Our rescue:
INJURED CLIMBER RESCUED FROM EL CAPITAN
July 13, 1997
An injured Japanese climber was flown off the summit of El Capitan Sunday morning after spending the night with rescue team members who hauled him up the side of the cliff to safety shortly before dark Saturday evening.
33 year old Hideki Inaba is an experienced mountaineer from Japan. He was making a difficult, multi-day technical solo climb of the "Cosmos" route up the face of El Capitan. Through broken English, Inaba told rescuers he fell about 30 feet while making a climbing move Friday morning, smashing his head into the granite rock face. Members of his climbing party discovered his blood-stained helmet Saturday morning and alerted rangers, who began an extensive rescue effort.
Rescuers were flown by helicopter to the top of El Capitan, where they proceed to lower medical personnel down to the injured man. Inaba was on a rock ledge, alert and moving around. He had a large cut behind his right ear, complained of spinal pain between his shoulder blades, and was very hungry and thirsty.
Rescuers put Inaba in a litter and hauled him over 600 feet up the rock face to the top of the cliff. He was placed in a spinal collar and on a long board as a precautionary measure. By then it was too dark to fly Inaba to Yosemite Valley. He and 15 rescue team members spent the night on the top of El Capitan.
Inaba was flown off the summit to El Capitan Meadow at 9:30 a.m., then taken by ambulance to the Yosemite Medical Clinic for evaluation and x-rays. He was reported in stable condition.
As many as three dozen people were involved in the rescue effort, including Yosemite National Park rangers, Yosemite Search and Rescue Team members, the Marin Co. Search and Rescue Team, the U.S. Forest Service, and the California Air National Guard .
EL CAPITAN CLIMBER STATUS UPDATE
July 13, 1997
33 year old Hideki Inaba is being treated at the Yosemite Medical Clinic in Yosemite Valley. The laceration behind his right ear has been sutured. Medical personnel are in the process of rehydrating him. Inaba is expected to be released from the clinic later this afternoon.
DARKNESS HALTS RESCUE OF INJURED EL CAPITAN CLIMBER
July 12, 1997
An injured Japanese climber and 17 rescue team members are spending the night on the top of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
Hideki Inaba, 33, from Japan, was solo climbing the difficult "Cosmos" route up the face of El Capitan when he reportedly fell about 6:30 a.m. Friday morning. Two other climbers found his blood stained helmet at the base of the mountain Saturday morning and reported it to rangers.
Search and Rescue team members used a telescope to spot Inaba on the mountain. With a bull horn and another climber to translate, they were able to learn Inaba was injured and was seeking help.
As many as three dozen people were involved in the rescue effort, including the Marin Co. Search and Rescue Team, a U.S. Forest Service helicopter, and a California Air National Guard helicopter and refueling tanker from Moffat Field. Inaba was secured in a litter and slowly winched up roughly 600 feet, reaching the top of El Capitan by about 7:40 p.m.
Medical personnel on the scene report the climber has a gash behind one ear, and is reporting some spinal pain. He'll spend the night in a spinal collar and secured to a long board as a precautionary measure.
Inaba will be carried to a safe landing zone on the El Capitan summit in the morning where he'll be taken by helicopter to a medical facility.