A Washington state hiker has been rescued after surviving a dramatic, 1,200-foot fall down a ravine on Mount Ellinor over the weekend, officials said.
Search and rescue teams from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island raced to the Olympic National Forest on Saturday night after receiving an emergency call around 6:20 p.m. from a man saying he could not find or contact his hiking partner, the US Navy said in a statement.
“We arrived at the scene and we saw some avalanche tracks, and using our night vision goggles, because it was dark outside, we could see the top of the mountain where there were a bunch of footprints from him and his partner, but we couldn’t see where it ended up the footprints are gone,” Lt. Joey Curtis, who participated in the rescue operation, told news channel KING5.
Images released by Naval Air Station Whidbey Island show a walkway falling down a ravine after an avalanche on Mt. Ellinor in Washington state. NAS Whidbey Island The 30-year-old hiker was rescued Saturday in the Olympic National Forest. NurPhoto via Getty Images
After finding no trace of the 30-year-old hiker who went missing near the nearly 6,000-foot peak, rescue crews began searching for the bottom of a large avalanche about 1,000 feet down the slope from the summit.
During that phase of the search, crews saw flashing lights near a rock field slightly below the avalanche – and more than 1,200 feet below where the hiker first fell.
Naval Air Station crews traveling by helicopter lowered a rescuer to the hiker’s location and, fearing an avalanche or rocks, immediately lifted him to safety.
The pedestrian was injured and had to be transported by a navy helicopter. POOL/AFP via Getty Images
The biggest concern for rescuers is that the hovering helicopter could trigger another avalanche, so speed is of the essence.
The hiker was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle to be treated for a broken arm, symptoms of hypothermia and large scratches.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
