Part....oh whatever. The rest of the story......
Current mood: cheerful

So, no bucket....is that where I left off?

So, no bucket and the bird is back to circling again. I look up at Heidi and she is white and terrified. She looks pretty alone, and I want her to know she is not, so I touch her cheek to get her attention. She looks at me and I can see she is afraid. I say, "Heidi, it's going to be okay. Don't worry." She just says, "I'm so afraid of the pain."

And I know she is. She's been reasonably comfortable and she knows what is about to happen will likely be more painful than anything that's happened yet. In fact while we were waiting for anyone to show up we talked about what was going to happen.

At the time I wanted to be clear about what was coming. It had been so calm for so long and I knew that was going to change. I told her it was going to be noisy and that a lot would be going on when the helicopter finally arrived. We talked about the importance of staying calm.

And she said....."I can't wait to get home tonight so that I can watch a movie and eat ice cream."

I said, "You aren't going to go home tonight Heidi. It's pretty unlikely." Just the truth.....

So anyway.

Eventually, the bird lands up on the ridgeline and kind of maintains a hover there while a bunch of guys jump out. The medic comes down and starts asking a bunch of questions...

You know...the standards. Name, age, what happened? Did you lose conciousness?

He sees the traction rig-up and asks her if traction is more comfortable. She says yes and he pulls out his traction splint. It was a bad-ass splint, way cooler than my MacGuyver rig, but hey, when you're in a pinch you get creative.

So when he goes to put on the splint, he starts to unwrap my rig and Heidi stops him and says, "Can you just cut it off?"

He says, "Sure." and goes to cut it off, but before he does I grab her foot....cause I know as soon as he cuts that thing shes going to be in pain again. Her foot is just going to flop over cause I didn't put any kind of stabilizing splint onto it. When I do this, he looks at me and says, "Good idea, keep traction on it." And from there on I assist him in traction and splinting.

Once the splint is on, we heave her into a litter. I get the head position, and that is the lead position, so I count off the lift. We begin to carry her up this steep rocky slope and Heidi's normal frame starts to feel like twice her weight. These guys on the sides of her are all much bigger and faster than me and eventually I have to tell them to slow down or I'm going to drop her head.

That would be bad.

So they slow down and one of the guys starts telling me where the big rocks are and when I need to watch my step.

Cause I can't watch my step, Heidi is in the way. Anyhow, we get Heidi into the Blackhawk, and they secure her.



Once she's stable and secure, Cody and I back up and crouch down to stay low and get ready for the rotor wash.



And all of the sudden, she's gone.

And I pretty much collapse in tears coupled with mild hyperventilation.

And I look at Peter and Cody and say, "That was fucking crazy!"

The rest was pretty much a blur. The bird blew my shades off my face and we looked around for those for a bit, but all I really wanted to do was leave. I couldn't carry my stuff, and the boys were great about carrying my gear, Heidi's gear and taking care of the dogs.

We had to hike down the mountain. It was a long hike.

I was exhausted and I tripped and stumbled alot.

But to make a long, long story short.....

Heidi ended up needing a titanium rod placed in her tibia to stabilize her leg. She is getting better now and is looking forward to getting her bandages and splint removed in a few days. She will then progress to a bootie. She will not be able to bear weight on her leg for two months and is looking at about six to eight months of rehab.

Sidenote: I didn't say much about Peter, but he came up with Cody. He was there to help and I know he wanted to help in the worst way, but I pretty much had it covered and Cody was Heidi's moral support. Peter did however take care of my dogs and helped to provide me with moral support on the hike and later when I needed to talk.

Thanks Peter. I hope I can return the favor....maybe in a less traumatic situation.

And thanks to Cody too. I called you first cause I knew you'd run up the mountain for both of us. I'd run up a mountain for you too.

Sidenote two: There is a lot of the story that didn't make it into this blog. Smaller details....stories Heidi and I told each other, ways we kept ourselves occupied and distracted....thoughts that ran through my head.

I can't really tell you all of that. Mostly because I can't remember all of it and partially because there was so much of it. I can't really even put into words what it feels like to be in this situation....one on one with someone with someone who is painfully in need in a remote situation. I hope none of you have to feel what I felt but if you do, you may walk away a little amazed with yourself and a little stronger for the experience.

I do have to say, PLEASE, if you put yourself into these situations, don't feel stupid cause you go prepared for anything. Cause you will feel stupid when something happens if you aren't prepared.

Oh yea....I did say it was the worst WEEK of my life didn't I.

I can't really type out the rest of the story but when you see me ask me for the details.

In Short:

My truck payment came out of my bank account twice by accident, virtually consuming my entire current paycheck.

Some guy, who was visiting a co-worker who shall remain nameless basically was drunk and trying to hit on me. He sort of cornered me and made me pretty uncomfortable at one point. My friend told him to go take a walk and he disappeared until the next day. That day I got into my truck to go into town and the seat was wet.

Thought maybe Peter had left the window open and it had rained. I was too tired to drive after the accident, and Peter had returned my truck to Lowell Point. Then I remembered it had been sunny for days. Then I touched my seat and smelled my hand.

Piss. It was fucking piss. Someone had pissed on my seat and floor.

Fast forward: After my truck had dried I got into it to go to town and it wouldn't start.

It's a pretty new truck, still under warranty.

Ended up having to get it towed to Soldotna where the nearest Ford dealership is located.....100 miles away.

They called and said a fuel pump relay had been pulled.

Wait a minute....that guy?!

He is a diesel mechanic....He pissed in my truck and then pulled a relay. Cause I shot him down.

I'm pretty sure I have never

ever

ever

met someone so lame in my life.

Ever.

So my friend called his friend who had gone home by now and the guy fessed up.

What a jerk.

Well, my truck is fixed. Still smells like piss. But my friend gave me some money for the repair and to have the truck detailed. He is getting paid back by his friend.

So, it was a shitty week.

Coming soon: Good stories about fun things.

Really!

Part III
Current mood: blah

Finally, on a run up the ridgeline, I see someone a couple of hundred yards below, and that someone looks like Cody. I throw my arms up in the air to signal I've seen him.

He later tells me he thought I was throwing my arms up in the air in exasperation. Like I was saying 'what the fuck took you so long!'

Cody catches up to me, and I fill him in on what's going on and what's been done. He is also a Wilderness First Responder.....as I am...as most of the Sunny Cove guides are, so I want him to be on the same page as me.

He heads down and sits next to Heidi to help her be more comfortable. She has been sitting in water on rocks holding her leg for a long time and is obviously relieved to have someone to lean on.

Shortly after Cody arrives I hear a helicopter. I run back up to the ridgeline to grab the e-blanket to make sure we are visible. I stand on the ridgeline holding the blanket up in the air with one hand.....the blanket whipping in the wind. Cody tell's me later I looked like some weird patriotic scene standing up there like that......I do remember feeling foolish, but not caring.

I just wanted that damned helicopter to see us.

The bird turns out to be a medivac rig from Anchorage. Earlier S&R had asked me to scope a landing zone for the bird. The best LZ I could see is about 150 yards below us, and it's obviously rocky, but looks relatively flat. There is definitely enough room to set a bird down.

So, the bird hovers around....and circles...and hovers.

Watching the bird and seeing the wobble it experiences everytime it nears the ground it becomes apparent the wind is an issue.

And then the bird flies away.

Shortly thereafter I get a call from the pilot telling me it's too windy and rocky to land and that another bird will be there in about five minutes. Then I get a call from S&R telling me the helicopter will be there in 45 minutes.

Sigh.

So we wait. Heidi is getting more shocky and is beginning to get cold. Cody layers her up in his clothing, and we both make sure she is drinking some water.

It's been about a half hour of chatting when Cody notices a C130 flying over. He chuckles and says, "Hey look! They sent a C130 to pick you up." And I say, "Yea, it's gonna land right there on that ridgeline!" We all kind of laugh.



And then we start hearing another noise.



And we see the next bird.

It's big. And black.

It's a freaking Blackhawk from the Air National Guard!

So this bird has a better chance of landing in more rugged terrain. It flies around scoping for awhile and then I get a phone call from the Blackhawk.

Talking to a helicopter on the phone is weird cause they are on the radio. And they use radio calls and lingo.

Anyhow, the pilot tells me the wind and terrain is making it difficult to find an LZ. The pilot has decided the best course of action is to drop a basket and a medic and to scoop Heidi. So we secure the area....stow anything loose so that we don't get anything tangled up in the rotor wash and we hunker down with Heidi.


....bird coming over the ridgeline for the scoop.

Did you know the rotor wash of a Blackhawk must be at least 100mph?

Cody is holding Heidi's body and I'm holding her leg.

This helicopter begins to decend towards us.....and it's crazy windy. The winds just keep increasing until rocks are flying around. Cody is trying hard to hold Heidi still, and I'm trying really hard to hold Heidi's legs still and Heidi is yelling.

And I'm thinking, "Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

And then I'm thinking, "Get the fuck outta here! She's in pain and you're making it worse!"

And then the wind is gone.

No bucket.

No medic.

Hold on.....I'll try to post more later.

Worst Week, Part II
Current mood: tired

Okay.

So. At this point we are both pretty tired and are ready to hike down. The down trail is exactly the same trail we hiked up. There are a few places where the scree is loose or it is a bit gravely, but for the most part it's a pretty easy, solid although steep trail. As we are hiking down, we kind of lose the trail for a bit and come up on Miles' slidy little snowfield. This time we are up high on the snow, whereas on the way up we crossed lower. We also talked about sliding down the field for fun earlier but decided it might not be a great idea. The snow extends about 100 feet on a maybe 26 degree pitch. Could be slightly less steep, but whatever, I'm guessing.

So to cross the snow, I have to slide down this little dirt, scree slide before I get ot the snow. Heidi is hiking in front of me cause I have Charlie leashed to me and I lose sight of her as she goes around this rock.

A second later I look up and see Heidi sliding down the snow on her butt. She is kind of squealing and I think, "Huh, thought we decided that's a bad idea." As she nears the bottom she kind of slides off the side about 75 feet away from me. She slides into the boulders and as her feet hit the rocks, I hear a loud slap of her feet hitting a larger boulder.

Then she yells, "I broke my leg. I've never broken my leg before."

And I think, "She's totally fucking around. Trying to freak me out."

And then she starts screaming. And she's not screaming like she's kidding.

My heart just drops when I realize the slapping sound of her shoes was actually the snapping sound of her leg. As the adrenaline kicks in, I start to move fast....but I have to remember I still need to cross this snowfield safely to be able to help her. I make it across okay and tie the dogs up.

When I finally get to Heidi I look down and see that she is trying to hold her leg just below the knee and that her foot is just kind of dangling at a completely unnatural angle.

Seriously gross. Leg's shouldn't look like that.

So let me add a disclaimer here: My adrenaline level at this point was maxed out. It is difficult for me to remember the exact sequence of events from here on out. If you talk to Heidi she may say a few things happened in another order, but then she's not a reliable source at this point either. Regardless, everything I'm about to write did in fact happen.

Ok, so I touch her leg and she screams again. Now Heidi is maintaining a relatively calm composure considering her foot is at a right angle to her leg, but she is obviously in distress.

Obviously.

Okay, disclaimer number two...or maybe a slight jump in the story. I did not take pictures until Heidi was stabilized and help was on the way. In addition, Heidi agreed we should take pictures....cause we had the time to waste taking them.

Back to the story.

At this point there are a lot of things going through my mind.....sounded something like this...."Holy shit it is going to take hours to get her off of this mountain. I hope this all goes well. I need to make calls. Gross! Man that must fucking hurt! I really hope this is a delusion I'm about to snap out of....! Okay, lets do this."

So, I start asking Heidi questions. "Did you hit your head? Do you feel light-headed? Nauseous?"

K, going into narration for the next part. Like reading a book.

Me "Heidi, this is really going to hurt and I'm sorry."
Heidi "Okay, no no no no no no!"
Me "Heidi, I am just going to try to make you relatively comfortable for a few minutes so that I can make two phone calls, okay."
Heidi "Okay, (scream as I prop her foot with a pack) okay, that's okay."
Me "I'm going to make two phone calls, one to a friend and one to 911. I think you know who the friend is."
Heidi "Cody?"
Me "Yes."

Then I walk away from her. I get cell service about 40 yards away from her. I call Cody first cause I know five minutes isn't going to get search and rescue up here any faster and Heidi's injury isn't life threatening. I do know that Cody will get here long before S&R.

I call Cody's cell. No answer. I don't bother to leave a message.

I call the office phone cause Cody's on the clock. He answers in one ring.

Cody "Sunny Cove, Cody speaking."
Me "Cody, Heidi fell, she has a unstable lower right leg injury. As soon as I hang up with you I am going to call 911. We are on the lookers right ridgeline of Alice at about 3000 feet. I'm not kidding."
Cody "Okay, what do you want me to do. Do you want me to hike up with Peter?"
Me "Please at least be at the trailhead. I gotta go."

And I hang up.

I called 911 at 4:50pm. The call is still in my call log on my phone.

"911 emergency, this is Phylis."
"My name is Stephanie Millane. I am on Mt. Alice on the lookers right ridgeline at about 3000 feet. My friend Heidi fell about 75 feet and has an unstable lower right leg injury. It appears she has broken her tib-fib. I need search and rescue."
Phylis "What?"

I think "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN WHAT?!" And then I pretty much repeat myself.

Phylis takes my cell number to relay to S&E.

Oh, and on a personal note. To every single one of you who ever made fun of me for carrying my cell phone and first aid kit with me every time I went on an adventure......

Fuck you. I'm glad I totally ignored all of you. Oh, oh yea, and I love you all, so please, please carry this stuff with you when you go out into the wilderness. Do you know how horrible I would have felt if I didn't have anything with me? If I had ended up having to leave Heidi alone so that I could run down the mountain and drive to town to get help. Seriously, take that shit with you. Someday you might be so grateful you did.

K, onwards.

So, I go back to Heidi. And ask her the same questions again.

"Are you nauseous? Do you feel light-headed? Are you still feeling okay?" I ask her these questions repeatedly in the future. Instead of typing them over and over I will simply refer to them as 'the questions'.

She tells me she is feeling okay but in a lot of pain.

Me "Heidi, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to hurt you again. I have to take your shoe off so that I can see your foot. I am going to cut it off."
"Do you have to?" This is kind of funny, cause the shoes are pretty new and she really loves them. I'm pretty sure she is more concerned about her shoe for just a minute.
"Yes, I have to, but I will cut the laces off first and if we can slide the shoe off relatively comfortably, I won't cut it."
"Okay."

So I cut the laces off and her shoe comes off surprisingly easily. This just leaves her sock.

Okay, let me give you a visual here. I can see the bone ends pushing against her skin. The ends are side by side rather than in line. Her leg isn't fractured, it's broken apart.

I pull her sock off and my stomach drops. Her foot is blue. BLUE. Anyone with medical training can clue you in on decreased CSM. It's bad. Her foot is dying. Literally.

And now I know that I can't just splint her leg and leave it alone.

So I look at Heidi and I say something like "Heidi, I'm sorry, this is going to hurt a lot, but I have to do it. I'm sorry."

Heidi just kind of looks at me like she's not completely registering what I am saying. She is definitley shocky at this point and she's pretty white. I explain to her that I have to get circulation back to her foot or she's going to have complications far worse than just a broken bone. I don't tell her leaving it alone can lead to serious muscle/nerve damage or even eventually amputation due to necrosis.....aka dead tissue.

Then I put my hands on her foot and she just starts saying "no no no no no no no no!" But I can't stop cause it has to be done. And I'm feeling horrible for hurting her, but I can't stop cause prolonging it will prolong the pain. I can feel crepitus.....bones grinding together....and I can hear crepitus. And Heidi is screaming while I'm pulling and turning. And I'm wishing I were doing anything but this. Anything....but I keep pulling. I'm hoping the break is clean and the bones will slide together. Crepitus and pulling and then......

the bones slide together and Heidi yells "Stop right there!" And I look at her and she isn't so white. And her grimace is less, she's looking more relaxed.

And her foot is turning pink. I'm so utterly relieved.

Now I'm stuck holding her foot in this position. While all of this is happening, the phone is ringing and ringing but I can't answer it. And I know its S&R and they are freaking out cause I'm not answering.

So I tell Heidi that I have to let go of her foot, but the second I do she is in complete pain again.

I hold on. And think.

Here's what I come up with....I prop it and pad it. And then I take an Ace and wrap it around her ankle. Pull the Ace towards me to figure out the tension that makes her comfortable and rig some rocks to hold the tension.

I let go and she's comfortable. And I'm relieved.

So I call back S&R. The coordinator answers and is obviously relieved to hear my voice. I immediately give him the same rundown I gave 911 but with a few more details......

Heidi Strow, 30. Decreased CSM that has been stabilized. Needs to get out soon.

He says, "About how long do you think it took you to hike up to that spot?"

I say 1 1/2 hours.......

he says it will take them three. But I already knew we'd be here for hours. It's already been half an hour.

So I head back to talk to Heidi to see how she's doing, and we decide to snap some shots.


Brave faces....Heidi has just been put into traction.


She was an awesome patient....kept it calm the whole time.


So if you look closely.....start from Heidi and work your way up. You can see her slide track. It's easily 75 feet from the top.


MacGuyver's got nothin on me.

So while she's waiting....I'm communicating with S&R. I'm putting up markers to make us more visible.....

I use my emergency blanket....you know the 8x8 silver space blanket....as a marker by draping it over a rock at the top of the ridgeline. My purple fleece and red water bottle are in the middle of the snowfield where they will be highly visible. I am running 50 feet up the ridgeline every 10 minutes to look for people on the lower trail.

We talk a lot. A lot. We were alone for almost two hours.

More to come......

Mt. Alice is an beautiful, evil bitch. AKA the beginning of the worst week of my life.
Current mood: crushed

So, it has taken me a few days to get up the....the I don't know what.....to write this story out. I've told it so many times in the last few days that I don't even know if I believe it myself but for some reason, writing it all down makes me a little afraid.

And there are pictures.

Anyway, sometimes experiences come along that cause you to discover abilities within yourself you never really were sure you had or would have to use.

Anyway.

One of those things where you always think....that'll never happen to me. Then it does. I have to apologize in advance...but I think this story will come in increments because it just keeps coming at me.

I don't know what I did to deserve all of this bad for so long, but for the love of god I'm ready for some good.

K, lets get started before this starts sounding like a depressed woman's diary.

So last Sunday, July 15th I finally had a day off. And so did Heidi. If I haven't mentioned Heidi, she works in our sales office and she's my friend.

We had decided the evening before that we were going to hook up with some comp tickets with a local guide company that offers glacier trekking excursions on Exit Glacier. Meet time was about 8:30 am at Res Art coffee house.

8:30 rolls around and we roll in to Res Art. After several unsucessful attempts to contact Exit Glacier Guides we finally get through only to find there aren't any comp spaces available that day. We decide to hike Mt. Alice.....down Nash Road and across the bay. Neither one of us had hiked it, it was 65 degrees and sunny and we were both up for something new that would get us a little exercise.

The first part of the hike is a bit steep. For those of you who are familiar with Mt. Marathon, it's not quite that steep but pretty close. The lower trail traverses through beautiful ferns and spruce and definitley has that green temperate rainforest feel. Also, Heidi is perfect as a hiking partner. She likes to take her time as much as I do and she's game for stopping for breaks. No desire to run up a mountain....that's what I like in a hiking partner.

Just above the first ridgeline the trees thin and the trail becomes less steep. Beautiful views begin popping out in every direction. To the northwest is the Resurrection River valley.



This is also where we begin getting views of the true summit of Alice. We won't be getting to that peak....in a day....or without some more technical gear than our own two legs.



Just a little higher up the trail hops onto a ridgeline overlooking the main valley on the mountain. To the left is a 1500+ foot drop, to the right are sub-alpine meadows and bay views.

Left:


To the right....overlooking Seward:


Heidi and I picked a spot near here to enjoy the sun and to eat cheese and crackers. Even Charlie and Miles were having a great time!





Heidi.....all photogenic on a photogenic mountain.



The flowers on the mountain were incredible...moss campion.



Well above treeline we started running into smaller snow fields. This is one we end up having to cross. At this point, the trail is virtually non-existent, but the sub-alpine terrain makes it pretty easy to explore. Before we crossed, we started throwing snowballs onto the field....knowing how much Miles loves snowballs. The field was slick, and he was doing some heavy duty sliding.



This snowfield comes into play later.

Here's Heidi getting a photogenic again......gonna sell this one as a postcard.



Alice's true summit again.



More views.....sub-alpine terrain....easy to wander around!



With all the snowfields, there are little glacial tarns around....and fresh water for the pooches. This is looking south. Once we were up pretty high, Heidi and I decided to see if we could see over the south ridgeline into the Godwin Valley.



Getting there required crossing scree fields...which are pretty sketchy.



This is also where I almost stepped on a Willow Ptarmigan.....and where Heidi may have lost her camera. Sucks....she's not sure where it fell out, but she's out $400 bucks. So, if anyone is ever hiking Alice and finds a camera....and there are pictures of Heidi and I on it, it's Heidi's. Not impossible....its shock-proof and water-proof.



We did however make it far enough to see into Godwin pretty well. Nothing like a maximum security prison and a glacier all in the same scene.









Views from here are awesome. If you look closely, you can see past Cape Aialik to the Chiswell Islands.



Shortly after this, all hell breaks loose.

But you'll have to wait for the continuation cause I'm getting a headache.

Mount Marathon Race
Current mood: chipper

Ok,

So.

More AK adventures. As some of you may know, Seward hosts the annual Mt. Marathon foot race. The race begins in town and ascends just over 3,000 feet and decends the same distance on a very steep, rough trail.

The standing record for time is 43:23. That's minutes by the way. Yea, run up and barrel down. Want more info? Check out Seward.org for more pictures and background.

Anyway, the race is pretty amazing and it's not uncommon to hear about some pretty serious injuries. I believe there may have even been fatalities in the past but you'll have to research that one for yourselves.

In addition to the race, Seward hosts a plethora of 4th activities...you know, pie eating, fireworks, music...etc.

But I only took pictures of the race.



I'm not sure if you've heard before....but this weekend brings 30,000 people into town. That's 10 times the usual population.



So the race climbs this mountain.....if you look closely you can see the trail. The up trail is to the right and the down trail is to the left.



The finish is basically a huge rockfall. This is the women's division winner....think her name is Cedar and she is a local. She finished nearly FIVE minutes before the second place woman. Crazy.



Few more ladies finishing.....



Here's the men's start. I believe they start in two waves by age division. By the way...this is the ONLY opportunity in Seward to see a large amount of physically fit men without shirts.....see you next fourth ladies.



Here are the first couple of men coming down the last pitch. The men tend to approach this route more aggressively.....pretty fun to watch.



Seriously we are all just silently waiting for someone to fall. That's it for Marathon pictures.

One last shot of my sweet 1970 Honda Trail 90. I let Cody borrow it to run home, and he found the most awesome place to park it. I almost peed myself when I saw this.



See ya.

More lame excuses.....
Current mood: apathetic

So, Dell sucks.

I hate Dell.

Don't buy a Dell. No matter what anyone says.

Why?

1) They produce shitty laptops

2) Their tech support is all outsourced and they don't understand what I mean when I say, "You CAN'T send a tech out to me. I don't think you understand where I live."

3) Their tech support does not return phone calls as promised.

4) Their customer service sucks.

5) Cause I said so.

Anyhow. I should have posted at least two blogs of spectacular AK scenery by now, but......

Dell sucks.

Hard drive and memory all died. Had to replace everything. Hadn't backed up in three weeks.

all this = no recent photos.

Think I'm a little bitter?

Yep. You're right.