Rescue from Wildcat Mtn in NH - first person

[peakbagger]

My rescue story off the “AT” (sort of)
A few weekends ago we had a warm day up in Northern Nh. I had all my winter prep done and wanted some exercise. When solo I tend to stick to popular trails and when there could be ice conditions I stick with wide open trails. Wildcat Mtn across from Pinkham Notch is four thousand footer and fills the bill and is 15 minute drive from my house. The hike up the summit and the AT iI used is via a ski trail that happens to have a maintenance “road” to the summit. The AT up Wildcat is somewhat infamous for its vertical climb. The “road” is steep in spots and washed out but ATVs and heavy equipment runs up it all the way to the summit. It started out cold but I eventually was in shorts and t shirt. It was uneventful until near the summit when a couple of ski patrollers came by in an ATV. I passed them at the top and they were getting ready for the upcoming ski season at the summit.

I went up the platform at the summit and then headed down. I was about 15 minutes down from the summit walking in grass and in the sun with a nice view. Next thing I knew I stumbled and landed badly. I knew I did some damage. I looked down and my foot was rotated about 90 degrees from where it should be and rotated vertically. The bottom of the leg did not line up with the foot. So definitely major dislocation. I was not walking down. I layered up a bit and made the 911 call. The upper mountain looks down at cell tower in Gorham so it has got good coverage.

The 911 operator answers and goes through the standard questions. She asks me where I am as my cell location is moving around a bit. I explain I am on the side of a ski trail called the Polecat. Her map obviously does not have ski trails on it. She spends a few minutes trying to locate where I was on the AT which is about a 15-minute walk back up the mountain. I explain my location a few times but she keeps trying to have me describe where I am on the Wildcat Ridge trail (the AT). I suggest she contact NH Fish and Game. She informs me that she has to follow protocol and hands me off the local dispatcher in Gorham. The Gorham dispatcher then asks me the same exact questions and has the same issue with location. Eventually I get handed off to F&G and get one of the “celebrities” from the North Woods law cable show., Chris Lucas. I fill him in where I am at and explain I am less than 40 feet from the maintenance road on the Polecat ski trail. My guess was around 3700 feet up (the base is roughly 2000 feet) He asks me if he could drive his truck up the maintenance road, I reply that he probably does not have to if he calls Wildcat ski patrol. He does and calls me back that they will be there in few minutes. I was starting to get cold as I was sitting in wet grass and no doubt a bit shocky. A few hikers come by and I let them know that they are going to witness a rescue. I am just sitting on the ground and not screaming so I don’t think they realize the severity. They get a bit closer and see my foot and then they figure it out. They offered to go for help but I let them know that the ski patrol if coming. They look up the slope and can see them.

The ski patrollers come do an assessment. They are used to high velocity rescues so collateral damage is more likely. I am definitely not a high velocity sports person 😉 Both are EMTs with the local ambulances and long-term ski area employees. They figure out that the ankle is the only damage so they get creative with Sam splints and immobilize the leg and foot. They pulled up the side-by-side ATV in front of me and with some effort and assistance I got up on one foot and transferred to the seat. They also let me know that they cannot administer pain meds but they could assist me if I had any. I had them go in my pack and get two 200 MG Advil’s and that was my dose for the day with an ankle fully dislocated. It was a slow bumpy ride down the mountain. They were keeping me talking and I love to talk so I asked them if they did many ankles these days. They did do one for a guest that slipped in the parking lot last year but most on mountain injuries are knees and shoulders due to the new ski boots in use.

At the bottom I get transferred to an ambulance and then off to the hospital in Berlin. When I get there the ER doc looks at my foot and informs me that he has to get the foot back in place ASAP and he might be able to do it without knocking me out but given my size and he and his nurses that they would not be able to restrain me as it was really going to hurt since they need to pull it out straight and then let it slide back into place. The ER doc was surprised I was not in more pain. No pain meds until the anesthesiologist on call can come and knock me out. After 20 minutes he shows up, asks me few questions and then gives me a shot. Next thing I know I am in a splint and they are taking X-rays. I have a completely broken Fibula (the small leg bone) and possible crack to the tibia (the big bone). It’s a classic sideways break. They send me home with prescription for Percocet and antibiotics. From the time of the fall to getting home was about four and a half hours which is record time for a mountain rescue since they did not have to mobilize a litter team and I never got to meet the celebrity fish and game officer. I never took the Percocet’s but have been going through lot of Advil (600 MG every 4 hours) which is acceptable under “doctors care”. Fast forward to today and I am at home with a 7” titanium plate attached to my fibula with 7 screws and 2 in the tibia to deal with a crack. I lucked out on a possible extra bonus 2 screws that would have doubled my recovery time. In theory it is another week to get the sutures removed (I am counting the days) and then 4 weeks with a removable cast with orders not to put any weight on the joint. From what I have read, it’s a long recovery to gain full function. The hardware can stay in but it is recommended it comes out in year as otherwise the bone does not regain full strength and the hardware can cause irritation.

So post-accident a few comments. I had picked the hike in advance to be on a popular trail with easy access. I was familiar with cell coverage in the area and knew I should have coverage. I also always carry a PLB in the pack so I had a backup. I had extra clothing but was unable to pull on an extra layer that I had over my ankle so I was bit cool in the legs and in the butt. I also had a reflective foil type Red Cross bivy bag. I did not need it but I would have needed to slit it as I do not think I could have unassisted slide my leg into it. I sat on my pack to get up off the ground eventually. I normally carry a small piece of closed cell foam in winter to sit on but it got taken out of the pack this summer. My pack has curved aluminum rear frame and is not that comfortable to sit on. I had adequate fluids in the pack for a day hike. (it’s usually 2 to 2.5 hours up and 1.5 hours down via he ski trail. My NH hike safe card was paid up for the year but since F&G didn’t have to respond, its not chargeable. I have been hiking since 1969 as a young boy scout including the entire AT as a section hiker and this the first major accident that required assistance. I have hiked in the White Mountains on the infamous rocky trails since 1987 and normally use two hiking poles. I usually carry them in my hands horizontally on easy walking sections like a grassy ski slope. I switched to trail runners 20 years ago and have used them while hiking in the whites for the same period of time. I have tendency to roll my right ankle when hiking on occasion. With trail runners it’s a few minutes of expletives and then I hike on and get up in the AM and go hiking again. Given its fall and the trail might be wet, I had switched to a mid-height Dunham Cloud boot as trail runners will get wet and cold. The Dunham’s have some ankle support but it’s not a high boot as I have short lower leg and a standard high boot laced tight enough to really lock in the ankle constricts my lower leg muscles. I cannot wear plastic winter boots for the same reason. When I look at the physics of it, the new boots created more of a torque arm when I rolled the ankle increasing the force on the inner leg bone.

So net result is long boring winter indoors feeding the wood boiler. Once I get the go ahead, I do have a club model stair climber and an exercise bike but getting around in ice and snow will be challenging. I picked up a knee crutch which is funky device that lets me walk around without crutches once my rigid splint is downsized. I have already dug through my gear and rigged up a microspike for its Vibram sole to assist with slippery conditions.

IMO it was just random chance I broke it while hiking, I have far rougher terrain on my wood lot.

[JNI64]

Wow! What a story thanks for sharing. Sounds like you were well prepared and did all the right things to me. The muscles in that leg are going to be a long time coming back to normal especially that calf muscle. Baby steps right. Good luck with everything!

[tiptoe]

Peakbagger, sorry about the mishap, but glad you are ok. Remember that this too shall pass. I had an oddly similar experience in 2011, just after Hurricane Irene, right down to the plates and screws. I was back on the trail a couple of years later, and finished my AT section hiking when I summited Katahdin, still hiking solo, in 2018.

[jeffmeh]

So sorry to hear about the injury, and wishing you fast healing. That said, gratifying to hear that in planning and execution you leveraged that most important piece of equipment, i.e., the one between your ears.

Lastly, I recently decided that I should get a PLB as I do a lot of solo trips, and one never knows... Your experience reinforces the decision.

[Deadeye]

Quite a contrast between this and the Adirondack rescue thread. Even the well-prepared need aid sometimes. Hope you heal well and get back on the trail.

Re: boots vs. ankles, when I used to downhill ski in the 60's and 70's, ski boots evolved from hard leather above the ankle boots to plastic boots that went to mid-calf or higher. At the same time, ski injuries evolved from broken ankles to blown out knees due the the change in torque applied.

[illabelle]

Wow, just wow! That had to be not just physically shocking, but mentally shocking to see a part of your body that isn't where it belongs. I'm impressed with how well you thought your way through your situation, and glad to hear that surgery is over and healing is in progress.

I hope you're young enough that your bones heal nicely. That's one of the benefits of being active - aging doesn't hit us quite so hard.

If I had to choose a season to sit at home, I guess it would be winter. The days are too short.

[TJ aka Teej]

Rest and heal, Peakbagger.

[Alligator]

Sorry to hear that Peakbagger, hope it heals back to normal in time.

I've been prescribed up to 800mg of ibuprofen before. It can be hard on the stomach.

[Recalc]

The posted accident description is humbling. There's a part of me that believes experienced & well informed hikers like you are immune to such mishaps. Glad your response led to a good outcome. Hope your recovery time is short.

[Trailweaver]

Sorry to hear about your accident, and glad you were as well prepared as you were, getting down safely.
My friends always, always worried about me hiking alone (female, older than some people), and worried that I would get eaten by a bear (not likely) or injured on the trail and unable to help myself. I have always been very cautious on the trail, using hiking poles and very cautiously crossing creeks, stepping on slick rock, etc. I broke my leg in a very similar fashion to yours in 2011. . . in my back yard! Walking up a slight slope, the grass was wet and my foot slipped, and then turned. I went down on my knees, and when I looked at my right foot, I realized it was facing one direction and my knee was facing another direction. When I raised my leg slightly, my foot rotated back to a "normal" position, but I knew it was broken because I'd heard the snap.
I had surgery for it - and a bad surgeon who didn't know what he was doing, so I got the wrong hardware (plate and screws), and a bad annesthiologist did permanent nerve damage with the nerve block gone wrong. The result was a "non-union fracture" - ie: a broken leg that never healed and I had for two years before I was able to find another surgeon to fix the fracture. This guy had trained with a Russian combat unit, and knew quite a bit about shattered legs, so I was "re-built" with removal of the plate and screws, and a titanium rod was put in, along with a bone marrow transplant to rebuild the lower third of my leg. (Thanks to the motorcycle accident victim who was a bone marrow donor.)
It took months of physical therapy, but it's as good as new now, except for the nerve damage. It swells a lot after several miles, and it hurts sometimes all night, but function is good. I'm grateful to be able to walk (there had been a discussion by several doctors about amputation because no one could figure out how to fix the mess of shattered bone from my ankle up to about 6 inches). And I am very grateful that I didn't have the accident on the trail, as I never wanted the experience of trying to get off the trail by having to have someone else carry me. I would have done it if necessary, of course, but awfully glad I didn't have to.

[JNI64]

I think the more we go out and do these fun but risky activities the more chances of course something can happen, and if something can go wrong sooner or later it will.
I think they call this "laws of average " and "Murphys law".

[rickb]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

As one who once eagerly awaited the Appalachia accident reports, I think yours would have certainly stood out as a great reminder how “stuff happens”, and to factor that possibility into our trip planning — especially in the winter. So many lessons in there on how to do things right, both before your accident and afterwards.

While it may not fit the actual definition, I am going to call that a self rescue nevertheless.

[somers515]

I wish you a fast and full recovery so you can get back outside to the mountains you love!

[rubyvermonter]

Thanks for sharing your experience as it is a good reminder to all of us that accidents do happen and why it is so important to be prepared. I hope you have a full and speedy recovery.

[sore ankle]

Sorry to hear about your mishap. Get better fast but be patient doing it. As I saw on a poster years ago, "Time heals all non-fatal wounds."

[JPritch]

What a story! Wish you the best in your recovery. My biggest fear hiking solo is a lower limb injury. Just yesterday I was trudging through leaf drifts mid shin high and feeling out rocks underneath. Your story makes me seriously consider some type of plb.

[Slo-go'en]

Ouch! Sorry to hear that Peakbagger Hope you got all your wood in for the winter.

The older I get, the more I fear something like that happening to me. All it takes in one miss step. This fall I lost my footing on a loose rock and took a tumble coming down Mount Bond, about as far from a road and as difficult a place to get to which is possible in the Whites. I was able to dust myself off and keep going. but instead of just being bruised, it could have been much worse.

[peakbagger]

Thanks for the well wishes for recovery.

I got my wood ready, one of the reasons I went hiking was I had all my winter prep work in place. Unfortunately my wood boiler is in my basement and I store most of my wood outdoors. That said I have some friends that filled up my bulkhead so I do have about 1/2 cord of wood I can get to and can probably get them to refill it a few times before I wear out my welcome. I also have some folks that can help me out with store and doctor runs. With Covid supply interruptions and our local grocery situation, I maintain inventory in a separate freezer. so I will not starve. I can do stairs slowly with crutches but I am currently limited to how long I stand upright before the repairs start swelling. I need to run the boiler daily in cold weather and seem to be pulling it off. I also have a minisplit that can cover my heating needs down to about 20 F. And if all else fails, I have heating oil which I avoid. Heck I just got a solar powered microgrid working about a week before my accident so if I lose power (surprisingly a very rare occasion despite living in a rural area), I have 8 KWs of solar panels and two backup batteries and a diesel to run the house for a long time with no grid. Somewhat like the contents of my pack I do have backup plans

Optimistically, when the sutures come out next week, I can switch over to a knee crutch. Here is video of one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KBXDJRj-XM I would not be able to use one if I blew out a knee. It will be interesting but if the snow holds off a bit I may be able to run my snowblower with a knee crutch. I have already adapted a broken microspike for the foot of the knee crutch for icy conditions. I paid for plowing for years but my plow guy retired and sold his gear and finding a new one is going to be difficult as the guys who normally do it are too busy working other jobs so snowblowing is currently the only option. Supposedly 4 weeks from when the sutures get pulled, I should be able to put weight on my ankle. Unfortunately it is my right foot so driving is on hold. Luckily after years of driving a stick, the new Rav 4 is an automatic. I have plenty of parts around the house to rig up a hand throttle control but installing it would be difficult. I do not need to drive. I wish there was uber or even a taxi locally, but I do have a source of rides with some planning.

On the hiking front I let MATC know that my section of AT corridor boundary will not get visited until 2023. It has had a lot of work by ATC in the last few years so the marking is in good shape. Due to the terrain it is not that exposed to timber trespass so it can probably survive not being visited for a year. I have to be ready for full mountain goat mode to walk the boundary swaths as it is prime territory to roll an ankle. Hopefully I can get back to that level of condition, but it will be a challenge (if you think Moody and Hall Mountain in Maine is difficult on the AT, the corridor boundary is far more interesting )

A friend and I try to get out to the lesser used more remote areas of the whites on occasion as long day hikes. We don't see a lot of folks as most of the use is in the areas near the roads. On occasion we encounter trail runners with a hydration bladder with a small pouch incorporated in the bladder for their wallet, car keys, cellphone and not much else. There is no cell coverage in those areas so any rescue is going to be a real long time. I know I was starting to cool down and needed extra layers and definitely shock was creeping in. I have no clue what a trail runner would do if they had a similar injury except to wish and hope a better equipped hiker comes by soon enough.

Given NH F&G did not mobilize I guess I will miss out on my minute of fame in the Appalachia journal. I do not mind.

One odd thing is I was lucky that the broken bone did not come out of the leg. I don't do blood that well and expect I would be freaking out a lot more. I didn't spend a lot of time staring at the foot after I made the initial assessment. I will say when they got the boot and sock off at the hospital it looked real weird as my leg just didn't line up with my foot. The injury was fairly fresh, so it wasn't bruised, it sort of looked like a photoshopped image. When they removed the splint 5 days later (due to delays) it was a lot uglier due to bruising but at least things lined up.

[chiefduffy]

Prayers for a speedy recovery, Peakbagger. Hang in there!

[JNI64]

A compound fracture would have been much worse on so many levels for sure. I might have missed it but you don't mention physical therapy. Them leg muscles of course have gone into complete atrophy and your limits of range of motion for instance. I tore my ACL years ago and have 2 screws one sticks out and you can see every once and while I'll hit on something ouch . But I had to learn how to walk again in the pool.