The other day I realized that the anniversary of this crazy day was coming up. I wasn’t exactly sure what day it was, so I visited this blog to figure it out. It turns out, I had never blogged about it. Doing a search of my email account and some of the forums I used to frequent, I found what I am posting below.
One question that I think about occasionally and that comes to mind when thinking about this day … what’s the etiquette when it comes to helping people on the trail? Would you intervene if you knew someone was getting themselves in trouble… how pushy would you be to help a stranger, that doesn’t think they need help? How receptive are YOU to help? If a stranger said that you needed to turn around because you were showing the early signs of AMS, would you?
When I got to Trail Crest, Dave was talking to her at the top. I noticed that she looked really cold – shivering a little. I told her that if she was that cold, she might want to consider heading down, as it probably wouldn’t be warmer headed towards the summit. Dave and I regrouped, took a bunch of pictures and headed towards the summit. On the way to the summit, I asked Dave about the lady and told him I hoped she turned around and headed back down. When talking to her, Dave said that she repeatedly answered his questions with ‘It’s just the altitude…. I’m in great shape, not winded, it’s just the altitude,’ or some variation of that idea. At that point, I started thinking that I should’ve spent more time talking to her and really encouraged her to get off the mtn.
When Dave and I got to the summit, we learned about a hiker with a broken foot. A ranger was at the hut with this person, waiting for a helicopter. The ranger was visibly annoyed with the hiker – she had apparently hurt herself near Outpost Camp, but decided to summit, then call for help. After about 30 mins we started the trip back to the Portal. About a mile down, we ran into the lady. She was with a friend now, but was vomiting and was using an emergency blanket to stay warm. At this point it was apparent that she was suffering from AMS and was in the early stages of hypothermia. I hiked with the two of them for the next hour or so. At some point, we were joined by 2 others that were in her group.
Talking to one of them, I learned that she started vomiting near Outpost Camp. Two of the people in the group had just met her the night before (not sure about her relationship with the 3rd member). One of the guys gave her the keys to his car at Outpost and told her to head down and meet them that night after the hike. Apparently she slept at Outpost for 20 mins and headed up the mountain. They were all surprised to see her on the summit. The group also had some information about the injured hiker at the hut (we had just seen the helicopter land and take off a few minutes earlier). Apparently the person had injured their foot before Outpost Camp, hiked to the summit, then decided that they needed to be rescued!
When the trail started heading uphill (near the JMT junction), the she was stopping every 50-100 ft to rest and wrap up in her emergency blanket. One of the group members tried to take her pack, but she refused b/c ‘she needed her water.’ I was able to get her to give up her pack by saying ‘Your water isn’t doing you any good. You’re puking all of it up, and the weight is slowing you down. The most important thing is getting off the mtn right now.’
Talking to the group, I learned that they had friends at Trail Camp and that their plan was to leave her there overnight so that she could hike out on her own in the morning. At that point, I may have gotten a little rude, but starting explaining that she could have AMS, which could progress to HACE and/or HAPE and that if she goes to sleep at Trail Camp, she may not wake up in the morning. Soon after that, I was asked if I was actually a Dr (I’m not). Not sure if they were questioning the validity of my statements or if they wanted someone to examine her.
When we got to the Portal around 930 pm, a sheriff told us that the lady had made it off the mountain and was doing ok.
On the hike down from Trail Camp, I was wondering if I should’ve done more or should have been more pushy about telling her that she needed to get of off the mountain. When I was asked if I was a doctor or not, I thought that I may have overstepped my bounds and my help wasn’t wanted/needed. It made me feel better to know that she did get off the mountain ok, but as we all know, this isn’t always the case.
- I jokingly say it was an unintentional summit because when we started our hike, we intended to turn around at Trail Camp. The permits became available only a couple of days before our hike and we did not arrive in Lone Pine until Friday, only a few hours before our hike started. We slept less than 3 hrs before leaving Whitney Portal at 2:30 a.m. Saturday. Since we had no time to acclimate, I figured that Trail Camp was a good goal. We made great time to Trail Camp, decided to push on to Trail Crest and since it was still early, headed towards the summit. Now that I am more experienced, I hope that we would stick to our original plan in a similar situation now.
- On the descent, a ranger literally ran into me and scared the crap out of me. She had come up the Old Trail and I was standing right where it meets that main trail, with my headlamp off, waiting for Dave to catch up. We talked briefly, but she was in a hurry because someone had triggered an SOS signal at Trail Camp. I forget the exact details of what I was told, but she said that there were several rangers on the mountain helping different people.
- Between trying to help the “AMS Lady” and my hiking partner suffering an injury of his own, we ended up spending 19 hours on the mountain and had to hike the last 4 miles in the dark. The AMS Lady and her group had actually made it down before us.
- After realizing there aren’t any hotels in Lone Pine with vacancies after our hike, we hopped in the car and drive the 3+ hours back to San Berdoo… again poor planning and not the best decision.
Philip Coultas
Did you have any camping gear? .8 miles west of the 395 in Lone Pine there’s a county run car camping campground, Portagee Joe. $14 a night. Only pit toilets, water faucet, and dumpster for trash; but there were only 3 other occupied campsites out of 20 on an August night. Sure, it was a Tuesday night, but it was nice to have somewhere cheap to rest our heads for the night. A 19 hr day is tough, and the drive back to San Bernardino afterwards was likely not pleasant.
Steve Murray
Thank you for stepping in. You try to help as best you can, but unless they are unconscious or hurting other people we expect them to make decisions like adults. The problem with AMS and exhaustion is people stop thinking and just react, it’s important to know the signs and help them, to at least inform them, and do what you can to get them to safety. People think Whitey is a carnival ride, you get your permit, you make the hike, get your selfie, and the world thinks your amazing, but how many people know what AMS is, what it’s symptoms are, and what comes next? Anyone can get it on any given day and it can kill you.
Listen to your body, if you feel bad then turn around and try again another day, the mountain will always be there, will you? S-