctor's Medical Center in Modesto. H-20 then hoisted the rangers from the ledge. Yosemite Valley District Ranger Jack Hoeflich served as the incident commander.

If you don't know what you are doing , stay on the trail!

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hotrod4x5
If you don't know what you are doing , stay on the trail!

And how do you know that you don't know what you are doing?

Serious question - you know exactly what you are doing out there, no matter what, because your ego says so. Doesn't matter how much experience you really have, since you can easily make the same mistake (such as getting separated from the group) many times without consequences that teach you it's a mistake.

This is why we always leave an itinerary when venturing into the wilderness, no matter how short/long your trip, no matter who you are going with. And choose your hiking companions carefully. The people he was with should have been looking for him, sooner, and he should have never wandered that far from them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/2013 07:43PM by AlmostThere.

Maybe I should have worded that, "If you don't know where you are going, stay on the trail."

I'm standing on the Mirror Lake loop trail holding an umbrella. It's raining. A guy with a full backpack, sleeping pad strapped on the back, three beers in each side pocket (bottles) and an open one in hand, wearing shorts and tank top, walks up to me. It's about 50F and falling.

"Is this the way to Half Dome?"

Thinking about the possibility of lightning, storms, etc. and trying not to lose the serious expression: "Yes."

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AlmostThere
I'm standing on the Mirror Lake loop trail holding an umbrella. It's raining. A guy with a full backpack, sleeping pad strapped on the back, three beers in each side pocket (bottles) and an open one in hand, wearing shorts and tank top, walks up to me. It's about 50F and falling.

"Is this the way to Half Dome?"

Thinking about the possibility of lightning, storms, etc. and trying not to lose the serious expression: "Yes."

Priceless!

Yesterday, coming down the Mist Trail, I had to tell three people they were on the Mist Trail, and one person that he was not on the JMT YET but would be at the top of Nevada Falls. And then he asked where Nevada Falls was - I turned my head 90 degrees to the right and stared at it.

Last year, at dusk, at the top of Vernal Falls, I ran into a fellow who had been hiking ahead of me as fast as he could - he turned around and started back up the trail. I asked where he was going - he said Camp 4. I explained that he was NOT heading for Camp 4. He told me the trail ended and he had to go back up and around to get down. I pointed at the top of the railing and suggested he take the steps down from there... when I caught up with him again at the lower bridge he thanked me profusely for saving him so much time. He was wandering the trails with a map of the valley floor.

What is surprising is that more people are not lost in Yosemite - and they have incidents every single day, multiple times a day. The big ones hit the news media.

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AlmostThere
Yesterday, coming down the Mist Trail, I had to tell three people they were on the Mist Trail

At the top of Vernal I had a young woman with very poor English ask me how to get back to the Valley. Once I got it across to her where the Mist Trail was and that she didn't have to go uphill she seemed quite happy.

I've told the story of how I came across a lost teenage kid who got separated from his hiking group that made it to Mt Tallac. No map, no compass, a few snacks, and maybe a thin jacket in his pack and wearing shorts. I ended up guiding him out of there. I just can't figure out how any adult would lose him and why they didn't equip every kid in the party with at least a photocopy of a trail map and a compass.

This incident comes to mind: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=11681051

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AlmostThere

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hotrod4x5
If you don't know what you are doing , stay on the trail!

And how do you know that you don't know what you are doing?

Serious question - you know exactly what you are doing out there, no matter what, because your ego says so. Doesn't matter how much experience you really have, since you can easily make the same mistake (such as getting separated from the group) many times without consequences that teach you it's a mistake.
. . . snip . . .

There are old pilots ,and there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots.

A bit of a cross between Darwinian 'survival of the fittest' and Awards.

--

I just hope my first chance encounter with SAR isn't professional.

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qumqats



I just hope my first chance encounter with SAR isn't professional.

So do I! We're fun folks when we're not in a hurry to find you.

They pay you?

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Uh. Most SAR are volunteers even in the park, except for the rock and water guys that have to train constantly. I'm volunteering in a neighboring county.

Good for you

OK. Same as Volunteer Firefighters. Unpaid. Non-professional.

The Yosemite SAR team are real professionals. World Class.

---

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chick-on
Good for you

OK. Same as Volunteer Firefighters. Unpaid. Non-professional.

The Yosemite SAR team are real professionals. World Class.

Not quite. A lot of the volunteers train for rock and water too, at their own expense. We have lots of folks who do the leg work, a few who do the ice and rock work, and fewer still who will tackle water rescue/recovery... but we got 'em.

Paraprofessional.

I was walking up the shuttle bus road from Curry to Happy Isles when a motorhome heading in the direction of Happy Isles stopped and asked me: "How much further is Tuolumne Meadows?"
They had been on 120 from the San Francisco area and missed the 120 turn off at Crane Flat. They were sure they could keep going up the Happy Isles rd. and make it to Tuolumne....

One should never completely trust a GPS when driving in the park. One time we were in front of the Visitor Center and a car drove up to us and asked us how to get to the resident area behind the school. Their GPS said that the road went in front of the Visitor Center. Another time we were walking around Yosemite West and a car kept coming past us multiple times. They finally stopped and asked how to get to Hodgdon Meadow Campground, their GPS showed that you could get to the campground from Yosemite West.

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parklover
One should never completely trust a GPS when driving in the park.

Had one trying really hard to get me to turn onto Old Coulterville Rd. from 140. I declined.


http://yosemitephotos.net/main.php/v/yosemite/sh-DSC_3812.JPG.html