Injured Utah Hiker Rescued Near Kings Peak

That chute is bad bad news. It was just a matter of time. Hopefully the guy recovers fully.
 
Cuberant said:
A few more details in this article http://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/10/20/utah-national-guard-brings-in-black-hawk-helicopter-to-rescue-hiker-who-fell-200-yards-in-the-uintas/

According to the article they were coming down the cute at 10pm with a sliver of a moon. Foolish at best.


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Sounds like the rescue took place at 10pm. The actual fall took place at 6pm. Still, it sounds like they camped at Dollar Lake the night before, didn't summit, and decided to go back down the chute into Henrys Fork basin. How it takes 10-12 hours to get from Dollar to Anderson is beyond me. Perhaps conditions were very challenging (they mentioned 8 in of snow in the chute), or perhaps they just got a late start.

That's also why I despise it when people leave their packs/tents down by Dollar and try and day hike up and back. If it works, great, but if it doesn't, you're caught in a very exposed area, at night, without a tent or sleeping bag or whatever else. I did that once when I was young and foolish (I'm now old and foolish) and, if more weather had moved in or something, I'd be another statistic. Take your pack up and leave it at Anderson. That way if wx moves in you can just bail down into Painters or Yellowstone and be fine.
 
I agree, that chute isn't worth it. I've experienced it once, and I found it very unstable much of the way down until I found a line further over that worked better for my knees and ankles. But still, it's a lot of hard work and patience, up or down. I really think taking the Gunsight route and the shortcut over to Anderson from there is much easier on both the lungs and the legs, and thus, though longer in miles, doesn't have to take much longer in duration to stick to that path.

And I found nothing exciting about Dollar Lake. There are far more scenic spots to make camp closer up to Gunsight and also gets you away from the crowds around Dollar. Though those spots don't provide as much tree cover to break up the wind.
 
WasatchWill said:
I agree, that chute isn't worth it. I've experienced it once, and I found it very unstable much of the way down until I found a line further over that worked better for my knees and ankles. But still, it's a lot of hard work and patience, up or down. I really think taking the Gunsight route and the shortcut over to Anderson from there is much easier on both the lungs and the legs, and thus, though longer in miles, doesn't have to take much longer in duration to stick to that path.

And I found nothing exciting about Dollar Lake. There are far more scenic spots to make camp closer up to Gunsight and also gets you away from the crowds around Dollar. Though those spots don't provide as much tree cover to break up the wind.
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I think that's it. Anything above Dollar is treeless until you get well into Painter.

Honestly I think the "best" way to hike the Henrys Fork approach is to go over Gunsight on day 1 and camp down in upper Painter. It's a long approach from Dollar, and because of that, people are often going up when you should be going down. It's a little bit longer, mileage-wise, to camp in upper Painter and skip the cutoff between Gunsight and Anderson, but most people do the trip in three days anyway. Camping in Painter just makes the summit day so much more pleasant. And, if you're properly prepared and take your pack up to Anderson, you can go down the Anderson cutoff to Gunsight and camp night #2 in upper Henrys Fork. Still out by mid-afternoon on Day 3.

Or, just take a longer trip and hike out of East Fork Blacks Fork, which is a much cooler trip. Anybody hiked out of China Meadows before?
 
Artemus said:
Looks like they had two helicopters. One rescuing and one filming...
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Yeah. According to the SL Tribune story...

Department of Public Safety Chief Pilot Luke Bowman recorded the rescue from his helicopter, which was grounded because the agency is not certified to hoist people at night. So Bowman called in the National Guard to perform the rescue under a dark sky with only a sliver of a moon.​
 
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