NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
INCIDENTS
Rocky Mountain NP
Park's SAR Team Makes Two Same-Day Rescues
Members of the park's search and rescue team responded to two separate falling incidents just hours apart on Sunday, June 28th.
At 9:30 a.m., rangers were notified by cell phone that a 48-year-old man had taken a 50-foot fall while backcountry skiing on Sundance Mountain and had suffered numerous injuries. SAR personnel reached him at 11:45 a.m. They performed a technical evacuation, lowering him through snow, rocks and dense brush and eventually reaching Old Fall River Road at 7:30 p.m. He was taken by ambulance to Estes Park Medical Center. Twenty people were involved in this rescue. Park search and rescue team members were assisted by two members of Douglas County Search and Rescue.
At noon, rangers were notified via another cell phone call that a 24-year-old man had taken a 150-foot tumbling fall down The Homestretch on the Keyhole Route on Longs Peak. Rangers were able to speak with him; he told them that he'd suffered injuries but would attempt to continue down on his own. Rangers left the Longs Peak Trailhead with the intent to assist him, but their efforts were hampered by severe weather and lightning. Rangers reached him at 8:30 p.m. at the Keyhole. They assisted him through The Boulder Field and spent the night in the Boulder Field with him. At 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning, he was flown by Lifeguard One to Medical Center of the Rockies. Park SAR team members were assisted by four members of Larimer County Search and Rescue.
[Kyle Patterson, Public Affairs Officer]
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):
Ocean and Coastal Resources Branch - On June 8th, World Oceans Day, the National Park Service teamed up with the Smithsonian Institution to tell visitors the story of right whales and explain how to Find Your Park on the oceans and coasts.
Timucuan E&HP - The park has partnered with Jacksonville's new major league soccer team, the Armada, to create a team tradition - integrating a cannon firing and a foghorn into their pregame and scoring rituals.
Saguaro NP - Students from the a local academy joined park interns this May and June to sample dragonfly larvae as part of a national program by the Air Quality Division and others to monitor airborne mercury pollution in national parks.
Grand Teton NP - Sixty-five fourth graders from Donald Stalker Elementary School in Blackfoot, Idaho, got a firsthand and fun-filled introduction to Grand Teton National Park over three days in late May.
Yellowstone NP - Dan Kirschner, a special agent with the Investigative Services Branch at Yellowstone, retired on June 30th following 36 years of government service.
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).
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