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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Wednesday, July 8, 2015 INCIDENTS Grand Teton NP Climber Seriously Injured In Rockfall A large boulder struck and seriously injured a climber during a rockfall yesterday morning. M.P., 27, of Bethesda, Maryland, was ascending the Middle Teton near its black dike feature when a boulder—described by his wife, S.P., as “the size of five to six microwave ovens”—suddenly rolled down slope toward M.P. and hit his left arm, causing severe injuries. A former park employee, who happened to be nearby, reported hearing the rockfall and a subsequent call for help at approximately 8:30 a.m. He immediately made his way to the rockfall site and began to help S.P. stabilize her husband's injured arm. He placed an emergency call to Teton Interagency Dispatch Center at 9:00 a.m. that activated a rescue response by park rangers with aerial support from a Teton Interagency contract helicopter. At the request of Grand Teton's rescue coordinator, this first responder moved M.P. roughly 200 feet away from the accident site because of concern for additional rockfall activity. S.P. reported that she was belaying her husband up the initial pitch of the Black Dike route on the Middle Teton and that he was approximately 30 to 35 meters above her when the boulder came crashing down the slope without warning. Fortunately, Stephanie was not hit by any of the debris. Although severely injured, Michael used his non-injured arm to create an anchor and his wife was able to lower him by rope to her location. Three park rangers were flown to a provisional helispot near the Cave Couloir at the base of the Middle Teton (approximately 600 linear feet and 300 vertical feet from M.P.) at 10:00 a.m. They provided emergency medical care, stabilized M.P.'s injured arm and helped him traverse the distance to the waiting helicopter. M.P., accompanied by one attending ranger, was flown to the Jenny Lake Rescue Cache at Lupine Meadows, where he was then transferred to a park ambulance and transported to St. John's Medical Center. Once the helicopter cleared the mountain helispot, the other two rangers ascended from the accident site to the Lower Saddle of the Grand Teton to begin a scheduled backcountry patrol. The cause of the sudden rockfall is undetermined. However, recent thunderstorms and a sequence of mountain showers may have loosened the boulder and nearby soils. It appears that M.P. was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when this natural event took place. [Jackie Skaggs, Public Affairs Officer] Badlands NP Rangers Make Felony Arrest Rangers Casey Osback and Tyson Nehring responded to a report of a man being held at gunpoint by a local rancher near Interior, South Dakota. The rancher told the rangers that she'd intercepted the man as he was attempting to steal one of their vehicles. The rangers found the man walking on a residential street and took him into custody without incident. Custody of the man, who also had two warrants out against him, was transferred to a deputy with the Jackson County Sheriff's Office. [Casey J. Osback, 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): Department of the Interior - The World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated a group of five Spanish colonial missions in the San Antonio area - including most of San Antonio Missions National Historical Park and the Alamo - as a World Heritage Site. Fort Smith NHS - Participants in the 2015 Remember the Removal bike ride stopped by Fort Smith National Historic Site's Trail of Tears Overlook for a special ceremony honoring the trail's water route. Martin Luther King Jr. NHS - On June 23rd, rangers at Martin Luther King, Jr., NHS welcomed the Philadelphia Little League team, The Anderson Monarchs, who visited the park as part of a 23-day tour of Civil Rights Movement landmarks. Office of Communications - A ceremony was held last week in China establishing a sister park relationship between Shenandoah National Park in the United States and Baihuashan National Nature Reserve in China. Office of Communications - The Department of the Interior recently honored four government and tribal employees with annual Secretary of the Interior Historic Preservation Awards. 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). --- ### --- |