Posted on 03/09/2005 9:56:29 PM PST by SmithL
TOWNSEND - Four college freshmen on a spring-break excursion to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park said Wednesday that they felt lucky to be alive after they were snowed in at a shelter on the Appalachian Trail.
Matthew Schultz, 19; Ivan Saldarriaga, who turns 19 today; Ryne McCall, 19; and Bryan Hendrick, 19, were rescued by park rangers and a National Guard helicopter after spending two wet, freezing nights huddled in the Derrick Knob shelter.
Schultz was airlifted to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville as a precautionary measure after falling victim to hypothermia. His three companions walked off the trail a few hours later with words of warning for anyone planning a trip into the mountains.
"We weren't prepared," Hendrick said. "We may have done a few things right, but we did a lot of things wrong. We were lucky."
The four students, three from North Carolina State University and one from the University of Virginia, set out Sunday from Fontana Dam to hike the 71 miles of the Appalachian Trail that wind through the park.
By Monday evening, however, they found themselves beset by icy rain and opted to stay at the three-walled shelter after becoming soaked.
"We had a lot of cotton gear," said McCall. "Cotton kills on the trail, they say, but we didn't know that We really didn't do our homework, we didn't find out about the weather. We weren't prepared."
Temperatures plummeted Monday night and the rain changed to snow that blew into the shelter, at an elevation of 4,880 feet. By the next morning, more than 8 inches of snow had fallen and the group realized they didn't have much of a chance of walking out unassisted.
About 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, their luck changed with the arrival of another group of spring-break hikers from Messiah College in Grantham, Pa. Some of the newcomers were trained in wilderness first aid and had even packed a "hypothermia kit" containing a plastic tarpaulin, blanket and sugary foods.
The stranded backpackers were trying to dry their clothes over a small fire in the shelter as the snow kept piling up. The Messiah College students were shocked to see a pair of jeans that had been hung up to dry but had instead frozen solid.
"When we got there, they weren't doing too hot," said Messiah College student Jordan Windholz, who had completed a first aid course only a couple of weeks before the trip.
It soon became obvious that Schultz was suffering from hypothermia, Windholz said. He was disoriented, vomiting and shaking uncontrollably. Windholz's group "burrito wrapped" the freezing teen by layering a plastic tarp, blankets and his sleeping bag around him to keep him warm.
The group's two strongest hikers, Ryan Wilson and Craig Dalen, then spent several hours making their way down the mountain to seek help while the rest of their group stayed with the stranded hikers.
Rangers from the National Park Service first became aware of the hikers' plight when Wilson and Dalen reached Elkmont about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and reported the situation.
NPS spokesman Bob Miller said the decision was made to wait until morning before attempting a rescue because of safety concerns. The first rescue party started up the 8.3-mile trek on all-terrain vehicles from a trailhead near the Tremont Institute about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Ranger Chuck Hester said he and two other rescuers had to hike the last half of the trail through knee-deep snowdrifts while carrying packs that weighed up to 60 pounds before arriving at the shelter just before noon.
"We were prepared to stay a couple of nights, if needed," Hester said.
Schultz's condition had improved, but the rangers determined he wasn't able to make it back down the trail on foot, so a Black Hawk helicopter from the 146th Medical Support Unit of the Army National Guard in Smyrna, Ga., flew to the scene.
The chopper's crew lowered a medic to the ground with a winch and then lifted the young man to safety, Miller said.
Schultz was in stable condition Wednesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Miller said the incident stressed the importance of careful planning. "Jeans or cotton are almost always a bad idea," he said. "They don't have insulating capacity once they're wet."
Miller said the group wouldn't be charged for the cost of their rescue and pointed out that rangers conduct between 50 and 70 similar efforts a year. "That is really a minuscule number compared to the number of people who come to the park," he said.
Ranger Kent Looney praised the actions of the group from Messiah College.
"In my mind, they did an excellent job of recognizing and treating a classic case of hypothermia," he said. "That quite possibly saved this young person's (Schultz's) life."
Schultz's three friends said they planned to head back home to warm beds and hot showers Wednesday night. They also indicated they weren't sure how they planned to spend the rest of their spring break.
"A lot of our friends went to Florida, so we were feeling a little jealous a couple of nights ago," Hendrick joked.
Idiots! My ten-year-old knows better.
National Guard? Making a rescue? Why, according to the mainstream media, they're just a place where lazy, privileged people avoid going to war.
Sounds like I go out better prepared for an afternoon hike than these geniuses did for a week long hike.
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