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Pyramid Peak Rescue
September 1999
This was a doozy!! An overnighter to one of the most difficult peaks I have ever scaled!! In the dark!! Tone-out occurred on Saturday, September 11, at 7:00 p.m., with a Command Post established at Echo Lake Chalet. Deputy Fleck received a very brief cell phone call, stating there were three hikers approximately 300 yards from the top of Pyramid Peak on the East side (they could see the lights of the casinos). One of the hikers was reportedly injured in a fall. No other details were known at this time.
First on-scene set up the radio repeater system on the back of 901. A hasty team of Moreno, Haen, Matikosh, Truesdell, and Braus was assembled and dispatched at 7:30 p.m., while members Moore, Haworth, Whatford, Ranalla, Silvestri, Partridge, and Paganini were held in reserve for possible second / third teams.
The Team One's plan was to scale Pyramid, locate and stabilize the injured hiker, then air-evac the entire team out Sunday morning at first light. Good plan, huh?
The trip from Echo to Aloha went like soft butter spreading on a warm biscuit. From there, all went downhill (and up and down and up and down, etc). A moonless night had the team sloshing through wetlands as we attempted to locate the weir at the south end of Aloha, without success. We could make-out the silhouette of Pyramid Peak in the dark starlit distance, but no details of the ground we were walking on. The driest and most direct route, we decided, was to travel crow-fly-direct, which meant climbing and descending every mountain and hill and slogging every river crossing between us and Pyramid! No trails here, folks, just multi-hundred foot vertical ups and downs, looking for finger-holds and suitable crags.
At approximately 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning, after 5 1/2 hours of being flogged by Ma Nature, Team One arrived on the high saddle to the south-east of Pyramid. Haen and Moreno completed a 1-hour reconnoiter of the south-east side of the peak, while the rest of the exhausted team set up a base camp, lit a warm fire, and began to dig-in for the night. As aerial flares and noise attraction failed to pinpoint the location of any of the three hikers, Moreno and Haen returned to Base Camp at 2:00 a.m. Our last communications with Fleck that night had us realizing that this "Rescue" operation would now balloon into a full blown "Search". We attempted to get some sleep, planning for a first-light assault on the south, east, and north sides of Pyramid (the west side is vertical cliffs), but high winds and bone-chilling temperatures kept most of us awake all night (hey, Braus, will your sleeping bag hold five of us?).
Command resumed operation Sunday morning at 6:00 a.m., now located at the S.O., with Deputy Mazzoni at the reins and Haworth operating communications. First-light had Team One scrambling up and down and round and round, till we knew Pyramid better than our own backyards. Still, no hikers. Fallon Rescue 6 and CHP Air 21 arrived between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. and began searching Pyramid and other nearby peaks, still with no positive results. Air National Guard Spartan 722 (a Blackhawk 'chopper) arrived at 10:00 a.m. and began transporting fresh SAR personnel from the airport to the Pyramid Base Camp (including Moore, Paiva, Whatford, Silvestri, Dickenson, and Strickley). And (yes, there is a God), airlifted the totally exhausted Team One out of the wildeness and back to civilization at 10:30 that morning!! The fresh foot teams began searching areas away from the Peak proper, with some going down Rocky Creek, while Spartan 722 joined in the search. Forest Service personnel began investigating trailheads at Twin Bridges, Mt. Tallac, and Echo Lakes.
Team One was on the tarmac at Lake Tahoe Airport, awaiting transportation back to our vehicles, when we heard the news that two of the hikers had left their hurt friend the night before, had hiked out the Twin Bridges trailhead, and were now in Strawberry. At approximately 1: 15 Sunday afternoon, the third missing / injured hiker was reported to be at Lake Aloha, and was hiking-out with unknown backpackers down the Echo Lakes Trail. Team Four, who had just descended Rocky Creek, was transported back to Upper Echo Lake, where they met with this hiker and determined that his injuries were superficial. It was discovered that this last lost hiker had also left the Pyramid Peak area the night before, and had descended to Lake Aloha, where he spent the night with an unrelated family. This family hiked him out to Echo Lake on Sunday.
All teams were brought out of the field by 4:00 p.m. Sunday, our excellent air support was sent home, and the mission was terminated. No injuries were sustained by SAR personnel. AD subjects were located alive. And the twelve volunteer SAR members who actively participated in this operation had one of the best hikes of the year (thanks, Richard, for holding down the fort)!! My personal thanks to those who did participate, including Fleck and Mazzoni!!
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