By now, you’ve likely heard the story of Alpine Rescue Team’s lightning strike on Torreys Peak. In the words of ART president Jake Smith, it was a routine, common call that suddenly escalated to a critical one in less than a second, demonstrating the fact that BSAR volunteers must always be ready for anything.
It was June 12th, a quiet Thursday afternoon. The first call came in from Jeffcom dispatch at 4:50 pm to report two climbers on Kelso Ridge, near the summit of Torreys, who didn’t know if they were on route and didn’t feel comfortable continuing in the snow.
ART’s coordination system uses two primary designations: The mission coordinator takes the lead on field operations and manages the incident from the trailhead, while the in-town coordinator is one who has extensive knowledge of the field locations but remains in town to handle communications. That day, Mike Everist was the mission coordinator, with new mission coordinator Curt Honcharik assisting, and Woody Woodward was the in-town coordinator.
It’s very easy to get off route on the intimidating knife-edge ridge of Kelso. While Mike and Curt put a technical team of six on standby at the ART “Shack” (its headquarters) in Evergreen, Woody got on the phone with Eric, the RP, and asked him to send a photo of their location. From the photo they sent, he figured out they were on the south side of the ridge. “That’s not where you want to be,” he told Eric. He asked them to go back to the ridge proper and take another photo looking straight up. From that photo he concluded they were back on the ridge, and he advised them to kick steps in the softening snow. “You’ve already done the hard part,” he told them. “You’re probably 400 or 500 feet below the summit. Let me know when you get past the white rocks.” Going down the ridge from this point would have been much more difficult.
Used with subject’s permission
With Woody’s guidance, the two climbers were on the summit by about 6:00 pm. At this point, the call was still a standard one for ART, one they handled frequently. The technical team at the Shack, hearing that Woody’s coaching efforts had been successful, began to get ready to stand down.
Woody called the pair again to let them know they were on the trail and should see footprints. Eric gave the phone to his climbing partner, Adrian, who said he couldn’t see very far in front of them due to heavy fog. Suddenly, Woody heard screaming and the phone dropped. Eric came back on the line and Woody heard panic in his voice as he yelled Adrian’s name. He told Woody, “We’ve been struck, my partner is down, he’s foaming at the mouth and unresponsive, what do I do?” Woody responded, “Check his breathing.” Then the phone went dead.
Mike, Curt and Woody sprung into action. Flight for LIfe was immediately requested to shuttle rescuers closer to the subjects, but were unable to fly due to weather. Woody was also asked to request a hoist rescue from The Colorado National Guard and CHRT (Colorado Hoist Rescue Team). He contacted CSAR state coordinators and began the process of requesting air support from the National Guard. Since the storm was moving toward Buckley, a HAATS team was engaged with rescue technicians (RTs) from Vail Mountain Rescue Group, instead of from Buckley. Mike and Curt put out an emergency response for Alpine to the Bakerville exit off of I-70, which is the road to the trailhead to Torreys Peak. ART’s team 1, the technical team at the Shack, quickly figured out equipment needs and began their response to Bakerville, where they met Clear Creek EMS’ BSAR-trained paramedics. The rest of the team was also responding emergent.
Woody tried to reestablish comms with the subjects. Eric wasn’t responding to text messages, but finally called back and reported that Adrian was now awake. “Ask him if he knows his name,” Woody instructed. Adrian did know his name. But that was the last good communication; seven or eight subsequent phone calls did not go through. Woody messaged that they would likely see a helicopter above them eventually and told Eric to turn on his phone flashlight and point it at the helo, hoping the message got through.
Meanwhile, in Bakerville, Mike and Curt assembled a hasty team composed of two ART tech team members and one Clear Creek EMS paramedic, who rode in a Clear Creek Fire UTV to the trailhead and then launched on foot. Another ART team started up the trail with evacuation equipment and snow anchors. Eventually there were five Alpine teams in the field moving toward the subjects.
The hasty team discussed their options as they hiked. “We didn’t want to bank on the hoist,” Jake says. “The request had been started early and things were looking good weather-wise, but you never know when things are going to change.” Operations also wanted them to continue to the summit, even though the National Guard was a “go.”
“As we hiked, we talked about options for a 3000 foot evacuation from the summit. How much snow would we be dealing with? Could we use a titanium litter, or would we need a sked?” They passed the Kelso turnoff at about 7 or 7:30 pm, recognizing that it would be dark soon. They began to run into snow at about 12,500 feet and it was continuous up to the saddle at 13,500 feet. The snow was too cruddy for skis and too soft for crampons, so they postholed in mountaineering boots. A plan began to form; the route from the summit to the saddle was relatively dry, and a scree evac would be possible. But from the saddle down, the route was snow packed and steep. The team discussed finding a point along the steep traverse below the saddle and lowering straight down to the basin below Torreys summit. Jake estimated it would take six to eight hours for the full ground evacuation.
Fortunately, Colorado National Guard leadership approved the hoist and began staffing it. The HAATS Blackhawk, Talon 89, circled above the summit of Torreys just after 9:00 pm, trying to assess whether to lower an RT or attempt to land. Below, the hasty team began to feel some relief but wondered about the circling, whether perhaps the winds were too high for a hoist. Team 1 let team 2 catch up so they’d have all the equipment they needed for a ground evacuation and then continued toward the summit.
Talon 89 opted for a two-wheel landing at the summit of Torreys Peak at 14,275 feet and unloaded the RTs from VMRG, Jessica Hall and Sean O’Brien. The RTs found Adrian’s condition to have deteriorated again; he was only responsive to pain. They tried to figure out how to drag a large patient back to the summit where the ship could pick them up. Because the patient was in and out of consciousness and combative, they finally determined a hoist would be necessary at the elevation of 14,237 feet.
Back at home and monitoring CSAR’s Slack communication channel and radio comms, Woody was uneasy. He heard the hoist would happen in one minute, but then it was 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. Later, he learned it was because the patient was combative. Operations was in contact with Talon 89 on VHF but couldn’t raise either of the RTs. All teams were instructed to keep moving to the summit.
Eventually, the first patient was hoisted and dropped off to a ground ambulance at Loveland Ski Area. Talon 89 needed to refuel before picking up Eric, the RP, and Jessica, who remained with Eric. Thankfully, HAATS personnel were able to convince the fixed base operator at the Leadville airport to remain late so they could refuel. Meanwhile, four rescuers from teams 1 and 2, now on the saddle, dumped some of their equipment and headed to the summit with a shelter and sleeping bag to help Jessica keep Eric warm. They reached the summit five minutes before Talon 89 returned and found Eric non-ambulatory from hypothermia and shock. The ground teams had assumed they would be hiking out, but operations had requested Talon 89 pick up the four ART members if possible. After running their performance numbers, Talon 89 replied that they would be able to hot load on the summit and take Jessica, Eric and all four ART members. They flew to the Loveland Ski Area parking lot again, and the incident closed out just after midnight.
DEBRIEF
Operational takeaways: Jake Smith says this incident dramatically illustrates something we all know, but that bears repeating: Always be prepared for anything. “An incident can turn epic in a moment,” he comments. “That’s why it’s so important for teams to train to the level we do. And even though this worked out well from an aviation support perspective, never count on that. A hoist is never plan A – the CONG Air Resource Manager (ARM) could reject the request for many different reasons, weather could move in, the helo might not have the power to do the hoist, or a host of other issues may crop up. We had thoroughly worked out our ground evacuation plan before we knew the hoist was going to happen. Mike and Curt threw the kitchen sink at this one. They were working with a plan A (the Alpine ground teams), a plan B (the hoist) and also a plan C (Flight for Life to transport ground teams closer to the subject). Alpine’s response was notable with 37 rescuers playing a part in this incident. A huge thanks also to Talon 89 and its crew, as well as Clear Creek EMS.”
Communications takeaways: ART typically uses VHF radio channels for tactical comms. The VMRG RTs responded with 800MHz radios. However, since there is cell service at the top of Torreys, the CSAR coordinators were able to facilitate comms through Slack and phone calls.
Patient follow-up: Patient follow-up: Through a friend who happened to be the patient’s nurse, Jake was able to visit Adrian in the hospital. He believes the patient was probably the most critical he had ever seen survive a rescue. The patient expressed profound gratitude to all the rescuers who contributed that night.
Media takeaways: The incident immediately attracted heavy media attention, not only for the dramatic occurence of the lightning strike while the subjects were on the phone with ART, but also for the altitude of the two-wheel landing and the hoist (the hoist was performed at 14,237 feet). Great photos from ART’s field teams also played a role. ART’s PIO team did about ten interviews. One takeaway, according to Jake, is that once an affiliate organization like the Associated Press picks up the story, it will spread like wildfire, so it pays to try to make sure that journalist gets the details right. An early report claimed the incident represented the highest altitude helicopter rescue in Colorado, which was not accurate. While it might be the highest altitude hoist rescue, that’s a distinction the public is unlikely to understand. But the media attention overall was positive, putting a heavy emphasis on lightning safety education right before National Lightning Safety Awareness week. ART’s team of five experienced PIOs was well equipped to handle the ongoing media frenzy and make the most of the public education and BSAR awareness opportunities it presented.
