Local News

<< Previous   of   Next >> Michael O'Leary / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Snohomish County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue pilots Bill Quistorf (left) and Steve Klett and flight medic Corey Wenzel (right) head toward Three Fingers to check the weather conditions before attempting a rescue of two hikers stranded on the mountain east of Granite Falls. Michael O'Leary / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Snohomish County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue Flight medic Corey Wenzel (foreground) heads toward Three Fingers to check the weather conditions before attempting a rescue Wednesday. (click to enlarge)   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Thursday, August 28, 2008 Stranded teen hikers rescued from peak east of Granite Falls By Jackson Holtz Herald Writer VERLOT -- It was meant to be a night spent sleeping in a mountaintop lookout. Three teenagers set out Tuesday to climb Three Fingers Mountain, the 6,780-foot peak east of Granite Falls. They planned to bunk down in the shelter at the summit. As they made their way up the twisted, rugged trail toward the summit, the weather changed. Temperatures dropped and rain and ice began to pelt the boys. They never reached their destination. By 8:30 p.m., the teenage hikers were in trouble. They called 911. The call set in motion a massive emergency response Wednesday. "The good news is that we found all three of them alive," Snohomish County sheriff's spokeswoman Rebecca Hover said. "The biggest issue was finding them alive." Earlier in the day, one boy, 16, was able to walk with rescuers to the trailhead, where he was met by his family. A rescue helicopter tried several times Wednesday to find a clearing to hoist the other two boys. By Wednesday afternoon, two boys, 17, remained on the mountain. They were described as being in stable condition, and one of the boys apparently had an injured back. Poor visibility kept crews from setting the rescue helicopter down or lowering a cable to pluck the boys off the mountainside. By late afternoon, one of the remaining boys felt well enough to start walking down. Luckily, the weather took a turn for the better and he was picked up by a rescue helicopter about 7 p.m., Snohomish County Sheriff's Office Lt. Kathi Lang said. Crews were trying to find a better place lower on the mountain to take the boy with the bad back. About 6:30 p.m., rescuers were finally able to get him into a helicopter as well, Lang said. Mountain rescuers first reached the three boys about 7 a.m. Wednesday. All three were suffering from moderate hypothermia after becoming lost and getting caught by bad weather. Rescuers immediately went to work to help warm up the boys. Two of the boys are from Arlington, the third is from elsewhere in Snohomish County. Teams used tarps and portable heaters to create a warming room to help raise the boys' body temperatures, Hover said. Rescuers also gave the boys some of their clothing and offered them food and water. Temperatures don't need to dip below freezing to become dangerous, said Dr. Andrew Lucks, a critical care and wilderness medicine physician at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. "You just need the temperature to drop a little bit, and you add in rain and wind, you have perfect conditions for hypothermia," he said. The mountain crews worked under near white-out conditions during periods of heavy rain. Visibility high on the mountain was limited to about 200 feet. Before being found, the teens told emergency dispatchers they were doing OK, officials said. But during limited cell phone communication with the boys overnight, their speech sounded slurred, a sign they were suffering from hypothermia, Hover said. "There were some points during this that we weren't sure we would have a happy ending," she said. "It's a darn good thing that one of them had a cell phone and that it worked." Hypothermia, when the body's core temperature drops, can cause heart attack and coma in severe cases, Lucks said. In moderate cases, people become lethargic and their muscles can become rigid and their thinking clouded. While severe cases can require lengthy hospital stays, most people recover from moderate cases quickly after treatment, the doctor said. Search-and-rescue crews hurried Tuesday night to reach the teenage hikers. The teens apparently brought a sleeping bag, some blankets, a light and a whistle, among other gear, but weren't prepared for ice, snow and rain that fell during the night, Hover said. Emergency dispatchers continued sporadic communication with the boys throughout the night and early morning, including letting them know that their parents were waiting for them at the trailhead. The trail to the top of Three Fingers is about eight miles long. Near the summit, it crosses snow fields and glaciers requiring the use of ice axes, and sometimes ropes and crampons. Lower down, the trail is deeply rutted, preventing rescuers from riding horses to assist, Hover said. Volunteer search-and-rescue teams from Everett, Skagit County, Bellingham, Seattle, King County and the Olympic Peninsula were helping, and officials Wednesday were trying to rally additional help to spell tired teams. On a clear day, peaks around the state can be seen from the Three Fingers lookout. It's reached by climbing two ladders and a steep rock face, said Tom Davenport, an avid hiker who has twice summitted Three Fingers. "It's a difficult and strenuous hike," he said. "I wouldn't want to be up there if it's raining or slick." Lauren Braden, a spokeswoman for the Washington Trails Association, said hikers need to be prepared for rapidly changing weather as autumn approaches. "It's not your typical August hiking right now," Braden said. New snow already is falling. The days are becoming shorter, the nights colder. "All of that merits extra precautions," she said. Hikers should carry emergency gear and be prepared to spend the night in the wilderness, she said. Cell phones don't always get reception and batteries can fade quickly in cold weather. "That's why it's so important to have these other essentials with you," she said. Herald writers Diana Hefley and Katya Yefimova contributed to this report. Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com

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