Death Canyon, Wyoming, USA

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Death Canyon, Wyoming, USA

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Hiking

Hiking

Mountain

Mountain

Medical emergency

Medical emergency

Hiking

Death Canyon, Wyoming, USA

43.6529852°N, -110.8066008°W

Posted on September 11, 2018 by Nathaniel

What happened?

8/9 we left camp at Phelps Lake for a long hard hike up Death Canyon Trail to the Alaskan Basin Trail through Static Pass – about 7.2 miles overall. We got about 4.3 miles in hiking switchbacks up Albright Mountain on a narrow trail and stopped for lunch at a creek crossing. It was hot (90deg), hazy from the western fires, and 8,800 ft elevation. After we ate Nathaniel got sick – he had a severe asthma attack. We got him through it and stabilized but he was in no shape to walk out. The nearest trailhead was over 5.2 miles away, he was very wobbly on a very narrow trail and we each had about 36 pound packs. 

We set off our ACR PLB and Nathaniel got airlifted off the mountain to the Search and Rescue Base Camp at Lupine Meadows. The pic is of Nathaniel being plucked out. The SAR Rangers are awesome! If anyone is trying to figure out where to donate to a great cause my vote is the National Park Service. 

Nathaniel was cleared by medical about an hour after he got to the station. All was ok at that point with him. It took Abe and me about 2hrs of hard hiking out to meet him and the Ranger at the trail head.

Words of wisdom

Be prepared – you never know what’s going to happen.

Thank you note

Thank you!!! Kept a bad day from being much much worse.

Rescue location

Death Canyon, Wyoming, USA

Rescue team

Local Search and Rescue

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