Climber miraculously survives 1,500 foot plunge down California mountain
A novice climber miraculously survived after she fell 1,500 feet down a California mountain over the weekend.
The unidentified 31-year-old woman was climbing the Left of Heart variation on Mount Shasta’s popular Avalanche Gulch route with two other inexperienced climbers on Sunday when she tumbled from about 13,000 feet to 11,500, the US Forest Service reports.
Lead Climbing Ranger Nick Myers was then notified about the terrifying plunge at around noon by the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue coordinator, and three US Forest Service climbing rangers rushed to the scene along with members of the California Highway Patrol.
But low cloud cover prevented the California Highway Patrol helicopter from reaching the injured climber directly, forcing the rangers to land nearby and make the rest of the trip on foot.
US Forest Service climbing rangers rushed to Mount Shasta on Sunday to save a woman who fell 1,500 feet down the summit
Low cloud cover prevented a helicopter from landing near where the woman fell, so the climbing rangers had to make the trip on foot
The rangers eventually reached the woman with help from a member of her climbing party, who descended the mountain carrying rescue equipment.
Another climber in the area also stopped to assist with the rescue efforts, the Forest Service said.
The woman was alive, ‘alert’ and ‘in good spirits’ despite the fall, authorities said.
Yet she suffered from a suspected broken right ankle and other injuries for which she was treated on the mountainside.
Climbing rangers and members of the woman’s party then worked together to carefully lower her to Lake Helen in a rescue helicopter.
By around 5.30pm, a California Highway Patrol helicopter hoisted the injured climber from the lake and flew her to Mercy Medical Center for further treatment.
Climbing rangers and members of the woman’s party then worked together to carefully lower her to Lake Helen in a rescue helicopter, from where she was transported to a local hospital
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Should inexperienced climbers be banned from attempting dangerous peaks like Mount Shasta?
‘This incident serves as an important reminder that Mount Shasta is a high altitude mountaineering environment, not a hike,’ the Forest Service said.
‘Even experienced climbers can encounter rapidly changing weather, steep snow and ice, rockfall and hazardous fall conditions.’
The agency is now reminding anyone who would like to try climbing the summit to carry proper mountaineering equipment, check the weather and route conditions, climb with experienced partners and have an emergency plan.
