Saturday, February 25, 2012

the scalding cold.


Just back from a week in the Qua range near Nelson, BC - Immersed, sans technology at one of the lightly equipped and quite rustic, Ymir Yurts. We had 3 days in the Yurt, touring around, laughing, eating and enjoying the stark beauty of this oh so unique area.

Two days ago, things changed.

Jon, Guillermo, Ryan, Zach and myself were enjoying a great day, touring up the benched and wonderfully rimed terrain of Seaman peak - eventually arriving at the summit and taking it all in, at one point G made his way to the shoulder of the summit and looked off towards mecca. I snapped a photo, a perfect moment.

We clicked in and discussed the descent. We would need to ski conservatively and avoid the convexities in the terrain - a very weak surface hoar layer was below 50-60 cm of storm snow and had the set the stage for our week - safe terrain, low angles and low consequence skiing was in order from day 1. At the second regroup zone I stopped and waited for my friends. G was first and I could see his trademark red cloudveil softshell sailing through the trees. At speed he came through a gap and slammed into a tree.

I yelled out and got nothing, yelled again and nothing still. Shuffling over I saw nothing but bad. A seemingly major head wound, an unconscious Guillermo and lots of blood. I looked a the tree, an old fir with no remorse, a pale grey branch covered in blood. I thought the worst, cranial fracture and a good friend with minutes to live. I love this man in front of me like a second father. His wife, his step son, the people in his life - all I could say was 'oh fuck'.

Ryan came down and started to organize the first aid treatment, the tree branch did not make it through the scull and G's breathing started to become more consistent. I tripped my SPOT unit to SOS and got back to helping, giving gauze to Ryan and starting to build a bed for G to spend hours...days?

In 15 min G had regained consciousness and was starting to show signs of focused thought, my relief was almost overwhelming. A likely shoulder dislocation, spinal/neck injuries and of course the massive head wound started to make their way into G's vocabulary as we tried to keep him warm - taking turns laying beside him. I radioed the cat ski operation nearby and asked for assistance, "full stretcher case, head wound, need heli support".

Zach and I straight-lined the 550 m run in 8 min to the hut, grabbed two sleeping bags, clothes and kept moving - getting back to the group as fast as we could just as the chopper arrived to drop off a very capable team to assist and take over the operation. At 230pm, G was stable, in a stretcher and aboard the chopper, Nelson Hospital bound.

We packed up and started the process of getting ourselves out of the area and back to the cat that was inbound to get us so that we could visit our friend that night. G is seemingly going to be ok and is actually en route to home today through the very snowy BC roads of the moment.

I am left with a feeling of admiration towards my friends for being so stoic during the ordeal.

Jons thoughts : http://jonsonitechronicles.blogspot.com/2012/02/love-of-friends.html

2 comments:

Tys von Gaza said...

Yikes! I'm glad your friend survived and I hope he has a speedy recovery.

I was at the Valhalla in Nelson last summer and they had helmets 50% off. I picked one up and was amazed how light it was, bought it on the spot. This year I've taken it on all my tours and worn it on every backcountry run down. I love the trees and could see that same thing happening to myself. Thanks for sharing this story, it will most definitely be a reminder for me to never forget it.

Cheers and stay safe!
Tys

Anonymous said...

Hi Ross, I just read about this incident and feel sick to my stomach. However, very happy to hear that G is getting better and that hopefully he will make a full recovery. You and your buds did a great job dealing with the situation, wise decisions/actions.

Take care,
Dave Smoley