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Sunday 12 May 2019

Mountaineering

The Author (Sky High)




The Author (sea-level)



'THAT WAS YOU?!'

Justin T. Carreño
Washington.
Last night I met with a friend from out of town who was here on business taking a training class. He was with other people who were taking the same training class with him when we met up for drinks in downtown DC. There was one guy there with a Boston accent, so I said, "Ah, uh Nu-inglandah!" He said he was from Maine. I said I love Maine, and the last time I was there I climbed Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park on New Years Eve to see the first sunrise of the... new year in the United States -- which falls on Cadillac Mt, ME.

I told him it was freezing the year I went... That there was a couple who had to get flown off the mountain from hypothermia...
(It was extremely cold that year with deep snow. I wore snowshoes and all cold-weather gear. I passed a young couple who was ill-prepared. They were wearing jeans, the girl was wearing "boots with the fur." I stopped and talked to them, finding out they were there from Florida. They were visibly cold, and I advised they likely wouldn't make it much further, and they should probably head back. I carried on.

After making it to the summit for the sunrise, I made my way down, discovering this same couple huddled on the side of the trail. The girl was shivering uncontrollably and said she couldn't feel her fingers. Her bf, also shivering, was trying to keep her warm. I had just completed my EMT training, and I thought a perfect opportunity to assess for hypothermia and frostbite. Her fingers were waxy, in the beginning stages of frostbite, and in obvious beginning stages of hypothermia -- a layman could likely have figured this out, but I could now assess "authoritatively."

There was another single hiker on his way down making his way over to us. I turned to him and I said we either need to get these guys down or call to get them evacuated. We decided to call using our cell phones, which luckily worked. After explaining the situation to the dispatcher, they decided to send a helicopter).

The man from Maine who I was telling this to set his drink down, and said he climbs it every year for New Year's, and when I told him about the couple who got flown off started to describe the incident, and we were finishing each other's sentences... We both looked at each other intently, pensively.... He said, "That was 2013." We both pointed at each other, "That was you?!"

Justin T. Carreño is writer who lives in Washington.