A Mountain Rescue Experience
When you spend a lot of time in mountainous terrain, it becomes increasingly likely that you will have to deal with an accident and rescue situation at some point.
This is a risk that the mountaineering community constantly try to manage, and it is a big part of decision making well before heading out on a trip and throughout the duration of any time spent in the mountains.
Earlier this year my partner Mariana had a bad fall while traversing a steep slope on an otherwise wonderful ski descent from a local favourite mountain Store Hollendaren (1029m) on Kvaløya.
The cause of the fall was a patch of blocky, wet snow in an otherwise clean slope and the sudden change in snow density caused the tip of her skis to become buried, propelling her forwards down the slope.
As soon as the fall happened and I heard her uncharacteristically scream in pain, I knew something was seriously wrong and quickly snowboarded over to her. Mariana immediately said that she thought she had broken her lower leg, having heard and felt it crack.
Mariana navigating the rocks on the beautiful ascent up Store Hollendaren. Photo: Calvin Shackleton.
Seeing somebody that I love in so much pain and so upset was extremely difficult to deal with both during and after the accident. It took a lot of self-control to remain calm, and at some points I felt pretty close to despair.
We started to discuss the potential to walk down the slope together, and Mariana even started to ask whether she should try to ski down with just one leg. She even insisted on putting on both skis, before we realised that there was just no chance of getting her down the slope without some sort of sledge or rescue. The place where she fell was steep, and frustratingly I had no mobile phone signal to call mountain rescue/emergency services.
I ran down the slope to try and find a signal and after trying to call the emergency services (113) fourteen times at various points and not getting through, I was beginning to despair a little. Almost at the same moment, we were both able to get a 4G signal, allowing us to send a message to a friend briefly describing our location, so that he could contact the mountain rescue on our behalf. At least we knew that help would soon be on its way.
As I ran back up the slope to meet Mariana, we lost all phone signal, my phone battery died, and we quickly realised that our best hope of contacting the emergency services directly (if our friend had not been able to), was to wait for the one group that we had passed on our way down from the peak. They were still quite some distance behind us and we knew that it might take some time before they eventually reached us.
Enjoying the initial decent from the peak in some fine snow conditions. Photo: Calvin Shackleton.
At this point, Mariana and I thought that we should try to get to flatter ground, so that the helicopter would be able to hover over or potentially even land to get her inside. I put together my splitboard to make a sledge, and Mariana lowered herself onto the board. We made a splint using Marianas ski and some rubber straps to keep the leg straight. I then used the other ski to start to cut a flat shelf into the steep slope to prevent her from sliding down as I slid her along the slope towards flatter ground.
Shortly after starting this, the group behind us reached the top of the traverse. Immediately we shouted to them to notify them that Mariana was hurt and one member of the group skied down to us on the slope, while the others sensibly stayed at the top before the traverse, where thankfully it was still possible to get phone service. After shouting over some instructions, the group managed to also coordinate a call to 113, and eventually confirmed that a helicopter was on its way. Together with the rest of the group, we continued the process of cutting a flat ledge and sliding the injured Mariana strapped to the snowboard across and down the slope.
After almost 2 hours since the fall, we finally heard the helicopter approach. It was quite a relief for all of us. After seeing that we were on a steep slope the helicopter flew down to the road to attach a long cable and stretcher, enabling them to carry out a rescue on the steep terrain. They dropped off a crew member with the stretcher and between the now 5 of us we lowered Mariana onto the stretcher and she was zipped up before being picked back up by the helicopter. It was a strange sight to see her being airlifted up and out of the valley, and the cable was swinging and spinning as they took her to the road to be transferred properly inside the helicopter.
As Mariana was being flown to the hospital I started to descend the mountain, also carrying her skis and poles. Knowing that my partner was in distress and alone on her way to hospital was upsetting, and I felt distracted and exhausted, causing me to make some basic errors on my route down and putting me at risk of injury too. This is something that I wish I’d have given more thought too - how much the incident affected my ability to concentrate on things that usually come naturally.
One small comedic relief that we got out of the experience was Marianas logged GPS track on Strava (pictured) which included her swirly path towards the hospital in the helicopter, and later congratulated her on her longest recorded activity yet! Image: Strava GPS Log.
After four days in the hospital by herself (due to Covid-19 restrictions), two fractured bones, one titanium rod and five screws in her leg, Mariana could finally come home. I am amazed at how well she handled the whole situation and feel inspired by her optimistic outlook (mostly – some pessimism is completely normal of course, especially as we head into the climbing season!).
She is a tough one. You will be happy to hear though that Mariana is now on the mend, the recovery is going well and she is already getting out on small hikes.
After some months to reflect on the accident I came up with a short list of things that I personally learned from the experience:
No matter how easy or familiar the mountain is, ALWAYS be prepared for an emergency situation. The small extra weight in the backpack is well worth it, e.g. reflective foil blanket.
If deliberating whether that extra pricey bit of safety equipment is worth it – it probably is. We had been thinking about buying a satellite comms. device for a while and put it off because of the price. In reality that could have allowed us to contact the emergency services an hour sooner than we did!
Be aware of who else is on the mountain. Knowing that we had just one group of skiers behind us allowed us to factor that into our decision making process.
Take care on the descent back to the car after a rescue has taken place. Your mind is not operating at 100% focus, and the chances of making usually easily avoidable errors is greatly increased. Plus, you know that the emergency services are already busy!
Also worth considering is knowing who to call in an emergency and what they are likely to be doing while you’re out – in this case our friend managed to contact the emergency services for us despite already being out in the mountains himself elsewhere.
If any of the amazing folks from Tromsø Mountain Rescue/UNN medics or the group of three skiers that helped out with the rescue read this, thank you so much for your help, you were great! I also want to say a big thank you to our good friend and trusted mountain companion, Pasha, who was the first on our list to contact and was able to call mountain rescue on our behalf despite being out in the mountains himself!
Thank you for reading, and feel free to contact or comment if you have any questions or thoughts on this topic. If you want to read more about mountain experiences and/or technical reviews head over to mountain tales or gear review and tech tips.
Stay safe out there!
- Calvin -
Spending time in the mountains together brings us a lot of happiness, and we will not let the bad experiences dampen our enthusiasm! Photo: Mariana Esteves.