Rescue on the mountain.

The mountains can teach a person. The lessons can come hard and easy. Occasionally, the lessons are life threatening. That's the kind of lesson three men experienced the other night on top of Thunderhead Mountain in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

-Thru hikers, section hikers, and park rangers on horseback the next morning updating each other on what was happening with the trio.

I was fast asleep in Spence Field Shelter. I was uncomfortably huddled close to the wall due to a leak in the roof that splashed next to my head. Around four in the morning the rain had slowed and the leak was no more. I awoke and noticing this I decided to take advantage of it and stretch my cramped legs. As soon as I had finished my stretches a very wet and cold man burst into the shelter and announced,

" Hello?! Is anyone awake? Please. My dad is hypothermic from the cold and stuck on the mountain!"

Being already awake and knowing the dangers of hypothermia I immediately jumped up and grabbed my backpack. I dumped everything on the floor and started grabbing everything that I could spare to help a person with hypothermia. I grabbed my Mylar emergency blanket, my thick down snow jacket, and a packet of hand warmers. I put my windbreaker, down vest, and poncho on. As soon as I had jumped to act another thru hiker and three section hiking college kids followed my lead. Someone asked if anybody had a jetboil so I threw mine into my pack. I donned my pack and quickly asked the man what his dad's name was. 

He replied, "Brad". 

I turned and headed out of the shelter. When I got outside the fog was so thick that I couldn't see the end of my trekking pole if I stuck it out straight. During the .2 miles of side trail to the AT I played with the high, low, and off settings of my headlamp trying to determine which was best in this fog, it was low. As I hiked the next few miles I was stepping in puddles almost shin deep. Thousands of thoughts were running through my head at this time. From the effects and dangers and cures of hypothermia to whether or not it was stupid of me to head out alone. But I'm a thru-hiker and as such I'm prepared for all the conditions because I WILL face them all. So mentally reassuring myself I hiked on a little bit faster. Just as I was thinking that there was no chance of finding him I turn a corner and see gear spread out everywhere and a red sleeping bag on the ground. The sleeping bag had a sleeping pad and a person in it, except the pad was on top of the person instead of underneath. 

I approach the bag and say loudly "Brad!". The man wakes up and starts crying tears of joy at seeing my headlamp shine into his face.

"Are you Brad?" 

"No. My names Jason. Brad is my father in-law. I'm so happy to see you. I thought I was going to die out here." 

"Well its okay Jason your brother in-law made it to the shelter and sent me and some other hikers out here to help you and your father in-law. I'm here to help."

In the next five minutes I took off his soaking wet cotton jacket and replaced it with my thick down jacket. I also wrapped him up in a mylar emergency blanket and cracked open some handwarmer packets and told him to stick one between his legs and under his armpit. As I got out my Jetboil to try and get some hot tea going two other hikers from the shelter approached me and Jason. I informed them of who this was and that the father was still out there somewhere, probably in a worse condition. They pushed on together to find the father. Just after they left two more hikers showed up this time it was a thru hiker with an EMT background named Frye as well as a section hiker coming to help. The section hiker pushed on to help his friends find the father and me and Frye stayed to assist Jason. We discovered he had fallen on his knee and it was pretty badly swollen. On top of that he was diabetic. So we warmed up some hot tea and had him drink it slowly. During this time he was in quite a traumatic state explaining he had a 5 month old son whom he thought he wasn't going to see again. After we warmed him up we grabbed his diabetes medication out of his pack and had him put one arm over each of us. We wanted to get him moving as fast as possible for three reasons. One, we were on an exposed ridgeline. Two, we wanted to get him to shelter and warmth as fast as we safely could. Three, once he started moving his body that and adrenaline would naturally warm him or at least give him a mental advantage. The next hour or so we made very slow progress over the rough terrain that is the Appalachian Trail in the smokies, the puddles were about shin deep and the fog was still very thick. By the time we made it to the shelter we found it was about 7 o clock in the morning. 

After we made it to the shelter I immediately started making him a hot dinner, Chicken Fried Rice. The other people in the shelter had hot chocolate going for all the rescue hikers and the hypothermic ones as well. Tric had been on the phone with 911 and the ranger station down in Cade's Cove and was organizing the search effort as best she could with the limited amount of working phones that we had. The rangers were coming in on horseback and we were told they would be getting here at 9:30 am. While waiting, one of the hikers came back with word of the father. The first two hikers had past him without seeing him and went to the next shelter and were warming up there. The solo and last hiker discovered him and did everything he could to warm him up but with no real tools or experience he did the best he could then came back with the information so we could do more. At this time some thru hikers starting their day came to the shelter and Frye asked them if on their way north they could keep an eye out for the father. They agreed. 

Over the next few hours we had to keep Jason awake and warm; he was shivering non stop hours after the incident. The other thru hikers found the father, as did one of our hikers coming back this way from the other shelter. The father was in no condition to be moved so they kept him warm right there on the ridge until the rangers arrival. The rangers arrived at about 1 o clock. When they did they had already got the complete story as it happened through Tric and were up to date on the situation. They were very professional and a great man and woman. Jason was taken out of the backcountry on horseback, the brother in-law hiked out with them, the father was evacuated out with a helicopter.

Knox news article.

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What can we learn from this?

Plan your hike.

          Research weather. Research terrain. Underestimate the amount of miles your going to do everyday. Once you do enough planning, coordinate your gear accordingly. Take rain gear and a shelter, even if regulations say you can't tent. Bring one for emergencies.

Get the right gear.

          These guys had a 30-40 degree sleeping bag, no shelter, all cotton clothes, seven bottles of iodine, no tent. PLEASE plan accordingly, if you don't know, call the park service and ask! Your local outfitter would be glad to help! No Cottons!!!

Don't plan to accomplish more than your ready for.

           For two of these guys this was their first or second hike. They bit off a lot more than they could chew.

Be safe while hiking in the backcountry.

           They chose to skip a shelter with nightfall coming and an intense thunderstorm. They were also hiking onto a ridge. I know VERY experienced mountaineers who would not make the call to push on that night. Bad choice.

Help can be a LONG way away.

           They were very lucky it was peak hiker season. Lots of us experienced hikers were there to help. Had we not been they would have been waiting it out alone for about 10-15 hours until the rangers got there. IF they were notified at all. Also, us thru-hikers are living very specifically out of our gear and food bags. Because I made him dinner, I was a dinner short for the week. Because I hiked in those crazy puddles I need new shoes. I took the chance of my nicest warm layer being ruined by offering it to him. I'm happy to do this, but for another hiker to offer so much is really, really hard to do.