I had the opportunity to ride along and watch Mt. Rainier high altitude rescue training. The rescue vehicle? It's the Army's CH-47 Chinook helicopter. And I spent the better part of today flying on and watching these helicopters in action. They're operated by Alpha Company, 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment out of Ft. Lewis.
The weather was perfect, it couldn't be better. It was a good news story to be able to tell, about the cooperation between the National Park Service and the Army Reserve, that provides the helicopters at no charge to the park...and also enables army reserve crews valuable high altitude rescue training, that they could in turn have to employ in high altitude rescues in places like Afghanistan to save the lives of downed pilots. Except for about two seasons when the unit was deployed to Iraq, this arrangement has been saving the lives of climbers Mt. Rainier National Park for decades.
In a nutshell, a rescue works like this. If there's a life or death emergency above 8000 feet, the Chinooks can be called in. They first land at the park's helibase, consult with and pick up climbing rangers. The rangers are then lowered on a hoist to the injured person or persons. Often rangers have already climbed up to the injured and are waiting to extract a person who is now a patient. Next stop, likely the Madigan Army Medical Center on Ft. Lewis.

I've covered a number of these rescues on the mountain before. Usually, there is nothing we can see from the ground, as the mountain is so big, even if it was right in front of us on a clear day, the huge tandem rotor Chinooks simply disappear into the grandeur. Most of the time, the weather during these events is anything BUT nice, and we can't see anything.

This experience has greatly added to my understanding of how these rescues are carried out, what the parameters are, and it's given me a better realization of the risks involved.

But we are also saving this tape...so we have it available to again explain how the rescue process works the next time the rescue is real. On average, the park service says three people die on the mountain every year. Many more are rescued and survive. This year is a good year, (so far) only twice did the Chinooks have to be called out and both situations ended happily. No one died.

The balance of this climbing season is drawing to a close...then there's next year...and the year after that and so on. Some seasons will be better than others...and that's when we'll pull this tape back out again for a story of a climber seriously injured, or worse. Those are the days ahead when these pros will go to work efforting more happy endings. Wish 'em luck.