A couple days ago, I went with Fraser, Omar, and Jamo to
Crowsnest Mountain where we would attempt summit. After Fraser found his lunch at the 7-11 in Coleman, we headed for the trailhead. When we arrived we saw a couple of people near what we thought was the beginning of our adventure. We said hi, and got some assurance from them that indeed, we were in the right place.
We loaded up, stocked up on water and hit the trail at about 10:30am. After walking for about 1/2 a kilometer and noticing that the path we were on didn't seem to be going 'up', too incredibly fast, we wondered if we were heading the right direction so we turned back to find that we had walked right by the clear-as-day trail heading in the direction of the mountain... up we went.
The trail heads pretty well straight up to the top of the treeline and from there you zig-zag up the scree on a trail marked by
cairns. There had been another group doing the hike and they were hiking behind us up to the treeline and they passed us on one of our frequent water/food stops going up into the alpine. We kept meeting up with this group - this would be a pattern that would continue, all day... and, into the night.
The mountain is tough because the rocks under your feet are not really attached to anything. There is one really tricky part - referred to as 'the chutes' - where it's so steep there is a chain bolted into the side of the mountain and you use that to climb up.
We summited about 3:00pm and the view from the top was spectacular. The Crowsnest Pass is certainly beautiful from above. I wondered to myself if I could get cell phone reception at the top. I called Katherine and indeed, the reception was crystal clear. We hung out for an hour or so, had a nap on the summit, ate some watermelon along with the rest of lunch and signed the log book. After about an hour or so, we began our descent.
Just a few steps off the top and we ran into two of the other hikers. We stopped and talked to them for a minute. They had gone up a different route than us and apparently, it was the hard way. It seems that they regretted that decision because they made it clear that it was really hard. We had enough difficulty with the 'easy way'. There was a guy and he said that one of the members of his party had fainted, and was having some problems. It appeared that she was on her way down now. I thought it awfully strange that they would continue up the mountain with one of their group having problems.
They continued up and we hiked down. We were moving down the mountain, at a much faster pace then we went up, and a few hundred metres below summit we ran into the girl who was having the problems and a couple of guys who were guiding her down. We could see that they were having issues. She looked like she was really scared, "like a rat in a cage". Anyway, as we passed, we were nervous about sending rocks down on them, and I didn't want to spook an already spooked gal heading down the mountain, so we passed. They didn't give us any indication that they needed our help at this point.
We proceeded down a little bit further and discussed the situation, pondering wether there was anything else we could do to help and determined that in the conditions (ie. rocky and steep), there wasn't much of anything we could do at all.
A while later, we saw the same two members of the party that we saw at the summit booking it down the mountain. They said that they were going to call for help for the girl. They stopped long enough to ask if we had a phone. That, I did have, but I couldn't get any reception at this elevation on this side of the mountain. Again, no mention of wanting our help, and there was nothing we figured we could do, so down we went.
We continued down nearly until we hit the treeline, and when we stopped for a break we heard a distant shout. I couldn't make out what was being said, but I heard something. We stopped and turned our ears to the wind and then we ascertained that it was a call for help. That gave us the answer to the moral dilemma that we had been wrestling with all the way down. Up we went, for the second ascent of Crowsnest Mountain that day.
Surprisingly, my legs felt pretty fresh and I felt pretty good going back up to where they were. We met up with one of the guys from their group who said that she was on top of 'the chutes' and they wanted a hand carrying her down the mountain. This made us really nervous, given the terrain, but up we went to assess the situation.
When we got up on top of the chutes, she was in much worse condition than we witnessed earlier. She was lying on her back going in an out of consciousness while her boyfriend was giving her artificial respiration. They were doing a good job of administering first-aid - keeping her conscious and her legs elevated and such, but she was definitely in shock. Lips shaking and not looking too good at all. Given the surroundings, it was pretty scary. They were right on top of the chutes and at this point, there is no way that she would have been any help going down the chutes.
Carrying her down would have probably put people into serious danger, so we were definitely stuck. There wasn't really anything that could be done. They said that their friends had called for help and that was true, but we had no idea what form that help would come in, or if the call had actually been made. I knew that I could get cell reception higher up, so I went up a couple of hundred metres, got into sight of a transmission tower and made a call to 911. On the phone, I was assured that a call had been placed and that help was on the way. This was good news because by this time it was about 7:30pm and light was going to be going fast.
It wasn't long after that we heard the very welcome sounds of a helicopter. It made a pass and tried to land, but the terrain was too steep. I was sort of wondering if they were going to do the mountain evacuation by dropping down a basket and carrying her off. No such luck. Not being able to land, the chopper went up to the summit and we saw the door open and we assumed that some guys got out. They did and began their descent, lugging all of their rescue gear with them, to where we were.
It probably took them a good half hour, or forty-five minutes to make the descent, and we were sure glad to see them when they made it. All the while, the girl had been going in and out of consciousness, her breathing was stopping and starting, and the administration of first-aid continued. The mountain rescue guys gave her an IV which raised her blood sugar, and oxygen, and she seemed to start coming around pretty quickly.
Once she was stabilized, they began the process of the descent. That's right, this girl was going down the mountain. They had a sled - imagine really heavy duty crazy carpet with straps - that we helped load her into, and they got out their ropes, anchored onto a big rock at the top of the chutes and began the descent. By the time they started the descent, it was getting pretty close to 9:00pm and darkness was encroaching fast. They had 100m of rope, and that meant they had to anchor three times to get the girl to the bottom of the chutes.
The rest of the group waited at the bottom of the chutes, on a scree slope, mistakenly thinking we were out of the way of falling rocks. We suspect that there were some mountain goats on a ledge above us that sent some rocks down a vertical cliff face in our direction. The rocks started whizzing down the mountain and we had another victim. The girl's boyfriend took one to the head and he was split open. It always amazes me how much blood can come from a small gash on the head. Fraser put his mountain man first aid into action, and got the bleeding cleaned up and stopped in pretty good time. Fortunately, this injury wasn't more severe.
By the time the rescue team made it down the chutes, it was about 10:00pm and dark. We still had over 1000 metres of vertical to descend until we got to the bottom, and it was very dark but we noticed a nearly full moon was coming out to help guide us. There was also a moment of beauty in it all as the Northern lights came out and gave us a show.
There was a decided light shortage, but fortunately there was enough for one for every two people. Being that we had ascended the mountain twice, and descended once already, our group was more-or-less responsible for finding our route down. Fraser and I sort of took charge in that department searching out the cairns in the dark and leading the way down the path of least resistance.
As we moved, the girl started coming around more and she was able to walk down under her own steam, while strapped to the rescue guys. With great difficulty in the dark, we were able to make this descent safely. As we approached the treeline, we saw more rescue team members approaching from the bottom. At this time, our job was done and all we had to do was walk out to the truck at the bottom.
My legs were jelly, I was very thirsty, I missed dinner but everyone was safe and I'm sure that the lady will be okay. She probably won't be doing any 'intense' hikes in the near future. We made it to the truck by about 2:00am, and I was home, showered and ready for bed by 4:30am. I woke up with a headache at 9:00am but everyone was safe and that's what is important.
