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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Thursday, July 17, 2014 INCIDENTS Grand Teton NP One Climber Killed, Another Injured In Separate Incidents A climbing accident on the 13,770-foot Grand Teton resulted in the death of one member of a guided climbing party on Monday, July 14th. M.B., 43, of Edmond, Oklahoma, was ascending to the Upper Saddle of the Grand Teton (elevation 13,160 feet) with her climbing partner and a guide from Jackson Hole Mountain Guides when she fell while negotiating a short section above the Exum Gully around 8:30 a.m. Rangers were notified of the accident at 8:40 a.m. and a rescue response was quickly begun. Two rangers on routine patrol on the Lower Saddle of the Grand Teton (11,600 feet) climbed to the accident site to begin emergency medical care and prepare the injured climber for a helicopter evacuation. M.B. was unresponsive when park rangers arrived on scene and could not be revived. She was pronounced dead in consultation with the park's medical director and rangers on scene. Other Jackson Hole Mountain Guides staff responded to the area and escorted M.B.'s climbing partner to the Corbet High Camp near the Lower Saddle, and later escorted her to Lupine Meadows trailhead on the valley floor. The circumstances leading to this climbing accident are under investigation by Grand Teton National Park rangers and no further details are available at this time. Rangers began to coordinate a body recovery on the Grand Teton when Teton Interagency Dispatch Center received a second emergency call at approximately 11 a.m. from a hiking party near Paintbrush Divide. S.P. of Santa Fe, New Mexico fell while descending Paintbrush Divide into Paintbrush Canyon and sustained multiple injuries. Although S.P. was using an ice axe, he slid down a steep snow-covered slope, could not self-arrest, and fell an additional 150 feet through steep loose rock. S.P.'s hiking partner called 911 to report the accident. Another party ascending from Paintbrush Canyon witnessed the event and also called 911. That party then hiked to S.P. to provide first aid until rescuers arrived. A Teton Interagency contract helicopter readied to assist with the rescue operations on the Grand Teton was diverted to transport rescuers to Paintbrush Divide. Two rangers were short-hauled to the Divide from the Lupine Meadows Rescue Cache, and they descended snow and rock to reach S.P. at 11:45 a.m. A rescue litter was also flown to the scene. S.P. was provided emergency medical care and evacuated from Paintbrush Divide via short-haul with a ranger attending. Upon arriving at Lupine Meadows Rescue Cache, S.P. was treated by the park's medical director before being transported at approximately 1:15 p.m. via an Air Idaho life-flight helicopter to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho for further medical care. S.P. and his partner were on the final day of a six day Teton Crest Trail backpacking trip. Both rescue operations were affected by the forecast and subsequent arrival of severe thunderstorms that pummeled the Teton Range and Jackson Hole valley with lightning strikes and several waves of rain, hail and high winds. [Jackie Skaggs, Public Affairs Officer] Hot Springs NP Motorcyclist Pleads Guilty To Reckless Operation In Park Off-duty ranger Stephen Dale was reviewing YouTube videos in his spare time earlier this year when he came across a disturbing video depicting a reckless incident video that had positively taken place inside of Hot Springs National Park. The video, taken from a helmet-mounted camera, captured a man operating a Yamaha WR-250 motorcycle at very high rates of speed, passing other motorists in no passing zones, driving on sidewalks, and shouting profanities at park visitors. A search of other online videos posted by this user provided additional evidence of other careless incidents in the park by this and other fellow motorcycle riders. The video provided Hot Springs rangers with a clear picture of the motorcycle involved and the operator himself as well as descriptions of his companions, including a placard with the number “383” mounted on the handlebar. Rangers then began to watch closely for this motorcycle. On May 10th, operations supervisor Jeff Johnson was stopped in traffic on Central Avenue when he saw a motorcycle matching the exact description pass by him. He stopped the bike and questioned the operator, who told Johnson that he couldn't prove that the man in the videos was him, that the videos were copyrighted, and that they should not have been viewed by law enforcement. Following a talk with the U.S. attorney and a review of the overwhelming evidence on the videos, including a running narrative in which he specifically described where he was located while riding the bike, he decided to plead guilty to CFR violations. On July 14th, he did so in federal court and was sentenced to a $1,000 fine, placed on a year's federal probation, and ordered to stay out of Hot Springs National Park for a period of one year. INCLUDEPICTURE "https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gif" \* MERGEFORMATINET [John Hughes, Chief Ranger] Capitol Reef NP Man Killed, Second Seriously Injured In Accident On July 12th, rangers responded to a night-time accident involving a motorcycle and a pedestrian. A 36 year old man from Bountiful, Utah, was photographing the moon from various locations along Utah Highway 24 and was walking in the roadway when he was struck by a motorcyclist at highway speed. The Bountiful man died from his injuries and the motorcycle's operator, a 26-year-old man from Caineville, Utah, sustained critical injuries. He was flown to a hospital in Provo, Utah, by air ambulance. The Utah Highway Patrol is leading the investigation. [Scott Brown, Chief Ranger] OTHER NEWS The following stories are among those in today's webpage editions of InsideNPS (available to NPS employees only) and the Morning Report (available to all readers): Gateway NRA - On June 29th, more than 5,000 people attended the kickoff of the “Rockaway!” arts festival at Fort Tilden. The public arts festival was conceived to celebrate the reopening of historic Fort Tilden and the recovery of the neighboring Rockaway Peninsula communities following Hurricane Sandy. Canaveral NS - This July and August, archaeologists will search park waters for a fleet of 16th century French ships that were lost in a hurricane, resulting in the establishment of a Spanish colony in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565. Rocky Mountain NP - A program on wildland fire, now in its second year, links students from an alternative residential high school with Alpine Hotshots and park ecologists. Sitka NHP - Since May, new park employees at Sitka National Historical Park are paired with experienced staff mentors as part of the “Safety Buddies” program. Park Planning, Facilities and Lands - Tanya Wilkinson has joined the Construction Program Management Division in the Washington Office as a management analyst. To see the full text of these stories, readers should go to one or the other of the following sites: NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index Non-NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/" http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/ The Morning Report is 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@contractor.nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov). --- ### --- |