Snowmachiner rescued from Nelchina Glacier crevasse

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Snowmachiner rescued from Nelchina Glacier crevasse

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Snowmachiner rescued from Nelchina Glacier crevasse
NELCHINA: After 60-foot fall, Eagle River man spent seven hours before rescue.

By LISA DEMER
ldemer@adn.com

Published: April 17th, 2011 10:08 PM
Last Modified: April 17th, 2011 10:09 PM

On Saturday afternoon, a snowmachine rider from Eagle River stepped off his machine to take pictures on Nelchina Glacier. He walked a short way on what he thought was an ice bridge. Then he plunged 60 feet down into a crevasse.
David Joerg, 54, was trapped in a tight ice cocoon six stories below the surface of the glacier.

"It happens pretty fast. Your knees are hitting things, your arms, your shoulders, your elbows. You are just being thrust down into a wedge of ice," said Joerg, who was out riding that day with his friend and riding partner, Rod Hansen, also 54 and from Eagle River.

He survived there for more than seven hours.

Troopers and volunteer rescuers got him out.

Everything had seemed picture-perfect when the two men set out from Eureka Lodge, on the Glenn Highway, around 8:30 that morning. It was Hansen's first -- and last -- ride of the season. He works for Enstar as a fitter-pipe welder. Joerg, a heavy equipment mechanic, had been out just a few times.

The two men and Joerg's wife, Jamie, spoke by phone about the ordeal from the Joerg home on Sunday. The men had been reluctant to talk but decided they should, to share the message: Stay off the glaciers
"It was a bluebird day. The closer you got to the glacier, the more prettier it got," Hansen said.

They followed a rocky ridge and stopped for lunch. Joerg took off by himself for a short spell but Hansen waved him back. He thought it looked treacherous. They intended to head toward a frozen lake, but first checked out the nice powder at the base of the glacier, on the west side. It was dotted with animal prints. Some snowmachine tracks led onto the glacier but they were at least days old. They saw no one else riding up there Saturday.

The men followed the tracks until they disappeared. They didn't realize it yet, but they were in a dangerous area, a web of ice bridges, deteriorating snow bridges and crevasses. They couldn't see that from their machines. The surface looked solid.

Still, Hansen wanted off the glacier. Hansen told Joerg about a rider who died up there a number of years ago. Neither he nor his snowmachine was ever found.

They kept going anyway.

"Two guys. One pushes the other," Hansen said. "Even at 54, we are two 15-year-olds at heart."

Joerg got off his machine to take some photos in the sunlight as Hansen watched.

"He went through a hole," Hansen said. "Gone. I mean just like lightning. Gone."

It was 1:15 p.m.


DOWN A RABBIT HOLE

Joerg said he thought he was on a solid ice bridge, with snow on top.

The crevasse was just wide enough for a person to slip into, said Bill Romberg, a member of the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group, who on Saturday led a roped team to rescue Joerg.

"It was a hidden crevasse that he happened to step on and happened to go through, on a small snow bridge," Romberg said. "One minute you're standing on solid ice. And the next minute you are dropping down a rabbit hole, basically the width of a person."

Hansen wasn't sure what to do. He felt for his phone, but he had left it back at the lodge. Maybe he should put on snowshoes and make his way to the crevasse that swallowed his friend. Maybe he should swim there on his belly.

But they had no rescue gear, no harness, no ice screws, no rope.

Hansen got out a pole. There were soft spots all around. Now he was seeing the risky terrain for what it was.

"I'm an idiot. I know better. I've been up here 30 years," Hansen said. "I knew I screwed up."

He got on his snowmachine and punched it 17 miles back to Eureka Lodge to get help.

Troopers got the call at 2:38 p.m. Hansen then called his wife, Becky, who went to the medical office where Jamie Joerg worked to tell her what was happening.

The women started praying and called others to pray too. A prayer chain.

"God did protect them," Jamie Joerg said Sunday. "For David and Rod to both come out with just some scratches, it's a miracle."

For his springtime ride, Joerg was wearing a sweater, a down vest, snow pants, thick gloves, insulated boots, and a helmet, which hit the ice walls all the way down.

He stopped his plunge where the crevasse narrowed, wedged in so tightly he could hardly breathe. To his right was total darkness, a deep abyss. To his left was a snow ledge that he was able to get a foothold on and free himself slightly from the ice grip. He yelled for Hansen to get help and worried his friend maybe was swallowed up too. He tried to call on his cellphone but had no service. He thought about his wife.

Joerg took off his helmet and used the broken visor to dig a wider area, so he could work himself up and out. When the plastic shattered, he popped out the lenses of his reading glasses to dig with. He made little progress.

"You've got to do something to make yourself alive," he said.

His clothes were soon soaked. He began to shiver. He couldn't see the top of the hole. He didn't know if anyone was coming.


THUMBS UP

On Saturday afternoon, members of Alaska Mountain Rescue Group were at McHugh Creek training for rescues when they got the call that a man had fallen into a crevasse. So they were able to mobilize quickly.

They flew out in Alaska State Troopers' Helo 1. One team of volunteers stayed back at the lodge as backup. Four more flew onto the glacier. They roped together and used avalanche probes to test for a safe route as they walked to the spot where Joerg disappeared into the ice. The solid ground was just 4 to 5 feet wide, Romberg said.

Joerg said when he heard the chopper, he knew Hansen had made it out.

The rescuers made their way to the hole and set an anchor. Romberg lay on his belly at the edge and called for Joerg, not knowing if he was dead or alive. Joerg called back. He was cold but OK. There was not room down there for another person. The rescuers threw down a harness and rope and hoisted Joerg out about 8:30 p.m. He's 5 feet 10, about 190 pounds, and fit.

At the end, Romberg had to straddle the hole to get him out. He was able to walk, stiffly, back to the helicopter.

Meantime, Hansen and Jamie Joerg were at the lodge, waiting and worrying.

"I thought he was dead," Hansen said.

"I didn't," Jamie said. "I couldn't go there."

Then they heard the trooper helicopter return. Two rescuers got out, thumbs up.

Joerg was mildly hypothermic and needed a spot inside the lodge, Romberg told Jamie, who started to scoot off to take care of that.

"Honey, honey, you come back here," Joerg told her. "I need a kiss. I really missed you."

Joerg, out of his wet clothes by then, warmed up in the lodge, drinking soup and tea and hot chocolate. Medics were still concerned, so they took him to the Glennallen clinic. He was treated and released in less than an hour. He's scraped, bruised and exhausted, but happy.

"What's so very important is the dedication of the volunteers," Joerg said. "They are risking their lives."




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Reach Lisa Demer at ldemer@adn.com or 257-4390.



Read more: http://www.adn.com/2011/04/17/1815035/s ... z1JtuuVHJw
If you can't fix it with a hammer, you've got an electrical problem.

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