Rocky Mountain National Park (CO)
Rangers Rescue Woman Seriously Injured In Fall
A long and challenging rescue came to an end around 11:30 p.m. last Saturday when rescuers carried an injured woman out of the backcountry to a waiting ambulance. Rebecca Stubbs, a 20-year-old student from Massachusetts who is attending the University of Colorado in Boulder, suffered a serious fall earlier that morning. She was in a party of five who left the Longs Peak Trailhead at 4 a. m. with the goal of climbing 13,191-foot Mount Meeker. Around 8 a.m., members of the party put on their crampons to start across a steep icy slope above Peacock Pool in the Chasm Lake area just east of Longs Peak. Stubbs fell and slid 200 feet down the slope, incurring multiple injuries. Her party activated a SPOT satellite GPS messenger device, alerting the International Emergency Coordination Center in Texas. The park received a call from the center shortly thereafter and rangers were sent to the trailhead to hike into Chasm Lake. Around 10 a.m., they came upon two members of the party, who confirmed the location and nature of the accident. Additional personnel responded as rangers continued to the accident scene, arriving around noon. They treated Stubbs, who remained alert and stable throughout the rescue. Personnel from the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group in Boulder and Larimer Country Search and Rescue and a paramedic from Estes Park Medical Center soon arrived to assist. Rescuers began the arduous task of raising her 200 feet and carefully moving her toward Chasm Junction, arriving there around 5:20 p.m. A total of 22 rescuers then carried Stubbs roughly three miles to the Longs Peak Trailhead. Stubbs was taken by ambulance to Estes Park Medical Center.