Amazing HEMS rescue of injured skier (don't try this at home)

[berkeman]

Wow, what amazing flying skill, and at high altitude no less!

https://www.cnn.com/videos/travel/2019/01/09/french-alps-helicopter-rescue-ns-roth-orig.cnn

 

[Mark44]

Made me think of a rescue on Mt. Baker (in Washington state), in 2000. Two climbers were attempting the North Ridge on Mt. Baker, and got into trouble. The route includes an icewall at about a 75 degree slope, with about a 140' pitch. One of the climbers was killed outright in the fall, and the other was in cardiac arrest when the chopper got there. The pilot was able to hover the chopper at an altitude of 8700', but had to jettison fuel before going that high.
The second climber was successfully transported to a hospital, but as I recall, died anyway.
Link to article: http://old.poxod.com/memorial/Mt.Baker/from_Seattle_Times.htm

My own interest in this article is that I was with a friend, attempting the same route the year before. After I had climbed up about 30' above my friend's belay position, and placing an ice screw, I realized that with only one more screw I was woefully unprepared for this climb, and decided to back off.

 

[Borek]

I don't think the pilot really hovered, from the video it looks like the chopper was touching the snow with one of the skids, which makes the task a bit easier.

I am not saying it is trivial, just a different thing than the description seems to be suggesting.

 

[Mark44]

I don't think the pilot really hovered, from the video it looks like the chopper was touching the snow with one of the skids, which makes the task a bit easier.

Easier from a physics standpoint, but very risky from a practical standpoint. If the terrain is very steep, the pilot runs the risk of the rotors hitting the slope. In the rescue I described, the chopper's rotors were only 3' away from the ice.

I am not saying it is trivial, just a different thing than the description seems to be suggesting.

 

[berkeman]

from the video it looks like the chopper was touching the snow with one of the skids, which makes the task a bit easier.

I think so too, but as @Mark44 says, those rotor blades are way too close to the snow for comfort. But without a winch, it looks like the medics had no choice but to walk out the skids to get to the snow. If the pilot were hovering just off of the snow, the perturbations from the medics getting off and back onto the skids would have made the stable hover crazy hard!

 

[Wrichik Basu]

The pilot has great courage, I must say.

By the way, who will try this at home, @berkeman? One needs a helicopter at least, I believe? And not many common people own a helicopter.

 

[berkeman]

By the way, who will try this at home, @berkeman? One needs a helicopter at least, I believe?

A good friend of mine is a flight paramedic with a local law enforcement agency. I can just imagine the conversation between the pilot and my friend Mark (not @Mark44 ) as they close in on a local hiker trapped on a steep slope. Mark: "You want to do WHAT?!"