Long day (and night) on South Sister: DCSO Search and Rescue, Air Link assist 3 injured hikers
SISTERS, Ore. (KTVZ) – Deschutes County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue partnered with Air Link for a pair of rescues of three injured hikers on South Sister on Tuesday, making for a very long day – and night -- for those involved.
Around 5:40 a.m. Tuesday, county 911 dispatchers got a phone call from a man who reported his 19-year-old daughter, from Bend, had been injured while the pair were hiking South Sister, said Lieutenant Mike Biondi, SAR coordinator.
Dispatchers were able to obtain coordinates for the hikers, who were about 300 feet southwest of the peak of Lewis Glacier, Biondi said.
Nine DCSO SAR volunteers and two deputies responded, while Air Link was contacted and agreed to assist in the rescue, he said.
The air ambulance brought two SAR medical team members from St. Charles Bend to the general area of the hikers’ location. They were able to reach and stabilize the injured hiker around 8:35 a.m.
Around the same time, the other SAR members began hiking in to their location from the Devil’s Lake Trailhead. They reached the scene around 10:20 a.m. and began taking the woman by wheeled litter down the trail to a safe landing zone.
Air Link was again contacted and around 1:15 p.m. brought the hiker to St. Charles Bend with non-life-threatening injuries. The volunteers escorted her father back to the trailhead, arriving about 3 p.m.
About an hour later, the Sheriff’s Office Special Services Unit was dispatched to another injured hiker on the South Sister Climbers Trail. Dispatchers obtained coordinates and determined the 58-year-old Portland woman was near the 10,363-summit of South Sister, Oregon’s third-tallest peak, said Deputy Kyle Joye, assistant Search and Rescue coordinator.
Contact with the reporting party revealed the woman was injured and unable to walk down the trail without assistance.
Once again, Air Link agreed to transport two SAR volunteers partially up the trail to get them there quicker. But the air ambulance crew had to abort the flight due to poor weather and visibility conditions, Joye said.
Nine SAR volunteers then drove to the Devil’s Lake Trailhead and began the hike up South Sister. Two team members who proceeded ahead of the main group were notified of a second patient on the trail, a 45-year-old Beaverton man who also was injured and would be unable to make it down without assistance. Joye said he was not part of the other party and was on the climbers’ trail just above Moraine Lake.
By about 9 p.m., SAR volunteers had reached and were caring for both patients on the trail. Joye said they were about 1 ½ miles apart, both in steep and rugged terrain that required rescuers to exercise extreme caution.
Another seven DCSO SAR volunteers were summoned and headed to the scene, as improved weather conditions allowed Air Link to head to the mountain and assist with the rescue.
The air ambulance crew arrived about 10 p.m. but found they could not get close to the first patient for removal. So the helicopter landed at a lower elevation and waited for about three hours until the SAR volunteers could move her to their location, Joye said.
After medical treatment and packaging the woman for transport, the woman was moved from an area of extreme elevation and angle, using both hand and wheeled litter, to the waiting helicopter. She was released to the Air Link crew’s care shortly before 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Meanwhile, SAR medical team members assessed the Beaverton man’s condition and prepared him for transport down the trail with a wheeled litter. He was carried about three miles down to the trailhead, where he was released to his family about 2:45 a.m. and said he would seek his own medical treatment.
“The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank Air Link for their valuable help and assistance during this difficult rescue of two hikers,” Joye said in a news release.
