Mass. hiker recounts near-fatal avalanche | Boston Herald
What started out as a weekend hiking adventure on Mount Washington in New Hampshire for Conor Lodge and his friend Adam Herman took a sudden near-tragic turn Saturday night when the Oak Bluffs men were caught in an avalanche that swept them 800 feet down Tuckerman Ravine.
Lodge, 22, a former Herald editorial assistant, recounted his brush with death — he escaped with a concussion and Herman with a broken arm — in a conversation last night with Herald reporter Bob McGovern.
Here in his own words is his incredible story:
It all started on the way up to the summit. Adam Herman and myself were with two other hikers — Tristan, my brother, and Richard Quebec. It started to get dark, so Adam and I were getting worried that we were going to get stuck in the dark on the way down the mountain. So we decided to go fast and leave my brother and Richard behind.
We got to the summit, and then on the way down we ran into our friends and they were going to the summit and asked for us to wait. ... But the wind was going 70 miles per hour and there was a negative 20 wind chill. We decided that we had to keep moving. (We) were not familiar with Mount Washington at all, so when we came to the split between Lion’s Head and Tuckerman Ravine, we decided to take Tuckerman Ravine because that’s where I thought we came from.
That was our first mistake.
We went down, and we were following the checkpoints, but there was less and less visibility. We couldn’t see 10 feet in front of us. Adam was up front, about 3 or 4 feet in front of me, and we were on the lip over Tuckerman Ravine. With one step, he sparks the avalanche, and I was swept up and went down on my back. Adam had an 800-foot descent to the bottom of the ravine and broke his arm. ... On the way down, I thought I was going to die.
I knew I needed to break my fall, so I put my feet out and tried to grab on to a bush. I grabbed it, but I must have hit my head because I don’t remember the next half an hour. Tristan told me after that he had gone to the top of the mountain, started descending, and heard a voice that told him I was in trouble. He started running down the mountain at that point and followed our footprints. It was pretty lucky that he saw the footprints because it was snowing pretty hard. If he didn’t come, me and Adam would have been on our own. He was the one who got the rescuers. Adam and I tried to get to (Tristan), but Adam’s arm was broken in seven places, as we found out later. I don’t know how Adam got to me, because I was unconscious, but I think he was in shock, and he climbed up. We had also lost our ice picks and our Microspikes that gave us traction. So we just had slippery boots, and I tried to make a footpath for Adam.
When Tristan left, it was a very lonely feeling. It was pitch-black, and it was only Adam and I, and I felt like I was slipping away. I had a concussion, and I just wanted to slip away into my thoughts, but Adam didn’t let me. He has been medically trained, so he knew I couldn’t slip away like that. So he kept me talking. He would say, “Are you awake? This is as much for me as it is for you.” He kept me alive. He kept me on this earth.
We hunkered down and hugged each other for warmth. ... At that time, I honestly had given up hope that we would be rescued, and I thought we would die. Adam kept reassuring me, so I have to thank him for that. He also made sure I didn’t fall asleep. We told each other everything about our lives.
While I was up there and unconscious, I had this thought that I was dead and that I was just a spirit. I thought I was just there and no longer alive. When I realized I was actually alive, I knew I had to take care of Adam, and I knew that had to be my goal, so I tried to think about that. I knew I had to hold on to Adam and lower my heart rate and keep moving my fingers and toes so I didn’t lose them.
When I started to lose hope, I was at peace with myself. I was ready to move on from this life, and I was kind of happy with it. I wasn’t going to make it, but I was going to just hold on and see what happened. If I slipped away, I would have just been happy and at peace with myself. I kept fighting, but I was quite content with that thought.
There were a lot of noises, but all I heard was Adam grunting every time I moved. I would hear that, and I couldn’t smell anything. Three hours in, we thought we heard something, but it wasn’t anyone. It wasn’t rescuers. After five hours, these two (hikers) — Beth and Sam — came up the ravine, and we kept yelling “Help!” I think that was a godsend. That was when I knew that I would be all right and safe. I starting thinking of taking a shower and not the end of my life.
They were with us for two hours before other rescuers came, tied ropes to us and took us down on our backs. We had to walk for about 20 minutes to a shed, and at that shed there was a Bobcat that was waiting for us, and we took that down the rest of the way. When we got to safety, they put blankets on us and I fell asleep very warm and at peace.
). While I'm glad they're safe, it's shit like this story that really pisses me off and EVERY DOLLAR should be recouped from these idiots.
