Staying Alive

Survival tips from climbing rangers

Nobody expects to be loaded onto a litter and evacuated off his first big wall. Or stuck in a snow cave, out of food and fuel, hypothermic, and praying that a storm will quit and someone will find him. Yet it happens, every year, and not just to newbies. Climbers make mistakes, or get unlucky, and rescue rangers drop from the sky and save our asses.

Though search and rescue is a rewarding job, the missions are dangerous and all too often caused by poor decision-making. With that in mind, we asked veteran rangers from some of America’s busiest climbing parks to describe the most common rescue scenarios in their areas—and what we climbers can do to prevent them. What are the traps? What decisions might have turned the tables?

What follows is the result of many hours of conversation with rangers from Yosemite, Grand Teton, and Mt. Rainier national parks, representing three distinct styles of high-adventure climbing: big walls, alpine rock, and glacier mountaineering. Their hard-earned wisdom, a distillation of decades of combined experience, could keep you from turning into a statistic. So pull your chair up next to the fire and read what rescue rangers want to say to climbers. Better now than on the side of an icy cliff.

BIG WALLS

Case study: Yosemite National Park, California

After a spell of perfect fall weather, a cold front moved into Yosemite Valley. Arriving just before midnight on October 16, 2004, it brought heavy rain, then snow to the Valley. Four teams near the top of El Capitan were stranded by what became a four-day winter storm: a soloist on Tempest, pairs on Never Never Land and the Salathé Wall, and a Japanese team on the Nose. As the summit slabs of El Capitan became ice- and snow-covered, Yosemite Search and Rescue (YOSAR) set up a megaphone in El Cap Meadow. Efforts to hail the Nose party failed, despite the use of a Japanese translator.

For the next three days, small weather windows teased most of the parties into trying to fix a pitch or two. Even though most teams were equipped with excellent storm gear, all were soon very wet and cold. El Cap had become a death trap: Ice on the summit slabs rendered the exits of the climbing routes nearly impassible, and by mid-afternoon on the October 19, it was clear that at least some of the parties would need help. With the weather still too stormy for helicopters, an advanced YOSAR party began snowshoeing the 11 miles toward the summit, beginning what would become a massive rescue effort.

All the climbers on El Capitan were by now mildly or seriously hypothermic. In the end, three teams endured long enough to be rescued, but the Nose climbers died from exposure, wrapped in a tent fly at a makeshift hanging bivy, partway up pitch 28.

THE RANGER: We consulted several YOSAR rescuers for this story, including the 73-year-old rescue guru John Dill, a one-time Camp 4 resident climber who has been with YOSAR since its inception in 1974. The spokesperson was Yosemite National Park’s climbing manager, Jesse McGahey, with YOSAR since 2005. With Yosemite climbing ranger Ben Doyle, they convened a special meeting to deliver the most accurate information for this story; if you climb walls, or ever plan to, click here for the full text of their answers. Every word is worth reading.

THE TERRAIN: El Capitan is the archetypal big wall in the world, the site of countless historical advances and innovations, and climbing it is still the ultimate dream of many rock climbers. It’s also the archetype for bigwall epics, and the hazards found here can be encountered in any wall-climbing venue: prolonged exposure to the elements, too little food or water, rappelling and ascending fi xed lines, and leader falls while aid or free climbing.

SCENARIOS AND SOLUTIONS: Besides frigid storms, heat also has immobilized climbers on Yosemite walls, and indirectly has contributed to countless “pilot error” incidents. The YOSAR rangers we contacted also noted a new factor that increasingly contributes to incidents: haste. The Nose in a day, Zodiac in a push—many of today’s wall climbers are involved in some sort of speed-dependent ascent, a scenario that now rivals storms for getting climbers in trouble. The YOSAR team analyzed 42 big-wall accidents from the last 11 years. Most involved leader falls when free climbing or after a piece pulled while using direct aid. Yet most falls had other contributing factors that exacerbate the consequences.

Problem: Haste. “Eight of the accidents involved climbers attempting to climb quickly,” says climbing ranger Jesse McGahey. “These include big walls in a push, summit fever, or trying to make up lost time to stay on schedule.”
Solutions: Speed up by improving efficiency, not by rushing or cutting corners. Fatigue causes carelessness, so be strict with safety protocol at the end of long pushes. Top speed climbers acknowledge that they take big risks for their record-breaking ascents; “elite” tactics may not be appropriate for your goals.

Problem: Jugging without adequate backup. McGahey summed it up succinctly: “Why ascenders come off the rope is often a mystery, but that’s not the point. It happens, so tie in short or use a self-belay device.”
Solutions: For straight-up, clean jugging along a fixed rope, a backup every 30 feet or so is reasonable. In addition, tie a backup before any traverse maneuver, above obstacles, or when taking an ascender off the rope for any reason. Grigri-style belay devices have become increasingly popular for continual backup, supplemented by knots. Unlike conventional tie-ins, these devices can be used on a fixed line that is anchored on both ends.

Problem: Back-cleaning. “In six of our rescues, climbers took much larger falls than they should have because they had back-cleaned potentially good protection below pieces that failed,” McGahey says. “Some of these falls resulted in very serious injury and required a huge level of risk to rescuers to get these patients off the wall alive.”
Solutions: Carry enough gear in the sizes needed. If you don’t have enough—say, for a long, wide crack—consider moving three pieces as you climb, so that you are always protected by two as you move the third.

Problem: Pendulum falls. These incidents involved climbers following pitches. “Instead of lowering themselves out sufficiently, they made deliberate decisions that a swing was OK,” said McGahey. The results? “One ankle fracture, one fractured fibula, one compound wrist fracture, concussions—the last one broke his femur, rib, and arm.”
Solutions: Many experienced climbers have misjudged a swing, with serious consequences. Is it worth the risk? Understand the proper way to lower out in control, and be conservative. If speed is the issue, recognize that nothing slows an ascent like a broken bone.

Problem: The elements. “In the last 11 years, we’ve had three big-wall hypothermia fatalities and three other big-wall rescues after winter storms, and two big-wall rescues due to dehydration, for a total of eight sure saves,” says McGahey. “Climbers often underestimate the supplies they need to weather storms or hot weather.”
Solutions: Get a good weather forecast. Carry all-synthetic insulation—no down. Even if a route has adequate ledges, know that a portaledge provides much more protection from storms than any tarp or bivy sack. Have at least an extra day of food and water beyond your most conservative ascent-time estimate, in case you are delayed by weather.

DAMAGE CONTROL: Accidents happen and weather can strand even the bestprepared climbers, as the scenario at left showed. So what can you do to maximize your survival chances?

• Have a reliable buddy on the ground keeping an eye on your progress and providing weather updates if necessary.
• Have a communication device and plan. On El Capitan, cell phones can connect you with 911, but service can be spotty in sheltered dihedrals. “Family band” (FRS) radios are more reliable for contacting a designated ground person, but YOSAR does not regularly monitor that frequency.
• Take a Wilderness First Responder course. Even in Yosemite Valley, rescue is never assured, and is usually many hours— often days—away. The immediate care you render may decide your injured partner’s fate.
• Get organized for rescue. If you’ll be air-lifted or winched from the wall, be harnessed and fully dressed for the ride. Pack away scattered gear, secure sleeping pads, and coil ropes. Make sure nothing is free that could become airborne and catch a helicopter rotor.