A climber who fell 15 metres trying to go up the Grand Wall of the Chief suffered head and other lower body injuries last Thursday (July 14).
Squamish Search and Rescue (SAR) volunteers with the Squamish Emergency Program were called to help the Calgary man.
According to John Howe, one of the rescue team leaders, the victim was climbing with a partner just below Bellygood Ledge. Howe said the narrow ledge is a traverse on the face of the Chief about two thirds of the way up.
"The guy had fallen and his partners had managed to get him up to the ledge," Howe said.
Howe said a decision was made to attempt a helicopter long-line rescue. As a back-up to that plan, a climbing team was sent to the top of the Chief to begin making their way down to the injured man to do a technical rope rescue if the helicopter couldn't be used to rescue the fallen climber. Two SAR members, John Wilcox and Peder Ourom, climbed across Bellygood Ledge to assess the injuries.
The rescuers discoveredthe landing had broken the man's jaw, knocked out a few his teeth, and cracked a few others. Rescuers suspected the man also had a broken nose and other injuries.According to Howe, the injuries were not bad considering the nature of the fall.
"He fell backwards and landed on his bum and as soon as he hit he flipped over backwards and hit his face on the same slab," said Howe.
The fall happened when victim's foot slipped and, according to Howe, the man didn't have adequate protection to prevent the fall.
Two members of Whistler Search and Rescue and Blackcomb Helicopters were called to assist with the helicopter rescue, as the Squamish volunteers do not have their own long-line equipment to conduct this type of rescue. Howe said the injured rescuer placed the fallen climber in a screamer suit and the pair flew at the end of the line to Squamish General Hospital where the victim was treated.
The helicopter mission wasn't over at that point as the other rescuers were also flown off the ledge.
Howe said a team of 20 volunteers assembled to conduct the rescue. It took the team two and a half hours - from 2 to 4:30 p.m. - to complete the task.
"Had it [the long-line rescue] not worked it would have been a long protracted rope rescue lasting many, many hours," Howe said of the first significant SAR operation at the Chief so far this year. "Had it been a little bit windier, we wouldn't have been able to do it with the long-line."
Howe estimated the climber was probably in his early to [email protected]
