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teagueblue
Jul 27, 2003, 10:48 AM
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Looks like this just happened:
[http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Central/07/27/lightning.death.ap/index.html]
Sunday, July 27, 2003 Posted: 4:45 AM EDT (0845 GMT)
GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK, Wyoming (AP) -- One person died and five were seriously injured when they were hit by lightning while climbing the 13,770-foot Grand Teton, a park spokeswoman said.
One climber called about the emergency from a cellular phone.
The six were struck about 3:45 p.m. Saturday during a thunderstorm, said Joan Anzelmo.
A 25-year-old woman died at the scene.
The injured, believed all to be men, were taken by two helicopters and an air ambulance to hospitals. The aircraft had to fly in dangerous conditions to make the rescues, which involved more than 20 park personnel.
The names of the victims were withheld until family members could be notified, Anzelmo said.
They were climbing in two parties about 150 feet apart without a guide. Anzelmo did not know how many were in each party or if all those struck were in the same party.
There were also four climbers who were not injured and able to get down from the mountain by themselves.
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teagueblue
Jul 27, 2003, 3:33 PM
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Bump.
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agrauch
Jul 28, 2003, 4:09 PM
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The NPS is reporting that this is the 11th major rescue and 3rd fatality in GTNP this season. From the Jackson Hole News & Guide this morning:
July 28 story
Lightning kills woman on Grand
By Angus M. Thuermer Jr.
Jackson Hole News&Guide
A lightning bolt hit and killed a 25-year-old Idaho Falls woman on the Grand Teton on Saturday, injuring five of her companions and launching a massive rescue.
Park authorities said com-panions saw the bolt strike Erica Summers at approxi-mately 3:45 p.m. as she was in the vicinity of the Friction Pitch on the Exum Ridge. The bolt also injured five of the other 12 in her group, leaving one man dangling upside down for four hours before rangers rescued him.
The accident sent rangers scurrying as they were alerted by numerous cell-phone calls from the party on the peak. Using two helicopters, the park climbing rescue crew shuttled rangers to the mountain and ferried injured climbers down in the most extensive and complex operation in decades.
The five were saved only after six Park Service climbing rangers were carried to the upper reaches of the 13,770-foot-high mountain while dangling from ropes below a helicopter. The "insertion" technique usually involving two rangers at a time allow-ed the rescue climbers to be placed on steep terrain where the airship could not land.
In the end, five climbers were hospitalized, one in serious condition. All who were brought off the moun-tain were plucked one by one from the steep ridge by a helicopter while dangling below in stretchers, a method called a short haul.
"There was very, very active flying from about 5:30 p.m. until darkness," Park spokeswoman Joan Anzelmo said.
"This may be one of the most signi-ficant and complex rescues of multiple injured people on the Grand in 20 to 30 years."
Anzelmo said the dead woman's hus-band, Clinton Summers, 27, was in fair condition at St. John's Medical Center. Reagan Lembke, 25 was in good condition and Justin Thomas, 29 in fair condition, also at the local hospital. All are from Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Jacob Bancroft, 27, of Rigby, Idaho was listed in serious condition at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls. Rodrigo Liberal, 27, of Idaho falls was in serious condition at the University of Utah Medical Center's Burn unit in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Anzelmo gave the following account, but said rangers were still busy and exhausted on Sunday and unable to fill in all the details.
The group apparently attempted the route after making camp in several spots in Garnet Canyon the night before. The 13 split into four different parties for the climb, each reportedly with an experi-enced leader.
Anzelmo said members of the group who were interviewed by rangers did not see the storm, which blew over the Grand in about an hour, as a threat.
"They were all in different places on [or] the Friction Pitch," Anzelmo said. "They began to feel rain drops. It was not especially ominous. They only saw two strikes," of lightning, one of which was the fatal blow.
Anzelmo said the storm looked serious from below. Mountain guides seek to complete their ascents of the peak in the morning in part to avoid afternoon thunderstorms
Two of the four roped groups were hit by the lightning or its ricochet. Rangers summoned two airships, both of which are government-contract helicopters flown by pilots who have trained with the Jenny Lake climbing rescue crew.
Pilots shuttled the injured out in stages, short hauling most of them first to the 11,650-foot-high Lower Saddle. There they were loaded into the second airship and flown the rest of the way down.
One of the injured apparently Bancroft, who was dangling upside down was difficult to reach, Anzelmo said. Rangers were inserted above him, had to rappel to his aid, then load him in a litter and rig it so they could haul him up the ridge a short distance. Only then could they re-rig the litter for a short haul, this one all the way down to Lupine Meadows.
An air ambulance then flew Bancroft to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. About 20 people took part in the operation Anzelmo said.
Some of the climbers who were not injured were able to get off the mountain under their own power. Anzelmo said the Teton County coroner had not listed a cause of death for Summers by press time.
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