Important!!!! - Ellen Coleman is missing

[Hikin_Jim]

Yeah, I saw that. Lowlife.

[HikeUp]

Maybe he was signaling the mother ship.

[Cy Kaicener]

RMRU is starting to come out with the story which they promise soon. They say Ellen crawled to the hut.
http://www.rmru.org/missions/2008/2008-006.html

[zippetydude]

Wow, this story is taking on a whole new tone. Found in the shelter at the summit. Next info - with a broken ankle. Ouch. Getting worse - broken leg instead. Even worse - crawled for several hours. Poor Ellen! I wish one of us had been out there with her! Good thing Ellen is tough - a lesser athlete wouldn't have made it.

Ellen: I hope your recovery is swift and painless, and I can't wait to hear the whole story from your own lips! Take care girl!

z

[Perry]

I was thinking the same thing: that Ellen is tough. It says she crawled for several hours. Maybe she can tell us how far she crawled...

[Jim Bakos]

Yeah, my initial information was a little off. Ellen has a displaced fib/tib break just above the ankle, and some finger tip blackening that the doctors at Desert Medical don't think is true frostbite.

Our team members that found her in the hut were amazed at her tenacity. I gathered from their debriefing that Ellen had started down toward Tamarack, slipped on her snowshoes and broke her leg, then crawled for ~ 4 hours back up to the summit hut. She said she should have been wearing crampons instead...

It should be (because of all the news vans at our command post) all over the news tonight (ABC, CBS, NBC, etc).

Thanks again to all of you on the board for the information you provided. This helped imensly in planning our search assignments.

Now hopefully no one will go missing for a few days, and the members of Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit, China Lake, LA County, San Bernardino, San Diego, and all the others that worked these searches can get some rest!

--Jim

[Hikin_Jim]

...crawled for ~ 4 hours back up to the summit hut

Holy canoli! Ellen is one tough lady! Uphill in conditions requiring crampons? Injured? Um, that's pretty darned impressive. Wow!

Thanks very much for the update, Jim. I hope you get some much needed rest.

[hvydrt]

The Channel 7 news just had a story about all the rescues on San J. They said Ellen crawled 3 miles? Wow! They interviewed a SAR person that said she was prepared for the conditions.

[halhiker]

On Thursday the conditions were mostly wind packed snow with a hard snow layer over soft snow. I walked down without my snowshoes on and it was OK except for a few times when I post holed up to the middle of my thigh. Don't know if crampons would have helped or hindered but that's purely speculation. Conditions were not light and fluffy or hard and icy so you were kind of in no man's land.

If there is any positive to be drawn from this it is the inspiration from a very strong willed woman in the face of terrible circumstances. It's not quite "Touching the Void" but for Ellen I'm sure it was.

[AlanK]

If there is any positive to be drawn from this it is the inspiration from a very strong willed woman in the face of terrible circumstances. It's not quite "Touching the Void" but for Ellen I'm sure it was.

It may not be Touching the Void but I think we'll agree that it's closer than we'd ever be voluntarily.

Ellen -- you are tough. We thought we knew that before, but we really had no clue!