A volunteer rescue crew from Tacoma saved a hypothermic man Saturday night during a winter-like storm in Lewis County at about 7,000 feet in elevation.
A volunteer rescue crew from Tacoma saved a hypothermic man Saturday night during a winter-like storm in Lewis County at about 7,000 feet in elevation.
Five volunteers from Tacoma Mountain Rescue traveled on foot to save a man in his 20s who got caught in the storm. The unit told KOMO News that by the time it found him, his tent had blown away and he was unable to walk.
“When inclement weather hits, obviously hypothermia is the big concern,” TMR Treasurer and incoming president Marcus Mendoza explained.
This group received an emergency notification when a hiker’s Garmin sent out an SOS signal. He had been hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, starting in Mexico.
“He’d actually been on the trail since April, and he was trying to finish out the final stretch up to the Canadian border,” TMR Vice President and mission lead Jake Kiekenapp stated.
But on Sept. 26, he was stranded in the snow and 60 mph winds in the Goat Rocks Wilderness by Old Snowy Mountain.
Helicopters were grounded, so the volunteer rescue team hiked four and a half hours and about eight miles from the trailhead.
“Once we got above the treeline, it definitely got harder to navigate just due to the wind and low visibility and the snow covering the trail,” Kiekenapp added.
Field support member Brian Pinkard explained they found the man by 1:30 a.m.
“He was fairly hypothermic, very cold in a wet sleeping bag,” Pinkard said. “We were able to get him changed into some warm clothes, get him into a dry sleeping bag, get him into a tent, warm him up with some warm water and some food, spent the night with him and managed to hike him out on Saturday.”
The unit of 42 volunteers estimates it helps as many as 30 people per year, mostly on Mount Rainier, while running monthly patrols and training on rope work and medical assessments.
“A lot of what we see is simple dehydration and lower leg injuries,” Mendoza stated.
The team says what happened over the weekend is a reminder of why a satellite messenger belongs in hiking or camping packs. The man’s SOS directed help toward him hours before anyone may have known he was in trouble, Mendoza said.
