Search and rescue

The previous day had really worn us out. The long miles, big elevation change, and waking up at 1 30 am had us beat. The next morning Sam took off way before the rest of us. Dilly, beans, pacer and i all slept in until 7 30. Forester pass was in about 7 or 8 miles and I was curious as to what the snow would be like. Forester is notorious for its steep ascent.  It's basically a little notch between two peaks with a narrow chute that is often chuck full of snow. I got to the base of the pass and decided to put my micro spikes on to help on the steep parts of the snow. The pass ended up not being bad at all. There was only one 20 ft stretch in the chute that you had to be careful on. At the top, I decided to glisade down.  It was so much fun to slide down the pass, however I could only make it halfway down because the snow was thinning out. Once back on trail we came across a hiker named Bingo struggling to get up after having fallen in the snow. We helped her up, but it was clear she was in a lot of pain. She said her hip had been bothering her the last few days, and that her last fall really aggravated it. We decided to split the weight of her pack between us so that she could have lighter load. We followed footprints in the snow and unfortunately they led us to the edge of a rocky cliff. We could see the trail off to the right, so we had to either back track through the snow or scramble across rocks to get back to the trail. Neither option was ideal, but bingo said she'd rather go across the rocks because it was shorter. Every step she took she seemed to be in more and more pain. Once back on trail she made it about more yards until she had to stop because of the pain. It was another 14 miles to the nearest place where she could get off trail. And in those 14 miles she would have to cross over snow fields, ford rivers and make it over a pass. It was pretty clear to all of us that there was no way she would be able to make all of that. We sat down and discussed with her and I told her the best option was to hit the SOS button on her SPOT device. She didn't want to, but she knew it was her only option at that point. We had know idea who, what or when help would arrive so we made her as comfortable as she could be right there on the trail. I tried to lighten the mood by saying how jealous I was that she might get to ride in a helicopter, and that she would be getting a hot shower and food tonight. However, it was only temporary because soon she started developing symptoms of shock. She had the chills, nausea, and was very disoriented. We laid out her sleeping pad and bag so she could lie down. Sam, beans and pacer went down trail to catch her group she was hiking with to let them know what happened to bingo. 3 hours went by and we still had know idea what form of and when help would arrive. We decided that if no help came by 7 we would just set up camp right there on trail and wait it out with her. Fortunately though after 4 hours a helicopter came zooming up the canyon. It was such a huge relief to hear those choppers blades buzzing. The chopper had to land about 1/4 mile away from us as we were still on a ridge. A couple ranger's came up with a stretcher to carry her down the trail.  6 at a time we all took turns holding the stretcher as we carried her down trail.  There were lots of steps, rocks and snow patches we had to go over and bingo yelled in pain anytime the stretcher took a big jolt. It took us about 20 minutes get her down to the chopper. . But once she was there it was a huge relief to know that she would be getting medical attention that evening. We saidour goodbyes to her and watched as the chopper carried her away. Its always hard to see a hiker leave trail, especially ina chopper. It really made me realize how lucky I was not to have any injuries, as there have been plenty of times that i have tripped, slipped or postholed where i have could have seriously hurt myself.  I also thought about how what a great job be a search and rescue ranger would be. Possible career path? I thought abiut that the  of the hike that day.  We camped just before Kearsarge pass so we could have an easy morning into town the next day for our resupply. I also realized that evening that i somehow left my hiking shirt on top of mt whitney with my pocket knife in it. Don't know how managed to do that haha. Oh well I'm not susurprised. I've lost two spoons, three lighters two pot scrapers, two pocket knives, and a now a shirt. Not to bad for 850 miles haha. Luckily there is a good outfitter in bishop.