Helicopter rescue on Gothics

An injured hiker was airlifted from Gothics Mtn.http://www.thechamplainchannel.com/news/6622589/detail.html

wow, 24 hours on the mountain before rescue. Good thing the temperatures were mild for this time of year! A lesson to all why you should have enough gear to get you through a night.

-percious

percious said:

wow, 24 hours on the mountain before rescue. Good thing the temperatures were mild for this time of year! A lesson to all why you should have enough gear to get you through a night.

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Not surprising: it takes time to get the word out, time to mobilize and get organized, time to find the victim, and then you may have to wait for the weather or daylight for the helicoptor to fly.

Doug

I posted this elsewhere, but the name in the link sounds VERY familiar to me. Do we know him? Anyone else get that feeling? Sounds as if he's gonna be alright though. What a releif.

My guess is that he was on the cliffy side of Gothics. Otherwise I would expect the rescuers to portage him down via pyramid, or Armstrong Col. I hope he is a member here so we can get more details. Glad he is ok.

-percious

On the News last night, it claimed he was on the North Face of Gothics. Fortunately there were two climbers ahead of him, in which as I understood, were the ones who went and got help. It took 24 hours to get him, as the conditions were too windy for the Rescue helicopter to fly. They called in another helicopter for the conditions. It then took a short while to air lift him out.
His crampon got stuck in-between the rocks, twisted the ankle, causing his ankle to break.

mavs00 said:

the name in the link sounds VERY familiar to me.

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I think I know who it is, and if I'm right they are a VFTT'r.

This report spells his name differently. I assume his son set up a bivy for him overnight until the helicopter could evacuate them. Even so, an uncomfortable and painful wait.

KEENE, N.Y. An ice climber injured in a fall on one of the Adirondack High Peaks had to wait more than a day before conditions allowed a state police helicopter to evacuate him from the remote and rugged mountain.
State Environmental Conservation officers say Bob Kudiak, his son and two other men from Buffalo were climbing a 12-hundred-foot slope on Gothics Mountain on Sunday when Kudiak fell about 30 feet before his rope caught on a small tree. Kudiak suffered a lower leg injury in the fall.
The others in his group lowered him to a snow field. From there, two of the other climbers hiked six miles to get help. By then it was dark, and forest rangers decided an early-morning rescue would be safer.
High winds kept a rescue helicopter from reaching Kudiak and his son yesterday morning. Several hours later, a state police helicopter hoisted the two men to safety.
Kudiak was taken to the hospital in Lake Placid, where he was treated and released this morning.

Here is a -LINK- to a story that has a for more details. For what's it's worth, this story provides details that seem to indicate to me that the people involved were prepared and seemed to handle the situation well enough.

The first link, as usual, made me wonder about that.

Sounds like their emergency plan was flawless...

Just goes to show you: no matter how experienced you are, sh** happens. The key is to be as prepared as possible.

Oldsmores said:

Just goes to show you: no matter how experienced you are, sh** happens. The key is to be as prepared as possible.

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Broken ankles etc are a fairly common ice climbing injury--the victim falls and catches a crampon on the ice or something.

Doug

I'll just say that he is a very experienced climber, and he doesn't much feel like talking about this right now.