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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Tuesday, September 18, 2012 INCIDENTS North Cascades NP Three Climbers Rescued From Crevasse Late on the morning of September 9th, park dispatch was notified that there were three injured climbers on Ruth Mountain, which is just outside the park's northwestern boundary. The climbers had fallen into a crevasse in mid-morning; one managed to climb out on his own, reached a location with cell phone reception, and dialed 911. Whatcom County SAR was notified and alerted park dispatch to the situation. Rangers accepted a request from the sheriff's office for an agency assist on the incident. Meanwhile, a ground team of Bellingham Mountain Rescue volunteers started up the trail toward the mountain. Two climbing rangers were transported to the scene in a contracted helicopter from HiLine Helicopters and located the injured climbers. They found that a separate climbing party had already extricated the remaining two critically injured and hypothermic climbers from the crevasse. They were separately short-hauled from their location on the glacier to a lower staging area. Two Airlift Northwest medical helicopters landed at this staging site, received the patients, and flew them to hospitals in Seattle and Bellingham. The third party member was flown by HiLine Helicopters to a roadside staging area and was met there by an ambulance for transport to Bellingham. Bellingham Mountain Rescue volunteers assisted by retrieving gear left behind by the injured party and hiked back out to the trailhead. [Kinsey Shilling, Chief Ranger] Jewel Cave NP Man Breaks Into NPS Apartment A park law enforcement ranger living in an NPS apartment on Forest Service land in the city of Custer was rudely awakened by a loud bang from the apartment next door at 1 a.m. on September 12th. When he investigated, he found a green-haired, barefoot man lying on a bloody mattress in the apartment. When the man saw the ranger, he got up and fled from the apartment. Responding Custer County deputies followed his blood trail (the man had cut his feet when he kicked in the apartment door) to a nearby apartment complex. The man turned himself in at the sheriff's department and confessed to the break-in. Sheriff's department officers and rangers are jointly investigating the incident. [David Yim, Chief Ranger] OTHER NEWS The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS. To see the full text, including images, NPS employees should go to the InsideNPS home page ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index). Non-NPS employees can see most of them on the NPS Digest page ( HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/): Antietam NB - Between last Friday and yesterday, more than 17,000 visitors came to the park to attend events commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, the largest (and bloodiest) single day battle of the Civil War. Castillo de San Marcos NM - Park staff from Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas National Monuments and Canaveral National Seashore recently participated in a unique event that recognized the sacrifice of members of the military and their families. Southeast Region - Congaree National Park hosted a local registered coaches course for Southeast Region interpreters during the last week of August. * * * * The Morning Report is a publication of the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, produced by the Office of Communications with the support of the Office of the Associate Director for Information Resources. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov). --- ### --- |