FALL ON SNOW, PARTY SEPARATED, INEXPERIENCE, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT—INCLUDING NO HARD HAT Wyoming, Tetons On June 28, 1987, after reaching the sum m it o f Buck M ountain via the East Ridge betw een 0900 and 1030, Benjam in Johnson (20), D avid W echner (27), Robin M acal (21), and D aniel Feikin (21) started to descend. W echner and M acal left the sum m it about 1100 and reached Tim berline Lake about 1200. Johnson and Feikin follow ed a short tim e later, but strayed too far south. Feikin becam e stranded on a small ledge on the South Ridge. Johnson continued to clim b dow n. A bout 1515 Johnson reached the snow at the base o f the cliff. He slipped on the snow and w as unable to self-arrest. A bout 30 m eters below, he slid off the snow into a 50-m eter band o f broken rocks w here he sustained severe lacerations o f the head and back. In the evening, he continued his way dow n to the next snow slope, w hich eventually he slid down. His slide ended in a m eltw ater pool near Tim berline Lake. He craw led out o f that pool, but fell into another pool ten m eters away. He co uldn’t get out o f that pool and died of hypotherm ia. W echner notified Rangers at 2115 that one m em ber o f their party w as stranded and one w as m issing. Rangers H arrington and Larson reached Feikin at 0230 and helped him down to Tim berline Lake. Johnson w as located during a helicopter search at 0636. (Source: Dan Burgette, Ranger, G rand Teton National Park)
Analysis Johnson did not have a clim bing helmet. A helm et quite probably w ould have prevented or at least m itigated the head injury that Johnson sustained when he fell. The head injury that Johnson sustained certainly had inhibited his ability to think clearly. The party did not have ropes w ith them . Safe rope technique could have stopped a fall on rock or snow. Clim bing technical terrain w ith inexperienced people w ithout a rope is an unsafe practice. Particularly w hen Johnson and Feikin got off route, they needed a rope to descend safely. Jo h n son’s m orning training from W echner in ice ax self-arrest technique w as apparently his first experience w ith an ice ax. Case histories have clearly show n
that such a brief training session is not enough to enable clim bers to m aster the critical self-arrest technique. W hen Johnson slipped on the steep snow field at the base o f the south face, he w as unable to properly use his ice ax to stop or slow his fall. D ue to his inability to self-arrest, Johnson slid dow n the snow field and struck the rockband w here he sustained his injuries. Jo hnson’s inexperience prevented him from finding the easiest route dow n. None o f the m em bers o f the party had apparently taken the tim e to learn and fam iliarize them selves w ith the descent route. They assum ed that it was self-evident. Inexperience is also reflected in Johnson’s decision to continue his descent of dangerous technical terrain on the east face. Feikin used good judgm ent w hen he finally decided to stay put, recognizing that he w as on dangerous ground w ithout the necessary experience and equipm ent to descend safely. The group did not stay together on the clim b. On the ascent, the party w as spread out on the east ridge. Then, the tw o least experienced m em bers o f the party w ere left alone on the sum m it. All w ere unsure o f the w ay down. Macal and W echner descended all the w ay to T im berline Lake w ithout w aiting for Johnson and Feikin. M acal stayed at Tim berline Lake for at least two hours and W echner stayed there for at least six hours w atching Feikin. They made no attem pt to reclim b all or a portion o f the route to help the other two. They did not try to get closer to the bottom of the east face, w here they could have seen or heard the other tw o better. If either had w alked around the lake to get closer to the calls they co u ldn’t understand, they w ould have been able to see and hear Johnson. W here Johnson ultim ately fell on the snow field w as only about 300 linear m eters above the lake and less than 160 veritcal m eters up. (Source: R angers, G rand Teton N ational Park)