Santa Fe Baldy Ski Accident
January 23, 1988
Trip Leader and Author:
Dennis Brandt
Participants: Dave Barlow, Richard Robinson,
George Rinker, Pat Kennedy, Barry Smith, Al Bouchier, Billy
Campbell, Mary Stinecipher, Jan Studebaker, Elizabeth Kelly, Greg
Brickner, and Dennis Brandt.
In January 1988 Dennis Brandt lead a Los Alamos Mountaineers ski tour up
12,662’- high Santa Fe Baldy via the Winsor Trail. On the return,
Elizabeth Kelly suffered a broken leg about 2/3 of the way down the
mountain. This was a dramatic and dangerous situation that offers
some important lessons for future Mountaineers outings.
The trip got off to an unplanned late start, 9:30, from the Santa Fe
ski basin parking lot, caused by extremely slow bus traffic heading
up to the Santa Fe Ski Basin. The bus company at that time was using
old underpowered buses that could muster 15 miles per hour up the
hill - at best.
In 1988 climbing skins were somewhat of a novelty to many of the
local skiers. Those who had them used them to climb up to Raven’s
ridge and later up Santa Fe Baldy. Others relied on sticky wax. The
wax users were slower, having to take a lower angle of attack on the
mountainside. The first skiers were on top by 12:40 p.m. but
couldn’t tolerate staying for more than a couple of minutes due to
the bitterly cold and icy winds that are typical in January. Slower
skiers tagged the summit over next 30 minutes or so and immediately
departed to begin their descent. The group assembled in the lee of
some rocks before beginning the descent together. The descent was
quite challenging due to the typical hard wind slab conditions near
the summit which later transitioned a treacherous breakable crust
before reaching soft snow. At about 11,650 ft., just above the
transition from breakable crust to powder snow, and 650 vertical ft.
above Puerto Nambe, Elizabeth Kelly fell and broke her fibula at the
ankle joint. She had buried her left ski tip and fell in a twisting
fashion. It was 2:20 p.m.
Around 3:00 Dave Barlow and Barry Smith, our two fastest skiers,
were sent to contact the State Police. The remaining group was still
waiting for stragglers to arrive at the accident scene. Dave made it
to the ski basin parking lot in just over 1 hour, an amazing speed!
Others in the group who left later took nearly three hours to cover
the same distance. Barry stopped along the way to talk to a camper
named Dan Clark, who agreed to bring his tent, a catalytic heater
and some food up to the accident site because it looked likely that
people would be on the mountainside for quite awhile.
Elizabeth was in considerable pain. Knowing that it would be a few
hours at best before she could be rescued, Jan Studebaker gave her a
Tylenol 3 tablet at about 2:30. It took about 30 minutes to take
effect. Richard, Al, Greg, Jan and Dennis worked until 3:30 making
Elizabeth as comfortable as possible in the cold, wind and snow.
From our collection of gear donated by various group members, they
kept her reasonably warm with a down jacket, an insulated sleeping
bag liner, a space blanket and day packs, which were used for ground
insulation. They also had four chemical warming pads and a metal
hand warmer which were put to good use. They did not wish to remove
the boot from the broken leg but were successful in keeping that
foot warm by wrapping a warming pad against the outside of the boot
with an ace bandage. A makeshift splint was prepared with pieces of
wood which were gathered at the site and her feet were elevated.
Elizabeth was in light shock and was having strong shivering spasms
even though she felt warm. Any touch or movement of the broken ankle
resulted in agonizing pain. By 3:30 the pain killers began to take
effect and she was OK as long as the ankle was undisturbed. As her
pain diminished her spirits picked up and she stopped shivering. Dan
Clark arrived with his tent and heater and helped to set them up
before departing. Elizabeth was gently moved into the heated tent
around 3:45. It was looking more and more like a small group of
skiers were going to spend the night with Elizabeth without the
benefit of sleeping bags or sleeping pads in a minimally heated
tent.
When George and Pat arrived at 4:00, having made a slow and careful
descent, a meeting was held to decide who would stay and who would
leave. It was decided that George, Al, Jan, and Dennis would stay
with Elizabeth. The others left at 4:40, getting back to the trail
head around 7:30. George Rinker had training as an army medic, Al
Bouchier had advanced first aid training, Jan Studebaker was
Elizabeth’s boyfriend at the time and Dennis Brandt was the trip
leader.
George moved into the tent with Elizabeth. He was a wonderful help
to her morale. He gently checked the condition of the injury and
decided to remove the uncomfortable wooden splint. His professional
demeanor and good cheer calmed her and put her in fairly good
spirits.
Everyone’s spirits went on a roller-coaster ride when a State Police
helicopter appeared at 4:55 and flew directly toward and over the
group but without any acknowledgement. The helicopter then descended
and hovered for some time at Puerto Nambe but did not land due to
deep snow. In the mean time, Al and Jan raced down the mountain on
their skis in a futile attempt to talk to the pilot. Before they got
there, the helicopter took off, circled the basin a few times, and
left the area. While the pilot was circling Dennis tried to use a
signal mirror that he didn’t know how to operate, and George tried
to light a tree on fire with fuel for the heater. These antics would
have been comical were it not for the seriousness of the situation.
No one was confident that the pilot had even seen the group. In any
event it was gone. The knowledge that the four skiers would probably
have to spend the night without sleeping bags had a depressing
effect on everyone – especially Elizabeth.
As it turned out, the pilot had dropped off a search and rescue
volunteer named Tom Donihi, who proceeded up the mountain to render
aid. Tom, who had a radio and a first aid kit, but no rescue
equipment - received a radio message from the pilot that the
helicopter had been ordered back to base because it wasn’t allowed
to operate at night. The pilot then said that he would return very
briefly, just before absolute darkness, to pick up Elizabeth. He
allowed five minutes to get her to Puerto Nambe for the pickup, a
task that would normally have taken 30 minutes.
George gave Elizabeth another Tylenol 3 to prepare her for a bumpy
ride to the rescue site. Al and Jan quickly decided that the space
blanket that Elizabeth was laying on could serve as a makeshift sled
using a pull-harness that was patched together from pieces of nylon
webbing, cord, and rope that were scrounged from the packs.
Meanwhile Donihi put a cardboard splint on her lower leg. The
helicopter returned to hover and wait for the patient to be
delivered to Puerto Nambe. She was lifted onto the space
blanket/sled, instructed that she had to help brake and steer while
holding her leg in the air, and was promptly whisked down the
mountain at astonishing speed with Al pulling. Dennis, unencumbered
by a sled had difficulty keeping up. Tom followed at a much slower
speed. Al, a very skilled skier, never fell. Elizabeth helped brake
the speed with her hands and arms as she was told to do. Her leg, of
course was constantly being painfully bounced around while she held
it in the air.
A minute or two later, when slope began to level off, Al turned over
the towing duty to Dennis while he skied ahead to let the State
Police pilot know that they were on the way. On this flatter terrain
the space blanket soon tore apart. Dennis and Elizabeth chose to
abandon her pack and the space blanket at this point and Dennis
tried to use the harness to drag her on her back through the snow
while she pushed with her arms and one good leg. Then the harness
broke.
Al returned after contacting the pilot. It was fully dark when
Dennis and Al began skiing over rolling terrain toward the hovering
helicopter with Elizabeth between them, clinging to their shoulders
and hobbling along. Mainly she used her arms because the snow was
too deep for her to put any real weight on her good foot. On the
up-hill sections this mode of transport didn’t work so Dennis and Al
made her crawl and drag herself in spite of her piteous cries and
incredulity that they would make a woman with a broken leg do such a
thing.
Donihi caught up with the threesome as they neared the helicopter
which was hovering a few feet above the snow. The four of them
entered the prop wash, which was a surreal storm of noise, light,
and blasts of snow and ice crystals. The pilot lowered the
helicopter to the snow surface to stabilize it as Elizabeth lunged
for the door and was pushed inside by her comrades. Tom followed her
in, waived off his skis and poles and shut the door. The helicopter
took off. It was 5:45.
Fifteen minutes later, Elizabeth landed at St Vincent hospital where
the emergency room doctor called for x-rays which showed that the
fibula had broken but that the bone pieces were all perfectly
aligned and swelling was minimal. She was given a temporary cast and
sent home.
George, Al, Jan, and Dennis gathered up the gear that was left and
skied out, arriving at the ski basin parking lot at 9:00 p.m.
Bad karma still plagued the party. The car that Greg Brickner loaned
to Pat Kennedy to drive to the hospital suffered a flat tire – and a
dead battery, en route to the hospital. Pat changed the tire and
someone jump started the car. Amazingly Jan’s car also had a flat
tire after leaving the hospital. More amazingly, Pat got to change
Jan’s tire too. (Back in those days, women of the Los Alamos
Mountaineers weren’t coddled). When Elizabeth got home she
discovered that she had no house key, because it was still in her
pack in another car. Barry Smith, being of slim build got to crawl
through her doggie door to the greetings of Elizabeth’s protective
Doberman, which she inexplicably named “Puppy”. Fortunately Barry
was not dismembered.
Lessons Learned:
Were it not for Dan Clark’s donated tent and heater, the accident
site would have been a great deal more uncomfortable. A very light
tent is a good thing to have for remote trips like this.
Chemical heat packets were great for keeping Elizabeth comfortable
and out of shock. Carrying several of these on a winter outing is a
very good idea.
A reasonably large number of experienced outdoorsmen with a wide
range of expertise and plenty of group equipment proved to be very
valuable. There was a spectrum of skills including speed, strength,
first aid knowledge, search and rescue experience, good
companionship and collective outdoor wisdom which proved to be
essential to the successful outcome of this accident.
This trip got off to a late start, a factor that ultimately
endangered the group. It is important to be willing to re-evaluate
the trip objectives if there isn’t a sufficient safety margin in the
remaining time.
In 1988 the group had to rely on a swift courier to initiate the
rescue. These days cell phones can be a terrific aid in obtaining a
timely rescue in an outdoor accident, if you are lucky enough to be
in a location with cell coverage. Unfortunately there still isn’t
cell coverage where this accident took place.
