Skier survives 2,000 foot fall
Accident on Dana Plateau’s Ripper Chute results in dislocated hip.
A day of backcountry skiing turned into a frightening ordeal for Aaron Shober when the 24-year-old fell approximately 2,000 vertical feet on Sunday, Feb. 21 after his ski released in the Ripper Chute on Dana Plateau.
“It got kinda scary and he got really lucky,” said Nate Greenberg, who was skiing with Shober. Shober, who was airlifted by Mono County Search and Rescue, suffered a dislocated hip.
Greenberg, President of the Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center (ESAC), said the biggest message he and his fellow skiers took from that day was the need to be able to handle an emergency situation.
“You need to be self-sufficient, and you need to be prepared when all else fails to be able to handle the situation on your own with limited support from rescuers at least for some extended period of time,” Greenberg told The Sheet.
“At the most basic level that means wilderness first aid…but then just understanding basic rescue protocol—how to not only administer first aid but to think about long-term strategies for patient comfort or extrication.”
Greenberg said the accident was a “wake up call” for him—his own Wilderness First Responder certification is about fifteen years old. He also said that though first aid is not what ESAC does on a daily basis, “at a minimum we think there needs to be an awareness campaign around that kind of stuff…[and] how to better work with Search and Rescue.”
