Though I only worked three days, this was a pretty eventful week. On Monday, Ranger Page and I were making our usual morning rounds when we were told about two young enlisted men who were late returning from the backcountry. They had failed to report to work and were therefore AWOL, so the military and their family members were calling the park trying to find them. Ranger Page and I searched for them on social media to see if they had made any posts suggesting they had returned from the backcountry, which they had not. We looked for their vehicle in the parking lots and found it, assuring us that they had not left the park. While they weren't yet that long overdue, the fact that they were in the military and had failed to report to their post and that one of them had a life threatening, exertion induced medical condition were causes for alarm. The rangers began poring over maps of the backcountry units they had gotten permits for. Their plan involved crossing the Muldrow Glacier, something reported to be quite difficult. After determining some potential routes they may have taken, the helicopter was called in. Ranger Page and I prepared recovery kits for those who would be responding. The helicopter refueled and took on the gear and personnel.
During this time, Ranger Page and I responded to a bus leaking fuel at the visitor center bus stop. It was a slow leak, and the private company already had their own mechanics en route. We provided some oil absorbent pads and waited for the mechanic to arrive, also calling in one of the park's mechanics to come and help. While there, we saw the helicopter take off and head west into the park.
The helicopter wasn't quite in the air for two hours when we received a call that our missing persons had walked into the Eilson Visitor Center. It turned out that they had crossed the Muldrow Glacier as planned, which they found incredibly difficult. After camping on the other side of the glacier, they decided that rather than retrace their steps, they would hike back to the road on the far (west) side of the glacier, where they would have to cross the McKinley river (fed by the Muldrow) to return to the road rather than the Thorofare river. They reached the river, and with the past two weeks or so of unseasonably high temperatures, found it too difficult to cross. After making several attempts, they decided they would be forced to return the way the came, thus resulting in their delay. It was really a best case scenario for this kind of thing.
Later in the day I helped Ranger Pilot Brett Nigus with some work on one of the planes. I got to sit in the cockpit and move the stick back and forth while Ranger Nigus made sure everything was in good working order. The plane's elevator was sticking a bit, and he wanted to make sure it was just some tightened bushings and not a mechanical problem. Everything seemed to be in good shape.
Later that evening there was a huge moose jam right at the park entrance. Dozens of people were out of their vehicles, crossing the highway on foot in order to see the largest member of the deer family. Ranger Page and I responded along with Ranger Stack. We got people back to safe distances, slowed down traffic, and instructed poorly parked vehicles to relocate.
The action did not stop on Tuesday. Nearly first thing in the morning there was a medical call just up the hill from the ranger station. A maintenance employee suffered a possible stroke, and was taken to the nearby clinic in the ambulance.
Then Rangers Page and Beheller and I took a pack test with a group of other park employees. They all needed to take the test to renew their red cards for wildland firefighting. Since I am not yet red carded, I took the test to lend moral support and to see how it was. For those unfamiliar, the test consists of walking 3 miles in 45 minutes while carrying a 45lb pack. You are not allowed to run, meaning the test is rough on the shins since you have to power walk the whole time (the average person walks a mile in around 20 minutes). Ranger Page was a little nervous that she might not finish in time, so I walked right behind her to make sure she didn't slow down too much. It turned out that she didn't need my support at all, finishing with plenty of time to spare. Everyone else taking the test finished quite quickly as well.
After resting for a bit, Ranger Page and I headed out to the Savage Cabin to check out a possibly vandalized broken window. We took some photos and poked around.
We went out to the Savage Check Station, where we were given an old chewed up tent found in the backcountry by some day hikers.
On the way back east we drove onto the scene of a motorcycle accident. There were two vehicles stopped in the road, with the drivers moving the motorcycle off of the road, after appearing to have already helped the driver, the only one involved in the accident. At first, the driver appeared completely fine, as he was sitting up and talking. After coming over to talk to him we could see that he was probably injured. Ranger Page called for assistance and began conducting a medical assessment while I wrote down the information. She determined that he probably had a broken collarbone. He described going over the handlebars, luckily, he was wearing a helmet. Medic one (the ambulance) arrived along with several other rangers. I began directing traffic along with several maintenance employees who stopped to help while the rangers finished the assessment and loaded the man into the ambulance. He remained in good spirits throughout and we drove him to the clinic.
Wednesday was Safety Day at Denali. There were some presentations in the morning in the theatre in the visitor center and then there were stations that everyone rotated through. The presentations included an overview of the day and a video about mental health resources. During one presentation, Mountaineering Law Enforcement Ranger Chris Erickson gave a captivating account of a rescue he was on of a man who had fallen into a crevasse near one of the camps on Mount Denali.
The stations consisted of: Active Shooter, Road Lottery, Stretching/Dancing, Fire Extinguishers, Radio Communications, and Sexual Harassment.
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| This is not me, but it was the first time I used a fire extinguisher |
In the afternoon, I sat in on a fire refresher with several of the rangers and other park employees. This included an overview of the 2017 firefighting season, expectations for the current season, a discussion of margins (as in creating greater safety margins by mitigating risks, having backup plans, etc.), an in depth look at the Nuttall fire (in which backup plans were quickly eroded by unexpected fire behavior, injury, and poor communication), and a fire shelter deployment test. We had 25 seconds to open the packaged up shelters, shake them out, get inside them, and get on the ground with the edges sealed and as much air as possible inside. Pictured below are practice shelters.
Later this evening I had dinner with some of the Law Enforcement Rangers who were not working. I think they were sad that I was leaving, but perhaps they are all very good at masking their relief.
I was off for the last few days I had in Denali. I headed out into the backcountry for one last hurrah. I cut the trip short because the weather wasn't the greatest, but it was still a nice excursion. I went to the backcountry unit on the east side of the Muldrow, near where our former missing persons started out their trip. I did not cross the glacier, but rather I tried to get up onto a ridge to follow back to try and see where the Muldrow makes its sharp turn. I camped up on a hill overlooking the glacier the first night, but the next morning it was so cloudy I knew I wouldn't be able to see anything more. I headed back to the road, and just as I reached it the rain started.
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| View south across the thoroughfare river valley |
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| Looking northwest towards Kantishna and the two of the Muldrow, covered in sediment and plants |
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| Closer to where the Muldrow turns, covered in sediment but few plants |
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| Glacier Creek |
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| My campsite for the night |
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| Socked in |
After my trip, I had a little bit of time to pack up and clean my cabin. It was a bittersweet time in over in C-Camp cabin 552. Meaghan came over and baked me a cake to wish me farewell. We went into the Shaffer to share the cake with the Rangers who were on duty and the dispatchers in the Comms Center. While there, we learned about the sight seeing flight that crashed in Denali on 8/4. The dispatchers were busy coordinating the emergency response. The pilot had reported injuries, but that himself and all four passengers were alive and had emergency supplies. At the time, the weather was too poor to get a helicopter in there, as the plane had crashed on a 10,000 food ridge.
The next day I finished packing and cleaning and Ranger Beheller gave me a ride to the train station. I took the Alaska Railroad back to Fairbanks, flew to the twin cities, and then to JFK. My travel was very smooth, and I am pretty sure I saw the northern lights from the plane. With the right brightness and angle you can see a greenish shimmer above the light on the planes wing. It was not the most dazzling it could have been, but it was something I definitely did not expect to see during my time in Alaska and amazing nonetheless.
Since I have been home, I am saddened to hear that responders reached the plane crash site on 8/6 and discovered that all five people had died. As Ranger Erickson noted in his safety day talk, you can only do the best you can while focusing on your own safety.
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