A female hiker was nearing the peak of the second tallest mountain in California when she fell, lost all her supplies and suffered a horrific injury that led to a bone in her leg visibly sticking out of her skin.
The woman was alone on Mount Williamson when she tumbled down the rock-covered face on the afternoon of July 2.
She spent the next 28 hours trapped at an elevation of 13,600 feet with no access to her backpack, which contained all her food, water and extra clothing.
Even worse, shortly after she fell, a severe set of thunderstorms rolled through her location in the Sierra Nevadas. She was hit with high winds, nearby lightning strikes and torrential downpours.
The situation was dire, but she made a wise decision that ultimately saved her life.
Instead of attaching her satellite phone to her pack – which she couldn’t hope to reach with her broken leg – she kept it on her person.
With her Garmin InReach GPS device, she was able to put out an SOS call to the authorities, who described her as ‘calm and responsive while awaiting rescue.’
Her call kicked off a multi-agency operation that involved five different helicopters and spanned across two days to complete.
A woman stranded 13,600 feet up on Mount Williamson in California is seen being rescued after spending 28 hours in a steep, narrow chute
The woman, who wasn’t identified by authorities, is seen onboard a helicopter after she was airlifted to safety
The Inyo County Sheriff’s Department’s Search and Rescue team led the rescue with six of their members in the field and seven more coordinating base operations.
Authorities did not name the woman they saved nor did they provide a cost estimate of the rescue operation.
The Search and Rescue team did not respond to a request for comment, but they did praise the climber for keeping a level head in what could have easily been a fatal accident.
‘Enormous bravery and fortitude was shown by this patient, and all involved were impressed by her ability to remain calm, collected, and alive,’ the team wrote in a social media post.
Mount Williamson is in the Eastern Sierras, about 240 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
It stands at 14,380 feet and is not a commonly traversed mountain by hikers, mostly due to its remoteness and untamed nature.
‘I’ve climbed it six times and I’ve never seen anybody else on the mountain, other than the people in our party,’ Dave Miller, a professional climber, told the Los Angeles Times.
The rescued hiker was well over three thousand feet above the 10,000-foot mark on Williamson, which is where established trails end.
Mount Williamson is in the Eastern Sierras, about 240 miles northeast of Los Angeles
Pictured: The woman is airlifted at 7:15pm on July 3 after falling and breaking her leg during her hike
Because of the storms on July 2, she wasn’t able to be evacuated right away. Dense cloud cover forced one of the helicopters to return to base.
That’s when Inyo County Search and Rescue reached out to the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station for assistance.
Even the Navy wasn’t able to help, so at around midnight, the search and rescue team dropped four climbers at 10,500 feet on the mountain’s west face.
By sunrise on July 3, the rescuers were within shouting distance of her but they still couldn’t reach her.
Later that same day, helicopters dropped two search and rescue members 300 feet above the victim. They were able to get to her – roughly 23 hours after she first fell.
It would take another four hours to get a California National Guard helicopter ready and in position to airlift her out of the steep, narrow chute she was stuck in.
At 7:15pm on July 3, the helicopter codenamed Spartan 164, successfully hoisted her out and into the air.
She was transported to Bishop Airport and later taken to the hospital for medical treatment.
‘This mission is a powerful reminder of the dangers of high-altitude mountaineering and the extraordinary efforts behind each rescue,’ the Sheriff’s Department wrote on Facebook.
