Mount St. Helens hikers unprepared, require rescues
HIKING -- Mount St. Helens hikers unprepared for changing weather conditions last weekend lucked out in one way -- a group of rangers was on the mountain to save them a lot of grief.
Law enforcement and search and rescue personnel helped track down multiple hikers in distress lost in poor conditions on Mount St. Helens Saturday evening, The Vancouver Columbian reports.
More than 500 hikers had registered to summit that day, according to the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office, keeping deputies, North County EMS’ Volcano Rescue Team, the Mount St. Helens Institute climbing rangers and the U.S. Forest Service busy with reports of 10-12 total hikers in of assistance or direction own the mountain.
Around 6:45 p.m., the sheriff’s office received word of an overdue hiker on the mountain, the sheriff’s office said, and she was making the trek with an infant.
She reportedly became separated from her group, according to the sheriff’s office. A climbing ranger at the Mount St. Helens Institute, Andy Goodwin, had already reached the summit and was making his descent when the report was made.
As forecast, it was rainy with low clouds, fog and temperatures in the 40s. Goodwin found the hiker, Lisa Nelski, 28, from Vancouver, and her child, around the 6,500-feet level, the sheriff’s office said.
Search organizers later learned a group of 60 men and woman in a singles climbing group, Nelski being one of them, were scattered along the climbing route for their trip.
A lost Nelski later caught up with another hiker, who also lost his way. Goodwin escorted them the rest of the way down, according to the sheriff’s office, and all three were in good condition.
On the way down, searchers received another report, this one of two couples overdue from their hike.
A reporting party told officials that hikers Mike and Erika Uribe, along with another couple, planned to hike Mount St. Helens and were to depart the Marble Mountain Snow Park around 7 a.m.; they had not been heard from since.
The sheriff’s office said additional reports came in around that time of people hearing whistles, commonly used by hikers and search and rescue personnel to alert others or signal distress.
As the night went on, the Volcano Rescue Team joined the sheriff’s office and other searchers. Goodwin and his group then came upon another climber, who suffered a knee injury. Goodwin helped her down to the Marble Mountain Snow Park as well.
The Uribes and their climbing partners ultimately were able to make it off the mountain and back home without assistance, the sheriff’s office said, and all the climbers were off the mountain by 1 a.m.
“The climbers were extremely fortunate to have the MSH Institute rangers, especially Mr. Goodwin, on the mountain Saturday evening,” Skamania County Undersheriff Pat Bond said in a news release. “This demonstrates the need to prepare for the unexpected.”
