™TRADITIONAL MOUNTAINEERING
™
www.TraditionalMountaineering.org
™ and also
www.AlpineMountaineering.org
™
™
FREE BASIC TO ADVANCED
ALPINE MOUNTAIN CLIMBING INSTRUCTION™
Home
| Information
| Photos
| Calendar
| News
| Seminars
| Experiences
| Questions
| Updates
| Books
| Conditions
| Links
Once again, cell phone alerts rescuers of injured climber
This time, it was Oregon City man who suffered leg injury descending South Sister
July 24 - In what's becoming a regular occurrence, a cell phone allowed climbers on the South Sister to notify authorities about an injured hiker they had
found on the trail above Moraine Lake on Tuesday afternoon, officials said.
Todd Vincent Wheeler, 35, of Oregon City, was flown by Air Life helicopter to St. Charles Medical Center, where he was treated for a leg injury and
released, officials said.
Around 4 p.m., members of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue and the U.S. Forest Service responded to the climber’s trail regarding a
man who was hurt while hiking down from the summit of South Sister, said Tom Wells of the SAR unit.
Others hiking the trail found the victim and called 911 from their cell phone, Wells said. Search and Rescue was notified by 911 and patched by phone to
the hikers.
After establishing the victim’s location, eight SAR personnel and a Forest Service worker with his pack horse proceeded to the scene, to assess and
stabilize the patient, Wells said. Search and Rescue personnel then called in Air Life of Oregon to help with the call. The pack horse was used to move
Wheeler to a landing zone for the Air Life retrieval, while Search and Rescue members hiked out to the Devils Lake trailhead.
See also:
Basic responsibilities of the wilderness traveler
The Ten Essentials