After a two-person American expedition endured an exhausting summit day, one member suffered second degree frostbite on both hands. The team struggled to descend to the 14,200-foot camp, at which point one group of concerned climbers went out of their way to assist them.
Again, while descending from a summit bid, a five-person Belgian team became overwhelmingly burdened with a sick climber who was repeatedly falling. Luckily, the same team of concerned climbers attempting an evening summit intercepted the Belgian team just as a sick member tumbled head first down a slope at 18,200-feet. The summit-bound climbers assisted the Belgians back down to high camp.
Who where these heroic climbers? The National Park Service and its partner Pigeon Mountain Industries (PMI) would like to announce Dave Hahn, Dave Hanning, Adam Clark and Matt Helliker as the DENALI PRO 2001 Award recipients in recognition of their self-initiated rescue efforts that went above the call of duty.
Dave Hahn was leading the final group of Rainier Mountaineering Incorporated (RMI) clients of the season with assistant guides Adam Clark, Dave Hanning, and apprentice guide Matt Helliker. At the time of the aforementioned incidents, the second and third weeks of July, there were only five expeditions on the mountain. The Park Service ranger camp had been dismantled for the season, and Hahn was the most experienced person on Denali.
Upon returning to the 14,200-foot camp on July 10 after making a carry with his group to the 16,200-foot level, Hahn noticed another climbing team’s disheveled tent. As he expected those climbers to have descended that day, he checked up on the inhabitants’ condition. One member requested that Hahn have a look at his partner’s hands, which were seriously frostbitten up to the second knuckle. Dave used his cell phone to report the climber’s condition to the Talkeetna Ranger Station. After conferring with Ranger Roger Robinson, Hahn volunteered to assist this injured party down to a lower elevation in order to help prevent additional injury to the patient’s hands.
On the morning of July 11, assistant guides Dave Hanning and Adam Clark roped up with the team of two and escorted them down to the 11,200-foot level where they excavated the climbers’ cache. The four then continued down to the 9,800-foot level. As it had been snowing all day, the two guides dug out a camp for the team and ensured that they were well established before they post-holed their way back up to the 14,200-foot camp where they reunited with their group at 6:00 that evening. Of note, this outstanding effort to aid a fellow climber took place on Adam’s birthday.
Relatively undistracted from these events, the RMI expedition continued to high camp, and ultimately all but one client made the summit on July 15. That evening after returning from the summit and eating dinner, Hahn and apprentice guide Matt Helliker, who had remained behind at high camp with the sick client, headed back for the summit. In addition to allowing Helliker an opportunity to summit, Hahn wanted to determine the status of a struggling Belgian team that the RMI group had passed on the descent earlier that day. Leaving high camp at 11:30 that night, Hahn and Helliker arrived at Denali Pass in less than an hour. Helliker was just in time to witness one of the Belgians stumble and fall a full rope length, until the third person on the rope team luckily arrested the fall. Hahn and Helliker assisted the team back up to a flat spot where they provided food and water to the fallen climber who was weakened with altitude illness. The guides then set up to short rope that person down to the 17,200-foot camp.
Without the assistance of this team of guides, two expeditions may have ended on a less-than-happy note. Such selfless efforts to assist fellow climbers is exactly what the “Denali Pro Award” was established to recognize. Over the course of the 2001 season, 75 Denali Pro Pins were given out to commend various good deeds done by climbers on Denali - deeds ranging from assisting the NPS with its Clean Mountain Can program (see story p.4); outstanding efforts in keeping the mountain clean; and assistance during search and rescue incidents.
Continued thanks to climbing equipment manufacturer Pigeon Mountain Industries (PMI)- the Denali Pro Award program would not be possible without their generous support
