semite National Park (CA)
Rescue Of Climber After 200 Foot Fall
At quarter of ten on the evening of Thursday, September 18th, Valley District rangers received a report of an injured climber high in North Dome Gully. The climber had taken a 200 foot tumbling fall while carrying a 50-pound haul bag as he was traversing unroped from the top of Washington Column to the start of the North Dome Gully descent route. An initial response team was immediately dispatched, and they were followed with technical evacuation and medical teams. The rescuers ascended North Dome Gully on foot. The first team reached the patient, 35-year-old Sean Gindt of Yosemite, at 12:25 a.m. the next morning. The evac and medical teams arrived on scene at about 1:15 a.m. Gindt was stabilized in a vacuum body splint and litter and given ALS care through the night. The litter was raised approximately 20 feet to a large ledge, where Gindt and medics waited until morning. At approximately 7:50 a.m., Yosemite's contract helicopter shorthauled Gindt to the Ahwahnee Meadow. There he was transferred to a waiting medical helicopter and flown to Doctors Medical Center in Modesto. Miraculously, Gindt walked out of the hospital with only bruises and abrasions.
[Submitted by Jack Hoeflich, Park Ranger]
NPS Morning Report Oct. 1, 2003
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