The two sheep hunter were saved close to Tonsina in the last weekend through crews from the Alaska Air National Guard helicopter crew after a pilot reported that they had spent two hours “just hanging onto the cliff edge” hundreds of meters above surface.
As per Guard officials they used the satellite InReach device to notify them on Friday night that they had been trapped on the cliff in Tonsina around 165 miles to the east of Anchorage.
Guard Capt. Tim Lezama said the call arrived at six p.m. Friday, after hunter had followed an animal up the cliff, triggering the need for a rescue effort in an emergency. He claimed that the Pave Hawk helicopter and a rescue plane that carried pararescuemen known as PJs, were able to be repositioned within a half-hour at Anchorage’s Joint Base ELMendorf-Richardson and completed the flight within about 50 minutes.
The hunters reported that they were wearing camouflage which made finding them on the cliff’s 6,000-foot height difficult.
“They were almost at the edge of the cliff,” Lezama said. “Like the way PJ described it”they were pretty much one foot on the rock and were holding to.”
The helicopter crew decided against hovering immediately on the edge, according to Lezama because of fears of rotor wash blowing hunters off the face. Instead they and the PJs first put belay lines in place on the edge of the cliff. They then put them across the edge to give the hunters something to hold onto for the rescue.
Then, the Pave Hawk lowered one of the PJs to the cliffs along a line, from where they hoisted one of the hunters, before the second PJ hoisted another hunter. Lezama stated that it was a 140-foot vertical lift every time.
“Within 15 to 15 minutes 15 to 20 minutes after getting on the scene we began lifting the victims away,” He said.
After a midair refueling of the rescue plane, Pave Hawk’s team was able to drop off the hunters off by a Alaska State Trooper close to the trailhead, where it was parked. The hunters were not injured.
Although Lezama’s been flying in Alaska for six years performing a rescue from a cliff of an injured hiker prior to his Tonsina flight claimed the hunter’s position was extremely risky.
“We were all awed by the predicament they were in at the beginning, as they were basically hanging onto an cliff,” he said. “There was no where to take them apart from us taking them up off the cliff.”
Lezama acknowledged the hunters’ choice to carry a satellite communication device and not just an ordinary cellphone that can’t call for help in the vast expanses of Alaska’s wilderness that are beyond cell tower coverage with helping save their lives. The precise coordinates provided from the gadget also made it easier for guardsmen find the pair despite their disguise.
Additionally, he received admiration for the endurance of the hunters in the course of rescue.
“That was quite impressive to us as well as they were able to keep going for this long,” Lezama said.
JBER’s Alaska Rescue Coordination Center oversaw the rescue operation, which included members of the Guard’s 210th,211th and the 212th Rescue Squadrons.
