Canadian climbers' heroic will to live

By ANDREW McINTOSH and KINIA ADAMCZYK, QMI Agency  
cnew.canoe.ca

SEATTLE, Wash. – Two Canadians who tumbled off a cliff during a blinding snowstorm on Mount Rainier this spring feared a lonely, icy death before rangers finally located and rescued them, according to dramatic recordings of the woman’s 911 calls.

"Don’t let me die here please," Quebecker Geneviève Morand begged 911 operators from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, south of Seattle, in Washington state.

"We will die here if we’re not rescued," she told the operator, referring to herself and boyfriend, Simon Brunet.


"I don’t wanna die," Morand told another. "I’m afraid to lose the signal on my cellphone... I can’t feel my body parts anymore. Please!"

QMI Agency obtained recordings of Morand’s 911 cellular telephone calls on April 26 and April 27 under Washington state and federal U.S. Freedom of Information legislation.

The calls were made to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park Service, which manages Mount Rainer National Park, and the Pierce County Sheriff.

The calls show a heroic effort by Morand to contact authorities and help them pinpoint the couple’s location, even as they battled storm conditions, frozen hands and feet, altitude sickness, a dying telephone battery, bad connections and language barriers.

Morand is heard becoming increasingly frantic to get help after several of her earlier calls were disconnected as 911 operators tried to redirect her call from a county 911 service to a U.S. National Park ranger rescue station high on the mountain itself, the calls indicate.

"Please can somebody stop transferring me and just help me?" she begged another local 911 operator. He was struggling to transfer her calls to rangers at Mount Rainier National Park who could help locate and help the couple.

Morand is heard breathing heavily during the series of 911 calls. Brunet is unconscious, she says, after working to keep them from being buried alive during an all-night snowstorm. She repeatedly presses operators and rangers to tell her how long it will take rescuers to find them:
Morand: "Do you know, please, I really have to know how long I have to survive before you getting me?"

Ranger: "We're trying to get to you as soon as possible."

Morand: "I know, but do you have an estimation because I need to prepare myself, my mind, for this fight."

Ranger: "It could be as soon as one hour or it could take us a lot longer than that if we cannot find you."

Morand: "What does it mean, a lot longer?"

Ranger: "It could be several hours, it could be most of the day. We will try to continue to put people around you but you're far down in a hole so it's very hard to find you."

Morand: "OK, sir."

Ranger: "We have everyone in the park trying to help."

Morand: "Sir, I won't survive a whole day."

Ranger: "We are trying our hardest... Try to keep a clear mind. We are looking for you. We have everyone trying."

Morand: "OK."

Ranger: "We are talking to your family too so they know of the situation, think of them."
Mt. Rainier rangers eventually found the couple. A helicopter took them to a local hospital, where they were treated for hypothermia and altitude sickness before going home.

Lost climbers

Not all climbers who fall and or get lost on treacherous Mount Rainier are as lucky as Geneviève Morand and Simon Brunet.

More than 300 have perished in the park since it was created in the 1900’s and some are never found. Three climbers have died on the slopes of the 13,000-foot mountain this summer alone:
On June 5, Mark Wedeven of Olympia, Wa., was buried alive in an avalanche while ascending Mount Rainer with 11 others, who survived. The group ignored a ranger extreme avalanche warning before their outing.
In July, Eric Lewis of Duvall, Wa., went missing during a climb and is presumed dead by authorities and his family. Lewis became separated from his group after he unclipped himself from a rope in a windstorm with no visibility.
On July 10, Lee Adams, 52, of Seattle, Wash.,fell to his death on Mount Rainier's Emmons Glacier. Adams was coming down from the summit with three other climbers when another climber — not Adams — tripped and fell, and Adams crashed 35 feet down into a crevasse. He died on impact, Rainier National Park officials said.