A special, high-altitude helicopter on contract to the National Park Service was busy Monday night playing taxi and ambulance for ill, foreign climbers on 20,320-foot Mount McKinley, according to the National Park Service.
Park service spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin reported pilot Andy Hermansky made three separate pick-ups between 18,700 feet and 19,300 feet. That is just a few hundred feet below the rated ceiling for the Eurocopter AS350 B3 AStar flown by Hermansky. The risky, high-altitude flights were required to rescue clients suffering from life-threatening altitude sickness, according to the park service.
The first call went out to Hermansky after mountaineering ranger Tucker Chenoweth and four volunteers patrolling McKinley's West Buttress encountered a staggering Serbian at about 7:40 p.m. Monday. The ranger patrol was descending from the summit when it spotted 27-year-old Zeljko Dulic, who was experiencing breathing problems. While with the ranger team, McLaughlin reported, Dulic "collapsed due to altitude-related illness." Chenoweth decided the patrol would try to walk Dulic down the mountain to high camp at 17,200 feet, but the group didn't get far before the ranger concluded the Serbian was simply too ill to descend safely.
"At the time, the park's AStar B3 helicopter was at the Kahiltna (glacier) base camp having just completed flights related to a resource management project," McLaughlin reported. After Chenoweth radioed in his problem, Hermansky did a reconnaissance flight to make sure the air was dense enough and the winds calm enough over the mountain to permit operations at 19,000 feet. Once he concluded he could fly to Chenoweth's location, Dulic was put into what rangers call a "screamer suit" -- a body suit that can be clipped to a hook on the end of a rope beneath the helicopter -- and Hermansky flew in to make a pick up.
Chenowith clipped the Serbian to the rope below the helo, and Hermansky lifted the climber off the mountain. Dulic was quickly delivered to the McKinley medical camp at 14,200 feet.
As this was going on, McLaughlin said, "22-year-old Sho Tamagawa of Japan approached the NPS patrol and similarly collapsed due to altitude sickness." Altitude sickness, or what is often called "Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS)" can happen anywhere above 10,000 feet. Severe altitude sickness can lead to a deadly build up of fluid in the lungs called high-altitude pulmonary edema or HAPE.
Tamagawa, like Dulic, was by himself and already debilitated when rangers found him. Chenoweth concluded the ranger patrol couldn't walk him down the mountain either. So Hermansky was called again. He flew back up to 19,300. Sho was put in the screamer suit, and the ill climber was this time short-hauled to the Kahiltna base camp at 7,200 feet.
Once he was gone, Chenoweth's patrol again started down the mountain. They didn't get far, however, before encountering 20-year-old Masaaki Kobayasi from Japan. He was described as a "non-ambulatory, semi-conscious climber" in the snow at 18,700 feet. Kobayasi, according to McLaughlin, had started up the mountain with Tamagawa, but the two had somehow become separated above high camp.
"After a rapid medical assessment, it was again determined that a helicopter rescue was necessary," McLaughlin reported. Hermansky flew back up to 18,700-feet about 10:40 p.m., hooked onto Tamagawa, short-hauled him to the 14,200-foot camp in a screamer suit, landed, loaded the sick climber into the helicopter, and then flew to base camp.
A LifeMed air ambulance was waiting there. The two Japanese were flown to a local hospital for treatment. Dulic refused treatment and was released. A prompt return to lower elevation often eliminates many of the symptoms of altitude sickness. McLaughlin said Chenoweth's crew finally reached high camp late Monday evening and spent the night there.
To date -- midway through the climbing season -- 556 climbers have tried for the summit of McKinley, and 251 have made it, according to the Park Service. Four unfortunately have died in falls on the descent. One of the dead was a climbing guide, and two of the dead were clients of guide services that until this year enjoyed stellar reputations for mountain safety.
Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com