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A solo female climber was approaching the remote peak of California’s second most tense mountain last week when she fell.
Plus, she lost her backpack. So, within seconds, she ended up finding herself alone, approaching her personal victory, and suffering serious injuries on an isolated, relentless mountainside, with no food, water or extra clothes.
It became a potentially life-threatening issue right after autumn when afternoon thunderstorms rolled through the mountains, bringing strong winds, horrifying lightning and buckets of rain.
The Inyo County Sheriff’s Department’s search and rescue team, which coordinated the long and disastrous extraction, did not name the woman in a Facebook post on Monday or provide a cost estimate for the rescue.
The INYO County Sheriff’s Office has been notified by SOS revitalization emergency services from female mountaineers at SOS.
(Inyo County Sheriff’s Office)
A spokesman for the Search and Rescue team did not respond to requests for comment, but in a social media post they praised the climbers’ courage as they were hit through a disastrous ordeal.
“This patient was impressed by the ability to show enormous courage and fortitude and to all involved to be calm, gathered and live,” they wrote.
Mount Williamson is located in East Sierras, about 240 miles northeast of Los Angeles, near Independence. It is 14,380 feet tall and is within towering range above Owens Valley.
Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the United States outside of Alaska, is a few miles to the south.
Mount Whitney is very well known and travels well, but many people want to climb it, so the US Forest Service must limit it to 160 a day during peak season.
“I’ve climbed it six times and have never seen anyone else on the mountain other than the people at our party,” said Dave Miller, a professional climber and owner of Lake Mammoth’s International Alpine Guide.
Miller said Williamson is “many, often times twice as difficult” due to its isolation and the fact that there are no established trails over 10,000 feet.
A popular guidebook goes “a maze of confused shoots, many of which lead to dead ends,” upstream of Mount Williamson.
The Inyo Search and Rescue Facebook post provided no details about the rescued climber’s experience, but noted that she was climbing the “off route” on that last tricky stretch at an altitude of around 13,600 feet.
“What has got people into trouble more than anything is getting off the route and getting on something more difficult or looser than you would expect,” Miller said.
One of the persuasive details of the Post is that the woman was alone in such a remote and challenging wilderness. As a rule, it is recommended that hikers and climbers go to such places in the group and stick together in case something goes wrong.
However, the “solo” mountains of experienced climbers have always been “solo” and experts agree that it is fairly safe as long as they stick to the terrain that they can easily deal with.
And while Mount Williamson is far and difficult by casual hiker standards, it would not be very ambitious for experienced climbers to tackle on their own, said Howie Schwartz, another veteran mountain guide with decades of experience in the Sierra.
“For those who are familiar with these mountains and are familiar with the area, I don’t think it’s an overreach. It could be a good adventure,” Schwartz said. It would be a completely different story for the inexperienced “city people” who knew little more than what’s available on the internet, he said.
Whatever her background, the woman rescued last week owes her life to multiple institutions who refused to give up trying to reach her, even after bad weather and high elevations pushed them back multiple times.
It was also called InReach to a $400 satellite transmitter that sent SOS messages and communicated with authorities despite the lack of a cell phone signal.
Shortly after receiving a distress call Wednesday, INYO Search and Rescue Teams sought help from other agencies, and a California Highway Patrol helicopter landed in the small town of Lone Pine to welcome two rescue climbers. “However, because of the dense clouds covered the mountain, the helicopter returned without reaching the subject’s location,” according to a Facebook post in Inyo Search and Rescue.
Daylight was gone and the storm was furious, so the Chinese Lake Navy Air Weapons Station was sought for help. Even the Navy could not directly reach the attacked woman, but just before midnight they dropped four rescue climbers at 10,500 feet.
By the time the sunrise they were heading towards the bottom of the sudden face where the woman had been trapped, and they were within her screaming distance, but still could not reach her.
The following day, Thursday, the CHP helicopter was able to drop two more rescue climbers 300 feet above the injured woman. They were able to descend and finally reach her, 23 hours after the ordeal began.
But reaching her was only half the battle. They still had to find some way to get her out of there. She was trapped in a “sudden, narrow chute, like a chimney surrounded by a rock wall,” according to the post.
So they called the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office. This department has a helicopter equipped with extremely long hoist cables. The helicopter appeared, but could not reach high altitudes.
Another phone came into the military. This time the California National Guard and a very powerful Black Hawk helicopter were sent to the scene. One was finally able to climb to the required altitude and bring women safely.
“This mission is a powerful reminder of the dangers of high altitude climbing and the extraordinary efforts behind each rescue,” the Sheriff’s Department said on Facebook.
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