RMNP Rangers bring three climbers from Longs who didn't ask

[Sugar Madison]

Seems there's two threads going, I posted this over in the other one...

There was a little bit more going on behind the scenes beyond an outright refusal. The party was pretty hypoxic/hypothermic and thought they just needed to figure out the route (that they had been up at least a dozen times before). Spent most of the night looking for the exit move off Kieners. Definitely needed SAR involvement, but I think there was some level of cognitive impairment (which led to confusion) due to the weather/conditions/altitude. (I know one in the party, not someone I would classify as a proud/ego type of person and definitely not worried about the cost of a rescue). As a climber/runner, I found it both interesting and fairly sobering to see how (1) a couple of questionable decisions could go south so quickly and (2) how fast one can be rendered fairly incapacitated, even to a *very* strong athlete.

Thank you for the insight!

Out of curiosity, do you have a sense of where they were actually stranded? From the Post article, it sounds like they must have been rescued not far from the Diamond crossover - not Broadway (based on the fact that they were then brought down the north face); this would make sense given what you wrote about them searching for the "exit move".

That's the exact location, that step around over the top of the Diamond, at the very top. I think it was due to exhaustion/hypoxia and the weather, which was pretty atrocious at the time. Apparently 100mph-ish winds on the summit.

[AlexeyD]

I think it was due to exhaustion/hypoxia and the weather, which was pretty atrocious at the time. Apparently 100mph-ish winds on the summit.

Yeah, no kidding! I believe it. It was gusting to near 60 while riding my bike between Boulder and Louisville that day, so can't even imagine what Longs must have been like...

Glad it turned out OK.

[Sugar Madison]

I'm a pretty big proponent of a good (if respectful) post-mortem.

They used a DeLorme InReach to text (me, SAR, and other folks). The tedious nature of sending manual texts I think contributed to some confusion as well. (click click click click "K", click click click click "I"), which was hard to do in those conditions with cold fingers, high winds, etc... so replies were pretty short and not always easy to follow. A couple messages also were delivered out of order, which made things a bit hard to follow. The device saved their lives, without a doubt, but it makes me think it's worth doing a couple things in the future:

1. The extra weight of a phone to get that actual keyboard interface is probably worth considering.
2. A small external battery (to charge it) isn't a bad idea, as it died in the cold temps on midday Tuesday
3. Might we worth putting a manual timestamp on critical messages "1530: At junction XYZ, weather deteriorating" or similar.

[bichito]

I read these guys had done the route several times. Was a "the mountain made its own weather" type of scenario.?

[pbakwin]

Interesting your #2 & 3. Some thoughts:
-When I've checked I have usually had cell coverage on the summit, at least enough to get a text out. Seems like they were close to the top of they were by the Diamond Step.
-If its cold batteries don't work well. If you warm them up they work again. Put the unit inside your jacket.
-Interesting about adding a time stamp. This could apply to outgoing cellular text msg as well. Good point.
-If wind is gusting to 100 you can't stand up and might get blown off the mtn. You'd likely want to descend the E Face in that case (although the NF is somewhat protected).
-Hypoxic? Really? Alan? Hypothermic yes, hypoxic at 14k seems a stretch.
-If there's one thing I've learned about Longs it's to choose your day carefully. There was new snow on Thurs night, but it came in from the N and stuck only to the N faces. The W Face was dry on Sat. More snow on Sat night this time coated the W Face. Looking at the NWS forecast, the Niwot Ridge weather station & the Longs webcam (which shows the E & N Faces) are all good resources.

[justiner]

I'm not sure what the policy of the NP's SAR is, but to me, it's a no-brainer to send a few willing rangers out to suss the situation, as long as it's safe to do so. I want to say that SAR is called ~once/day on average in the Park.

I was pretty amazed at the amount of rangers I saw on the Keyhole route during the summer - I bumped into 3 in one day just from the Keyhole to the summit.

This is of course not the case right now, as the ranger station at the TH has recently closed. But I don't think climbing rangers are stationed there, anyways.

Glad everyone is safe.

[Sugar Madison]

Interesting your #2 & 3. Some thoughts:
-When I've checked I have usually had cell coverage on the summit, at least enough to get a text out. Seems like they were close to the top of they were by the Diamond Step.
-If its cold batteries don't work well. If you warm them up they work again. Put the unit inside your jacket.
-Interesting about adding a time stamp. This could apply to outgoing cellular text msg as well. Good point.
-If wind is gusting to 100 you can't stand up and might get blown off the mtn. You'd likely want to descend the E Face in that case (although the NF is somewhat protected).
-Hypoxic? Really? Alan? Hypothermic yes, hypoxic at 14k seems a stretch.
-If there's one thing I've learned about Longs it's to choose your day carefully. There was new snow on Thurs night, but it came in from the N and stuck only to the N faces. The W Face was dry on Sat. More snow on Sat night this time coated the W Face. Looking at the NWS forecast, the Niwot Ridge weather station & the Longs webcam (which shows the E & N Faces) are all good resources.

Hey Peter

1. They had no cell coverage on the Diamond step, oddly (or phone was dead or didn't take one, but I never got any cell replies from him).
2. Yeah, no idea if they tried that. Going to swing by to see him tonight, I'll ask.
3. --
4. I messaged him about the wind: "Winds on summit are going to be HORRIBLE. Strong enough to blow you off the Diamond. You may be safest to bivy in the shelter of the cliffs if you can say warm." I based that guess on a station on Niwot Ridge, at 70mph. Down climbing: I think he could have done that but maybe not his companions, I believe they were less experienced. That's a scary downclimb.
5. Just speculation. Haven't spoken in person yet, but he wasn't his normal self. He knows Longs REALLY well, and seemed to be pretty turned around in a spot I don't remember being particularly hard to route find in (in the sun, in July, so apples to oranges).
6. Agreed.