Montrose Search and Rescue – Ice Rescues

Last week I wrote about the treacherous “ice chutes” that sometimes trap unwary visitors to our snowy mountains each winter. These slick, nearly vertical toboggan runs form in the turnouts along Angeles Crest Highway. Motorists sometimes stray too near to the edges and slide into the ice chutes, often with fatal results.

In 1981, two brothers stopped at an icy turnout of the Angeles Crest Highway to throw rocks off the edge. One brother slipped into an ice chute and slid about 150 feet. The other brother tried to reach him, but slid right past him to drop 1,000 feet to his death. Another hiker faced a similar fate when he slipped off an icy cliff at Mt. Wilson. He, too, slid over 1,000 feet but didn’t die. MSAR teams couldn’t reach him from below, nor could a rescue chopper reach him, so he lay in the snow for six hours while an MSAR team performed a grueling rope rappel down the cliff-face in the dark to reach him.

The frequency of these ice cliff rescues prompted the team to acquire specialized training in ice climbing. MSAR team member Mike Leum said, “About 10 years ago we were getting requested on Winter Ops to respond to Mt. Baldy on a regular basis. Frequently these were for recoveries of hikers who had fallen down ice chutes, sometimes at a distance of 1,000 feet. I realized that we could only safely check the tops and bottoms of these chutes. Also, during one of those searches I fell at the summit of Mt. Baldy and had to use my ice axe to stop my fall. I was on my back going headfirst downslope. That combination of events led me to get some vertical ice training from the American Alpine Institute.”

The training with the American Alpine Institute has turned into a yearly pilgrimage for the MSAR team. Each winter they drive to the eastern Sierras and climb through deep snow into the higher elevations, to the 10,000-foot level. In Lee Vining Canyon north of Mammoth, with guides from the Alpine Institute, they challenge a 200-foot frozen waterfall, climbing the slick vertical face in near zero-degree weather. Under the tutelage of their guides they learn to set ice screws into the vertical face and attach ropes to the screws until each climber is secured at four points, and tied to the other climbers. With crampons on their boots and specialized ice axes, they make their way up the face to the next attach point. It is an extremely technical climbing technique.

MSAR team member Steve Goldsworthy said, “If you can safely climb 90 degrees, then doing an ice rescue on a 60-degree slope seems a lot easier. I guess the real danger is the unforgiving nature of ice. One slip, one fall, has often fatal results.”

The training does carry dangers. During one exercise, Mike Leum was climbing the face of the waterfall when the ice sheet he was on shattered. The climber below him was showered with broken ice and a large piece clipped his hand, breaking the bones. Mike had dropped past him and dangled by the ropes of his other attach points, 60 feet above the ground. Despite immense pain, the man with the broken hand was able to lower Mike safely to the ground. The team is built on training and trust.

The MSAR is one of the few search and rescue teams to have this kind of specialized training and they are well-known as the “Vertical Ice Response Team.” One example of the team’s training having paid off happened at Mt. Baden-Powell. A young man and his girlfriend tried to climb a vertical ice sheet from Angeles Crest Highway. At the 400-foot level, the man slipped and slid all the way to the highway where he died on impact. The girl was left terrified and clinging to a tree growing out of the cliff face. The Vertical Ice Response Team was able to quickly climb the ice sheet and lower the girl to safety. The MSAR’s ice climbing training saved a life that day.

  mike lawler