Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Information?

Never thought of it before but what information are you given about rescues , how it works ,where it will take place and how long it will be before anything is done ? Are you told anything when you pickup your permit and what functional duties does the leader have? What assumptions do you have about rescues and what conditions should exist to request a rescue? Is there any chance that false information is passed on down the trail third hand about the issue at hand , Chuck said Mike will not make it down but Mary was going to call but then Albert said Chuck was in the car , not yet but he is later who Chuck Mike or Mary I don't know but I think someone should do something , and they are way up the trail OH well they just got to the trailhead , Did you every see Chuck, Mike or Mary ,No but I think maybe Albert saw someone that told him.


Slips and falls are the main cause for injury on the mountain , what do you think would be the next major issue? Could it be doing something past your ability going to far out to return ? Would you run a marathon if you knew that a 10K was your limit?


Last year I posted this question about you are 15 minutes from the parking lot 3 AM, alone and out of cell phone reach no spot or PLB you go off the trail to use the Wagbag, fall 31 feet and a winter storm warning has been posted by Noaa for temps to drop to 18 degrees with heavy snow . You can not move your left leg and have several areas bleeding . What do you do?


Thanks Doug

first you make absolutely sure that wag bag gets packed out, no matter what else you decide

Shoot the hostage.

Start throwing rocks at the RV behind the Portal Store.

Well Doug… I would do what any good, prepared Scout would do… Look at the weather ‎report ahead of time and not head out.‎

However… if I did not have access to the weather report….‎

I would use the items in my 10 Essentials emergency kit in the outside pocket of my ‎backpack. I would use the twine and some sticks/branches lying nearby to splint my ‎broken leg… the emergency blanket and rain gear/poncho would be wrapped around me to help keep warm… ‎the gauze and such in the first aide kit would be used to staunch the bleeding… the ‎whistle attached to the strap of my backpack would be used to get the attention of all the ‎others on the main trail who hadn’t seen the weather report… and my ‎headlamp/flashlight would be used to show all of those others on the trail my exact ‎location so that they can either help haul my dumb butt off the mountain...

At least thats what I try to teach my Scouts that they should do...

I would do pretty much everything SoCal suggests, with addition of a trick I picked up from Moose - crack open the emergency flask! Depending on what point I was at in the Wag process, I would break out the baby wipes as well.

You can survive a long time just dreaming about a portal burger.........................DUG

Rah-ther timely, these questions are. I speak of my experiences in Yosemite, as I have not been on the Big Mountain, yet.

Once, standing in line for the permit, I listened as Jack and Jill showed the Ranger Rick how prepared they were for their week long trip in the North Country. They displayed SPOT, Garmin GPS (which should not be used together -- another issue) Elevation watches, Cell phones et al. Ranger Rick pushed all of the gagetry aside and said "You can do without all of this, but you cannot take a step without this (pointing to his head.) Without common sense, a blister at 1 mile is gaping wound at 10, nausea at 10K could be full-blown AMS at 12K, and a faulty light after dark could be a death sentence 10 paces in the wrong direction."

Bee

explain please - I must hav edone something horribly wrong this summer....

I don't know about "horribly wrong", but simply put, I was told by both the REI people and the "SPOT HELP" folks that the signals might interfere with each other (not my definition of horribly wrong, but to each his own)

B

So now add high wind and trees falling down and a plunge in temps tonight, could this be real, recall the guy everyone laughed at last year talking on his cellphone and fell off the trail luck was with him he had help , what would of the outcome been if he was alone? he fell over 20'? Keep thinking , try a climber several years ago that took a 40' fall off the east face in May broke his helment, was on the mountain all night in a whiteout no help until the next morning why did he survive the night?

So there ya go! Your JMT trail distance figures were ruined by SPOT!

To fight off being a victim of HYPOTHERMIA: Believe you can survive and start "EXERCISING" in any manner possible. Attempt to GENERATE YOUR OWN HEAT.

So here's another one: Does that same person who has the uncanny Will-To-Survive also have better common sense?

Here's hoping it isn't a Loooong weekend for the SAR Teams.

no - the Spot tracking was thrown off by the GPS! All those gaps when it didn't send any position data clearly had to be caused by the Garmin GPS, and not their use of a crumbling sat phone satellite system...

This is why I carry a Very pistol.

In case anyone else (like me) doesn't know what a Very Pistol is, Googling it shows that it's a flare gun.

So the guy with the bad leg got to the trail and had help from a group of 4 young men ,one had one of those hats with the earflaps and funny colors so he was in charge, took him down to the Portal at about 10PM And left him ,his hiking buddy (old Navy joke about buddies but we won't talk about that now this is serious) thinks maybe he should try and hook back up with his partner can't find him so goes back to town returns at 12 AM finds a strange condition at the trailhead , the pack and gear from his friend but not the person, returns back to town to return at 4:30 AM now it is very cold and he finds his buddy walking around with only underware on and clothes spread around. How could this be? Earlene had to call once about this guy that was in the pond getting warm , well we just don't know alot about city life so we can only think this is the way people act in the city. Keep thinking !!! Thanks Doug

Dang.....I should not have had that last beer before logging on...!

B

They've been watching too much Rocky and Bullwinkle?

When pigs can fly maybe everyone will have common sense.

That's what a hunter here in San Diego county thought back in 2003. He's since been convicted of burning down a big chunk of our county.