Saturday, July 4, 2009

A DAY HIKE IN THE MOUNTAINS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA


TRAGEDY CHEATED!
A DAY HIKE IN THE MOUNTAINS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
A Real Life Story By Jeanette Beachy Saffarek

My grown son Grant was home for a week, so I took a day off with him. I thought it would be nice to go for a hike. Grant asked his friend Aaron if he would like to come along, he said sure, so I asked Aaron's mom Judy to come. Judy is my hiking friend. Aaron had just come home from Calgary recently too. So we thought we would have a mother/son hiking day.
We decided to go up a mountain that we had hiked several times before, but never in the spring, or in snow. It was a beautiful sunny day, the snow trail was hard – packed and away we went. As we climbed higher we came to an area where there was an old mining road cut into the side of the hill. The road was about eight feet wide, then a drop into a ravine. The snow had filled in the road cut in the side of the hill, so it was all one big snow covered slope. Grant was in the lead and had walked out about 15 ft. ahead, and said, “this is getting sketchy” (sketchy is his latest word for dicey, or iffy). So we stood and discussed, should we go a different way etc.
I decided we should cut up hill a bit, Aaron went to make a move, and poof away he went down the hill. He had fallen and took off, just as if he was on a toboggan. I was calling on the name of Jesus, and his mom was praying too, but very calm (normally she screams at the drop of a hat), Aaron would hit small trees, then break through, and off he would go again. It was awful to watch! He finally reached another road near the bottom, but he still went up the side of the bank, then back down before he finally stopped. If he had not been somewhat slowed by the trees I think he would have had too much momentum and would have been off again down the other side of the bank. He got up and said he was OK. So we were greatly relieved! Grant decides to go down and help him. We figured he had gone about 300 – 400 feet.

I decided to go back to where Judy was, I had just walked out there, I turned
(I think), the next thing I knew I was down and headed down the mountain too! I knew was going to be OK even as I took off praying. I broke thru the first set of trees, then hit the 2nd set which was much bigger and stopped. I had gone about fifty feet. As I was there Judy's dog went sailing down the mountain. The same place where Aaron had gone down.
The dog was standing perfectly still, and flying down the hill. He was OK.
Grant very carefully gathered our scattered snowshoes, which we lost off our packs. Grant had to talk me off the hill. He would bang his heel into the snow 4 or 5 times to make an indent the size of 2 X 2 inches and only about ½ inch deep. That was the only foothold we could have. To sit down was the worse, you wouldn't have survived.

Anyhow, this old lady has learned a hard lesson, and thank God I lived without injury to tell about it.
Aaron skinned his hands and arms up pretty bad, as he wasn't wearing gloves. The snow was so hard it took the skin off (like road rash). Now I know how people kill themselves in the wilderness, and they will say, “they were an experienced outdoor person”. I was experienced in a very limited area, but not in those conditions,

Jeanette lives in Smithers BC where her and husband Kurt raised their family. Jeanette works in the lab at the local hospital when she is not out hiking.