Glacier National Park |
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An accounting of my recent conductMay 27, 2011
Forty-eight hours ago, I exited Glacier National Park. After 55 days of travel in four trips of at least seven days each, I failed the most important part of the task. With just the one exception, all of the trips were a success with the first three leading up to the final trip, which was to enter the winter inaccessible area of Hole-in-the-Wall. All were ongoing strength and endurance building, including the final trip. All were also scouting trips into the formidable winter landscape of Glacier National Park. My equipment and decades of experience were up to the task, including the final trip. Had that not been the case I may have died on the approach to Hole-in-the-Wall. On May 10, as I set off on the final trip, my wife and I agreed that if I were not back in 16 days she would call for help. I did that to placate her fears. I did not really believe I would need more than 11 days for the full circuit, with 14 as an additional measure, plus two more just in case the conditions in the high country deteriorated badly enough to bring me to a halt. This last item is exactly what happened, repeatedly. I had two two-day camps on the approach to Hole-in-the-Wall, coupled with two more two-day camps beyond, all of which came to four days of down time. Otherwise, I would have finished the trip in 15 days. On May 25 2011, I was one mile from removing my crampons or snowshoes for the final time and walking out of the park on the snowless trail of Kintla Lake Canyon. Yet I had failed to be accountable to my wife, family and society. Had it been otherwise I would have been carrying a two-way communication device as a part of my standard backcountry gear. If my wife had been in communication with me the call to the Park Service would not have been made. That now being the case the park personnel’s near instant reaction was of an organization with already too many trips of this type in their incident report folder, with sometimes devastating results. Five hours later, those persons and I were connected and preparing to exit Glacier National Park in the helicopter they came in with. Since I will not be ending the backcountry trips, hereafter I will have a two-way communication device on my person. In the future, if a rescue is necessary, which I will continue to go to extreme lengths to assure will not; the emergency will be real, not another irresponsible accounting on my part. I want to thank the Park Service’s personnel for their swift and extremely professional conduct during this entire incident. From start to finish, they treated my wife and me with the utmost care and respect and I am grateful for all their assistance and the risks they took—I have experience with helicopters in Vietnam and I know how dangerous this work is, especially in the Montana mountains and weather. You guys are the absolute best. ************** There were complaints concerning the government paying for my "rescue". On August 26, 2011, I donated $3,670 to the helicopter rescue fund in Glacier National Park, which was the total cost for the extraction on May 25, 2011.
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