Posted on 02/17/2010 11:35:37 AM PST by Star Traveler
NewsCore February 17, 2010 12:19PM
- Hiker dead after rescue efforts delayed
- Believed to be alive after initial fall
- Fell 457 metres into volcano's crater
A MAN who fell into the crater of north-west America's Mount St Helens volcano died after rescuers were forced to abandon their bid to save him overnight, it emerged today.
The 53-year-old's body was recovered by a US Navy helicopter after rescue attempts began again this morning.
He was named as Joseph Bohlig, KPTV reported.
He toppled into the crater - falling up to 1500 ft (457m) over rocks and ice then landing on a 70-degree snowy slope near the bottom - after a ledge he stood on near the rim collapsed on Monday.
He was believed to be alive when he landed, although his condition was not known, with rescuers saying they could hear him blowing an emergency whistle.
Attempts to reach him by helicopter on Monday afternoon and evening were called off due to unsafe winds and the approach of darkness, forcing Bohlig to spend the night in the crater.
A medic was airlifted to the crater floor but was unable to climb to Bohlig and had to be flown out again.
Lt. Brooks Crawford of the US Coast Guard - one of two pilots that tried to rescue Bohlig on Monday - told KPTV the victim was buried in snow.
"We were 300 feet (91m) above him," Crawford said. "(The other pilot and the rescue swimmer) saw his head, arms and legs and saw no movement whatsoever. No signaling, nothing to indicate that he was in good shape."
Bohlig had climbed Mount St Helens 68 times, according to the Skamania County sheriff's office. Officials believe he may have been posing for a photo to be taken by his partner when the ledge gave way.
Mount St Helens - famous for a deadly explosion in 1980 which killed 57 people - is an active volcano in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest of Oregon, in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire geological region.
Thousands of people climb to the crater's rim each year, but permits are required to go above 4800 feet (1463m).
A warning on the US Forest Service Web site said the crater rim is "unstable and can be hazardous at any time".
Well played, Sir.
It depends. Was the hiker a virgin?
Note the yellow dot in Oklahoma. I believe that is ashfall from the "initial punch" in the sky when the eruption first started and it made it all the way over to around Tulsa, Oklahoma (which is where I'm at now).
That initial punch would have been the most violent, and then after that initial punch, it would have roared on for the rest of the day, at a high volume, but never reaching Oklahoma again...
Hmmmmm....We climbed to the top of the rim in about 1990/91 during early summer...sat near the rim eating lunch....climbing in winter...I don’t think is such a great idea....didn’t know you had to have a permit now.
He should have thrown some Orange Crush over the ledge first.
Actually, I always heard that one had to have a permit to climb on the mountain, afterwards... don’t know for sure, though...
I don’t know, but there’s that saying that comes to mind... about climbers...
“There are old climbers and there are bold climbers, but there are no old, bold climbers”...
And so, there have been many people lost in that past-time... of mountain climbing. I remember one time there was a warm summer in Oregon and the snow pack had melted back more than it had in many years... and they found the body of a climber that had been lost about 20 or 30 years prior — his body exposed for the first time as the snows melted away from it, that summer. I think it was somewhere around the Three Sisters area or Three Fingered Jack, but I can’t remember exactly.
I rremember reading about a similar situation in Europe when melting snow revealed the dead bodies of people lost decades before. Literally frozen in time, with what was state of the art equipment at the time.
That guy looks like Abe Vigoda.
I think they’ve also found a body (or maybe more) from ancient times, too (in the Alps)... also showing what they had back then. This was like maybe, “cave-men days” or something like that... :-)
WOW
“Hiker Joseph Bohlig dies after falling into volcano”
That’ll do it. Hikers should take note: avoid falling into volcanoes.
It wasn't like falling into Kilauea (in Hawaii). There's not a pool of lava down there... LOL...
He survived the fall. What he didn't survive was exposure to the cold, overnight.
This is a violent eruption that went on for about nine hours straight without any let-up...
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