"Woman with Broken Leg"
Rescued on Mt. Shasta
Reprinted by permission from the Mt. Shasta Herald

Dated July 1, 1998 from the Mt. Shasta Herald

A Bend, Oregon woman was rescued from the slopes of Mt. Shasta last week after falling and suffering a broken leg, the Siskiyou County Sheriffs Department reported. An initial 911 call came from a climber at 11:13 a.m. on Thursday morning, according to the search and rescue team chief Sgt. Dave Nicholson. Using a cell phone, the climber informed an emergency operator that someone skied to his location and said Lois R. Johnson, 52, of Bend was lying with a broken leg somewhere above Lake Helen.

Since a California Highway Patrol helicopter was already in the area, the sheriffs department asked that it be diverted to Lake Helen. It landed there at 12:05 p.m., Nicholson said. However, Johnson was located some 500 feet above Lake Helen and could not be approached easily. Nicholson said the helicopter returned to Mount Shasta to pick up a member of the department's search and rescue team, then returned to Lake Helen. But because the cloud level had lowered dramatically, the helicopter was unable to land.

After returning again to the helipad at Mercy Medical Center Mt. Shasta, the pilot called the state Office of Emergency Services and requested a military helicopter, according to Nicholson. That helicopter, a National Guard machine, arrived at 3:31 p.m. and transported search and rescue personnel to the Weed airport for a snow cat in case clouds continued to lower on the mountain.

Meanwhile, members of the Forest Service's search and rescue team were contacted, and they ascended from Bunny Flat to Lake Helen in search of the injured climber. When they arrived, Nicholson said, they were able to contact someone in Johnson's party who informed them that a doctor had unexpectedly arrived and determined Johnson could safely be moved to Lake Helen. But visibility remained near zero.

At 4 p.m. Nicholson was notified that Johnson was resting in a tent at Lake Helen. Then, just before 7 p.m. there was a break in the clouds and the military helicopter carrying four search and rescue volunteers was able to land a the dry lake. Johnson finally arrived at Mercy Medical Center at 7:15 p.m. A Mercy spokesperson said Johnson was still being treated at the hospital as of Monday morning.

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