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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 2019)
SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM ܂ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 ܂ 3A Hiker Continued from Page 1A allows hikers to follow themselves on topographic maps. But she left her exter nal Garmin GPS and SPOT satellite mes senger at home, figuring it would be a straightforward day. She reached the trailhead around 8 a.m. and things went well. She hiked through a decent amount of snow, reached the summit and started down ahead of schedule, she said. That’s when things started to go wrong. Trapped in Warren Creek gully After climbing down, Drapiza made her way to Warren Lake around 1 p.m. She headed toward Starvation Ridge Trail, which she was planning to take back to her car. But in the snow and downed trees, she had trouble locating the trail. She crossed Warren Creek once, then decid ed to backtrack. This same spot has gotten many peo ple lost over the years. The area averages one or two rescue operations each year, officials said. "It's really hard to find the trail in that spot," said Christopher Van Tilburg, a team leader for the Hood River Crag Rats search and rescue team. “If you don’t get on the ridge, people often start to follow the fall line downhill and end up in the Warren Creek drainage, which gets very thick, steep and dangerous." On her second crossing of Warren Creek, Drapiza slipped and fell, dropping down a steep embankment and falling into the creek gully. “I fell so far that I remember being able to register, ‘Wow, I’m really falling,’” she said. “Then I hit something and came to a stop.” The fall injured her ankle. Although she could still walk, she decided against the “nasty, steep and slippery climb” back up. Instead, she followed Warren Creek down, knowing it ultimately reaches Interstate 84. She found that hiking in the creek numbed the pain of her ankle. “I came to a waterfall and straddled a tree and slid down it to get to the bot tom,” she said. “I followed the creek some more until I reached another wa terfall with a 40foot drop and no tree (to slide down).” At that point, she tried to climb out of the gully and back toward Mount De fiance Trail, grabbing branches strong enough to pull her upward, she said. “I knew I had to climb about 800 feet southwest to get back to the trail,” she said. But by now, it was almost sunset. The forest was becoming dark. Drapiza’s phone — and mapping app — only worked intermittently. But she was able to send her mom a text “that I was injured and likely needed a rescue,” she said. “I gave her my general location be tween Warren Creek and Mount De fiance trail.” It was starting to get pitch black. Snow began to fall. “I knew it was best to just hunker down for the night,” she said. (Story continues below) A cold night As night set in, Drapiza found a small tree that provided shelter from the fall ing snow. She curled into a tight ball and wedged rocks under her feet to keep from sliding down the mountain. She took stock of her situation. She lacked a shelter or blanket, but was out Leslie Drapiza, left, was rescued from a gully in the Columbia River Gorge on Tuesday. She's seen here with friend Frosty Gill. PHOTO COURTESY OF FROSTY GILL fitted with base layers, a puffy jacket and a waterproof shell and snow pants. She had a firstaid kit, along with extra food and water. “I felt actually felt pretty confident,” she said. “But I knew my family would be worried about how cold I was." Huddled below the tree, she put her mitten liners inside her puffy jacket to warm and dry them. She wrapped her hands in her hat and tucked them be tween her belly and legs. “I zipped my shell up over my mouth to retain the warmth from my exhaled breath,” she said. “I kept wiggling my toes to keep the circulation going." She drifted off to sleep a few times, but as the temperature dropped she woke up shivering. “I know the stages of hypothermia and kept a careful watch for any signs,” she said. “I did doze more than I expect ed, though, because the night didn’t drag on forever.” By this time search and rescue teams had activated and made base camp at Starvation Creek Trailhead. But nobody had much of an idea where she was. Back into the gully At daylight, Drapiza decided to con tinue climbing out of the gully toward Mount Defiance Trail. She crossed boul der fields and had to climb by pulling herself along. “I rationed a oneday supply of water and food to last another day,” she said. “I intermittently turned my phone on to check if I had service. It would only turn on for 30 seconds at a time.” Eventually, she thought she’d reached Mount Defiance Trail “but none of it looked familiar,” she said. “I couldn’t find the burnt trees that marked one side of the trail.” She considered stopping, and staying put. “When rescuers are looking for you, it’s best not to move but honestly when I stopped the uncontrollable shivering started again,” she said. “I had to keep moving to stay warm. I learned later that 80 people were searching, but never once heard any of them. A couple times I thought I heard voices, but I would stop and only hear silence. I figured I was hal lucinating.” Much as she hated to do it, she head ed back into Warren Creek gully. “I knew it led back down to I84 and once I was closer, I had a better chance of being located,” she said. She hiked all day down the gully. Once she could see the road, out in the Gorge, she turned on her phone. There was better service. She called her hus band Evan, around 3 p.m. “I told him I was coming down a gully and could hear a waterfall,” she said. “I quickly pulled up the map and realized it was Lancaster Falls.” Amazingly, she’d made her way so far down the gully she was just two miles from the trailhead. With better service, she tried calling 911 but kept getting disconnected. So, Drapiza searched for a way around the waterfall, first on one side, then the other. Then she slipped and fell, dropping down the cliff. Falling downhill, she aimed her body toward a tree and slammed into it. “I hit my head, nose and mouth and had a mild straddle injury,” she said. “My nose was bleeding but it didn’t feel bro ken and I checked to make sure I had all my teeth.” In pain but still able to think, she spotted a small ledge directly below, big enough to hold two people. She climbed down to it and considered her situation. Throughout the episode, even while huddled under the tree overnight in the snow, Drapiza never felt as though she was close to dying. But trapped on that ledge, surround ed by cliffs and with no way to escape, she felt her fate slipping from her con trol. “That was the only time I thought I might die,” she said. “I’d run out of op tions. There was no way up or down from the ledge.” Perched on the ledge, she tried calling 911 one more time. It connected. “I kept my phone warm by tucking it into my puffy and breathing warm air on it between sentences to try to keep it on,” she said. “They put me on hold, which drove me crazy because the battery was at like 1 percent, but when they an swered they said, ‘We’ve been looking for you.’” The phone call allowed her to give an exact location. Between a cliff and a waterfall Multiple search and rescue teams had been searching the forest since late Sun day night, without much sense of where Drapiza might be. They’d been focusing efforts higher up, just as she’d been trav eling down. Now, they had a location. It was around 5:30 p.m. “She was only 2 or 3 miles from the trailhead, but it was really, really rugged terrain,” Van Tilburg said. “It took us two hours to get a visual on her headlamp.” That was only the beginning. In the darkness, fog and snow, Van Tilburg said the teams circled her loca tion from above and below, trying to fig ure out the best way to get in. Plans changed multiple times. Ultimately, one climber rappelled down onto the ledge with Drapiza. “He gave me warm apple cider, dry gloves and lots of snacks!” Drapiza said. Continued from Page 1A crossed behind the stopped traffic, into the oncoming lane to attempt a quick turn onto Jefferson Street. He collided with an oncoming red Lincoln sedan. Both cars “had heavy damage with full airbag deployment,” police said, but no one was seriously injured. The driver of the Lexus was later cited for making a dangerous left turn. Residents’ message to ODOT has been clear, Greenway said. The consensus is that Silverton wants a bike/pedestrian crossing as soon as possible, with lane configuration changes at the intersection being of secondary importance. Preliminary documents also call for possible sidewalk infill on the corner nearest Silver Creek Auto Body, improved lighting and new striping to create left turn lanes onto Jefferson Street, but these pieces of the construction project are not set in stone. ODOT is already working with Silver ton Public Works, and more information will be released by spring or summer. Silverton’s Rep. Rick Lewis (RSilver ton) gathered enough support back in 2017 to secure $750,000 in state funding for the project, a version of which had been in the offing for years. “I have asked ODOT to expedite com pletion of this project if at all possible,” Lewis said. In 2017, the state legislature passed the largest transportation bill in Oregon’s In the days since the rescue, Drapiza reflected on the things that went wrong. “The truth is that I got complacent,” she said. “I’ve been going out so often that I got comfortable. I should have been better prepared.” She should have brought a shelter and emergency blanket, she said, in ad dition to her SPOT satellite messenger, external battery charger, paper map and basic compass instead decided of rely ing on her phone. As for solo hiking, “many will say it’s irresponsible but nothing matches the solitude and joy that the outdoors bring,” she said. “I’m happy to know people whose souls also come alive in the mountains and after all this attention maybe I’ll find more partners to share the trail with ... or maybe not because who wants to sleep under shrubs, sit on cliff ledges and fall down ravines?” Drapiza said a special thanks to all the search and rescue teams that helped look for her. That group includes Hood River Crag Rats, the 304th Rescue Squadron, Washington County search and rescue, Pacific Northwest SAR, Multnomah County Search and Rescue and Portland Mountain Rescue. Zach Urness has been an outdoors re- porter, photographer and videographer in Oregon for 11 years. To support his work, subscribe to the Statesman Journal for $0.99 per month. Urness is the author of “Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon” and “Hiking South- ern Oregon.” He can be reached at zur- ness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors. Member SIPC LOCAL ADVISORS Salem Area Vin Searles Garry Falor CFP ® Matthew Guyette FINANCIAL ADVISOR Mission | 503-363-0445 FINANCIAL ADVISOR West | 503-588-5426 FINANCIAL ADVISOR Mission | 503-363-0445 Chip Hutchings Michael Wooters Intersection Reflections www.edwardjones.com ‘I thought I might die’ history, and the Silverton project was in cluded as a “safety improvement,” said Valerie Greenway, senior project leader with Oregon Department of Transporta tion. Increases in gas tax, car registration fees and new taxes on employee payrolls and vehicle sales bolstered the $5.3 bil lion package, which is paying for repairs and new construction throughout the state. “This project was already on our books, but it got pulled forward because of that legislation’s money,” Greenway said. Work on the First/Jefferson intersec tion is set to occur anytime between Oc tober and September of next year. ODOT staff members expect the design/engi neering – valued at roughly $125,000 – to occur this fall. That’s when Silverton resi dents will find out exactly what the pro ject will look like. Residents’ message to ODOT has been clear, Greenway said. The consensus is that Silverton wants a bike/pedestrian crossing as soon as possible, with lane configuration changes being of second ary importance. The enhanced crossing will feature a 10foot pedestrian island, marked cross walk, and flashing lights in the middle and on both sides of the intersection. Walkers and bikers will be able to push buttons to activate the lights, and drivers will be directed to stop farther back. “The island has a raised curb, and the crosswalk goes through the cut of it,” Greenway said. “I’ve never been so happy to see another person in my life.” The Crag Rats and Air Force Squadron created a series of four rope belay sta tions. Now in a harness, Drapiza began climbing up, assisted by the rope team. They climbed 400 vertical feet. Once at the top, they belayed back down onto flat ground. "That felt amazing, just being on the ground," she said. "I was so grateful." Search and rescue teams brought a litter to wheel her out, but Drapiza was able to hike out under her own power. She declined an emergency room visit. At 1:35 a.m. on Tuesday — after more than 40 hours outdoors — she reached the Starvation Trailhead and met friends and family. “First they hugged me,” she said. “Then they said I’m grounded and never leaving the house again!” Erin Garcia FINANCIAL ADVISOR Lancaster | 503-585-4689 FINANCIAL ADVISOR South | 503-362-5439 FINANCIAL ADVISOR Liberty | 503-362-0011 Tim Sparks Caitlin Davis CFP ® FINANCIAL ADVISOR Commercial | 503-370-6159 Haley Hofeld FINANCIAL ADVISOR West | 503-585-1464 Tyson Wooters FINANCIAL ADVISOR West | 503-585-1464 FINANCIAL ADVISOR South | 503-362-5439 Jeff Davis Cameron Hunt CFA, CFP ® Phil Ridling FINANCIAL ADVISOR Liberty | 503-581-8580 FINANCIAL ADVISOR West | 503-588-5426 FINANCIAL ADVISOR Liberty | 503-581-8580 Keizer Area Sheryl Resner Mario Montiel Kylee Williams Mindy Bartlett Charisa Henckel FINANCIAL ADVISOR Keizer | 503-304-8641 FINANCIAL ADVISOR Keizer | 503-393-8166 FINANCIAL ADVISOR Keizer | 503-304-8641 FINANCIAL ADVISOR Keizer | 503-393-8166 FINANCIAL ADVISOR Keizer | Station 503-393-4677 Surrounding Area Bridgette Justis Tim Yount Kelly Denney David Eder FINANCIAL ADVISOR Sublimity | 503-769-3180 FINANCIAL ADVISOR Silverton | 503-873-2454 FINANCIAL ADVISOR Dallas | 503-623-2146 FINANCIAL ADVISOR Stayton | 503-769-4902 Compare Our CD Rates Bank-issued, FDIC-insured 3-month 2.25 % APY* Minimum deposit $1,000 1-year 2.50 % APY* Minimum deposit $1,000 3-year 2.75 % APY* Minimum deposit $1,000 * Annual Percentage Yield (APY) effective 02/05/2019. 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