GSMNP in winter

“* smiles *

It's not like any of the general public (reading the news article) would actually know that tho, Paul.

Most are prolly saying, "well, shoot anyone with any sense woudl not try to go up in the woods with the snow coming down?"

But hey, what do they know.

;)

http://www.thebackpacker.com/trips/trip/515.php”

“Ok heard from the source.
The Knoxville reporter was wrong on many counts.

Yes he had a permit and people did know where he was going.

David was on the AT about an hour out from Tricorner shelter on Saturday. There was a bowdown that he tried to get around. His pack got hung on the tree and in his efforts to free it he fell and hurt himself and was in such a position that he couldn't move to a better position. It is unclear if he broke a leg or spained something badly. From what I heard it was a bad sprain. He tried to call on his cell for help but all they heard on the other end was enough for the rescue services to determine that someone needed help on the AT in the park but not who or where.

He was able to get into his sleeping bag but was unable to get out of his position to rig his tarp. As such the bag and his clothes got wet.

David is in the hospital and is doing well. His feet and hands are frostbitten but his hands got the worst of it. It is unclear if he will lose them all, in part, or just some flesh. Losing some flesh at this point is a given.”

“Oh, all your concern is greatly appreciated and he still has some fighting left to do with the frostbite.

Thank you.”

“Thanks for the update, HPM...Hope his frostbite heals quickly.
I wonder if I have met David before? He sounds familiar?”

“If David Johnson was worried as his older brother lay stranded and frostbitten in the snow-covered Great Smoky Mountains on Wednesday, he wasn't letting on.

A steady stream of calls from friends and family kept the phone ringing at his Strawberry Plains home as everyone asked for the latest word on David Dinwiddie, who somehow became incapacitated during a backcountry trip.

And with each caller, Johnson reassured them that if anyone could handle such a situation, it was his brother.

"He knows how to do what's best to do," said Johnson, who described the 62-year-old Dinwiddie as a physically fit, experienced outdoorsman and Desert Storm veteran who knows the national park better, perhaps, than some park rangers.

"This is his 39th trip to Spence Field," Johnson said.

His brother made the winter hike almost every year, he explained, often meeting friends from Florida atop the mountain bald.

Still, the fact that Dinwiddie had planned to hike in alone, rather than meet some friends at the trailhead and hike together, did give Johnson some concern.

"I'd been telling him he needed to go two by two, for safety reasons," he said. "But I figured since he was meeting them, he'd be all right."

Johnson assumed his brother was with the two friends when he possibly fell or somehow became injured. Great Smoky Mountains National Park rangers, however, found Dinwiddie alone Wednesday.

Johnson recalled several times he and Dinwiddie themselves came across inexperienced, ill-equipped or otherwise stranded hikers in the park, including one man who he said had slipped into a diabetic coma.

"I stayed with him while my brother hiked out to get the rangers," explained Johnson, himself a retired U.S. Army helicopter crew chief and Vietnam veteran. "That's the reason you always go two by two in the mountains. Nature's got a way of doing things. As I always said in the military, 'Always expect the unexpected because it will always happen.'?"

Dinwiddie is a cook at the McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base, said his sister, Joan Cannon of Clinton.

She was relieved Wednesday that he was going to be OK.

"We didn't know coming up that they would bring him out tonight," said Cannon who arrived at the Cosby Ranger station Wednesday afternoon with Brenda Bosson and Linda Baldridge, who are also Dinwiddie's sisters.

Dinwiddie was a cook with the 844th Combat Engineer Battalion Army Reserve and served in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 in Saudi Arabia.”

“often meeting friends from Florida atop the mountain bald

That would be us.
Well, not me this time anywho.
last edited: 12/23/04 12:02:09 PM”

“TownDawg - I knew it was trivial and expected an even greater kickback. But I have seen so many things like that get compounded. Then some people will claim it's true, and they "can prove it" with references to the false information.

An example is the story of the definition of a blue moon. A misprint or error led to the eventual change of the definition.

They sure did a great job bringing David Dinwiddie down a steep, slippery trail in the dark. I sort of guessed he had something serious for them to bring him out immediately, instead of waiting util morning. I hope they are able to minimize his problems.”

“he's in my prayers. i did read some of what they said on whiteblaze.net. seems like just a couple a-holes. ignorant ones at that. if he was hurt out in that weather and is coming out with the relatively minor injuries i'm hearing about, that tells me he was very prepared. if he was unprepared they'd likely have brought a corpse down that mountain.
i have to think if it was me they'd probably be bringing my dead body down the mountain.
this really can happen to anyone. it scares me that those people over there seem to think it can only happen to the unprepared. they might be in for a very rude awakening some day. if they do find themselves hurt and stranded, i hope the people that come across them don't share their views on backcountry accidents.”

“Opie & I were up on that same trail about 3 months ago, weird. I can see how treacherous it would be in these conditions.”

“*slaps ductape in da head*...hey mano...hit us up sometime, and we'll hit the woods”

“It's scarey.
The only thing I can see that David could have done better was to have a partner with him. I don't hike without one myself, I like company.

But honestly now, for a lot of folks if you only went with other people you probably wouldn't get to go at all. And allowing your life to be ruled by others schedules and hangups, well that just isn't an option.

I know that David has been in far worse conditions solo and has been fine. I guess it's just that ever present X-factor that decides life or death.”

“I go solo at times exactly for the reasons you described HPM. That "x-factor" is the only thing that scares me. But it won't stop me - just makes me think about being prepared.”

“I was wondering if he had any of those chemical hand warmers. They're inexpensive at Walmart. Just one can keep both hands warm for 10-12 hours by occasionally moving it from one glove to inside the other glove.

I had a problem a few years ago and one of those really helped me. Now I would not hike in cold, or potentially cold, weather without at least six of them in my backpack. The chemical footwarmers could be a good investment, too.”

“That is a great idea Nowslimmer.

Roam, agreed. One of the (minor) reasons I volunteer with the Scouts is it guarantees an opportunity to get out at least once a month.”

“From the Knoxville newspaper:

Keeping wits after fall helped hiker stay alive. Man who took shelter in sleeping bag kept life, but may lose fingers.

The snow was knee-deep on Inadu Knob. Temperatures dropped below zero on the mountain, making David Dinwiddie's hands so stiff he couldn't prepare any food. For days snow was his sustenance and his only shelter was a down sleeping bag.

As the hours passed, he prayed that someone — anyone — would find him as he lay in the middle of the Appalachian Trail about 6,000 feet above sea level in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Dinwiddie's prayers were answered Tuesday evening when three hikers stumbled into the makeshift campground he'd fashioned after falling on the trail on Sunday.

Frostbitten, hypothermic and a little disoriented, Dinwiddie had already spent two nights in the rugged mountains south of Cosby on the North Carolina border. His sleeping bag very nearly served as a burial shroud.

Seated in a wheelchair Thursday morning in an 11th-floor lounge at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, Dinwiddie recounted his harrowing backcountry experience.

"I knew I was going to get out," the 62-year-old veteran backpacker said less than 14 hours after being rescued by park rangers. "I just didn't know when."

His fingers were black and swollen from frostbite, his toes a dishwater gray. His speech was thick, and he sometimes had difficulty understanding questions. At his side sat Richard Butcher, who had accompanied Dinwiddie on many previous hikes.

"He's a survivor," Butcher said. "He's tough."

Dinwiddie's ordeal began on Sunday, when he hiked up the steep, 4.6-mile Snake Den Ridge Trail. His destination was the Tricorner Knob shelter, nearly 4 miles farther down the Appalachian Trail. He had planned to meet some friends from Florida at the shelter and trek with them to shelters at Cosby Knob and Davenport Gap.

Dinwiddie turned onto the Appalachian Trail. As he slogged through the 18-inch-deep snow and freezing wind, he lost his footing.

"I stepped on the trail and it gave way on me," he said.

Dinwiddie tumbled down and found himself entangled in branches. After more than an hour of struggling to free himself, Dinwiddie took off his gloves so he could remove his backpack. By the time he wriggled out, his hands were frozen.

Dinwiddie decided not to risk hiking out. After all, he was only a short distance from his destination, where friends presumably were waiting on him. He crawled into his sleeping bag to warm up. Because he'd planned to stay in shelters, he didn't pack a tent.

Unbeknownst to Dinwiddie, his Florida friends had cut short their trip because of the snow and swirling winds in the high Smokies. He was alone on the mountain.

The temperature plunged. On Mount LeConte, 12 miles away as the raven flies from Dinwiddie's perch and less than 300 feet higher in elevation, the thermometer read 11 degrees below zero on Monday.

Dinwiddie stared up at the stars, which hung like shards of shaved ice in the clear mountain skies.

"I just looked at 'em and looked at 'em till it turned daylight again," Dinwiddie said.

He knew he couldn't fall asleep. When a person suffers from hypothermia, sleep is little more than the first phase of death.

"I didn't panic," Dinwiddie said. "I didn't get scared. I talked myself into not going to sleep."

An Operation Desert Storm veteran, Dinwiddie said his military training had taught him how to stay awake for long periods of time. He needed that training as the hours stretched into days.

Dinwiddie carried plenty of food, but his frozen fingers couldn't open the packaging. His camping stove was useless.

Instead, he would form snowballs, put them into his mouth and let them melt so he could stay hydrated. The only solids he consumed were evergreen needles and dirt embedded in the snow. Preparing the snowballs further exposed his already damaged fingers.

On Tuesday morning, with temperatures warming into the 20s, he dug out his cell phone and managed to call a Sevier County 911 operator, who relayed the call to the National Park Service switchboard.

The call was garbled. The 911 system, the Park Service and the phone company determined he was in the northeastern portion of the park, but couldn't pinpoint the location.

That evening, a trio of hikers came upon Dinwiddie's sleeping bag in the darkness. They hustled down the mountain and notified park personnel.

Three rangers — Pat Patten, Gene Wesloh and Joe Pond — headed for the trailhead about 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Four hours later, they were at Dinwiddie's side. Pond, who's also a medic, assessed Dinwiddie's condition. His body temperature had plunged to 94 degrees.

The rangers hustled Dinwiddie out of his soggy sleeping bag and into a hastily erected tent. After changing him into some dry clothes, they made him drink hot chocolate, both for sustenance and to raise his core temperature.

Chief Ranger Jim Northup said Dinwiddie would have died had he not kept his wits about him after his fall.

"He certainly did the right thing by getting into the sleeping bag," Northup said.

More than two dozen people joined in the rescue effort. The state park system sent eight rangers to augment the National Park Service rescue team. A group arrived at the tent with a litter.

Fighting a ferocious storm, the rescuers placed Dinwiddie onto the litter and dragged him down the trail.

"We were actually able to slide him on the snow to the top of the Snake Den Ridge trail on Maddron Bald," Northup said.

When the snow cover petered out, the rangers transferred Dinwiddie to a more nimble litter outfitted with a wheel and brakes.

Bob Fulcher, manager of the Cumberland Trail State Park, was a member of the fourth and final team that went up the mountain late Wednesday afternoon to help bring Dinwiddie down in the teeth of the storm.

"It was incredible weather — winds gusting to 60 miles an hour, with sleet, mist and snow flying sideways, depending on the elevation," Fulcher said.

"He would groan in pain and let you know he was hurt," Fulcher continued. "This guy had been lying in the snow for three days. The fact that he was partially lucid is amazing."

The rangers got Dinwiddie down about 9:30 p.m. as wind and rain lashed the mountaintops. On Cove Mountain, the Park Service recorded the highest wind speeds ever in the Smokies — 110 mph.

Dinwiddie said he would have died had he remained on the mountain. As it is, he might emerge from the hospital maimed. Doctors have told him he may lose some of his fingers.

Holding his blackened, trembling hands before him, Dinwiddie said, "I can't move any of these fingers at all."

A planned hike to Spence Field next week, a New Year's ritual for Dinwiddie, will have to be cancelled for only the second time in 37 years. But Dinwiddie said he would return to the mountains as soon as he recovers. The Smokies are in his blood.

His father, the late Paul Dinwiddie, hiked Mount LeConte 750 times between his 65th birthday and his death in 1995 at age 80. Like his father, Dinwiddie spends much of his time in the mountains and has helped his share of hikers in trouble.

"I've helped a lot of people out of them mountains," he said. "I didn't think I'd be one of them someday."
last edited: 12/25/04 9:45:17 AM”

“The story is wrong. His Florida friends were there at Tricorner shelter for 2 nights.”

“the had a story on the nashville news last night...lotsa camera footage”

“trying to figure out campground closings and reservations in the smokies this time of the year SUCKS!!!...damn they make it so friggin complicated. Why don't they list the ones that AREN'T closed..so i don't have to go down my map checking ones off.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

“Opie, when are you going? Kamper & I will be heading that wat sometime soon.”

“tommorrow...lmao...if i can't figure some friggin clue, i guess we'll head to stone door”

“OPIE - if you're talking car camping then Smokemont and Cades Cove are the only ones open.”

“hehe, reservations are easy to get this time of the year. They said don't worry about last minute stuff, always try.

We'll be hanging around gabes mtn and inadu knob for the next few days...adios compadres”

“I talked to a thru-hiker yesterday. all of the shelters were full when they got to them.”

“

---

Deleted.
last edited: 12/30/04 9:24:42 PM”

“41 inches at leconte!!!!!”

“Are you watching the Smokies webcams?


http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/parks/grsmcam/grsmcam.cfm
last edited: 2/13/06 1:22:49 PM”

“It's just about all melted off below 2000.

Supposed to be 65 in the valley by end of week.”

“Opie did you and blalock make it to LeConte?”

“Man, this thread came back from the dead!
The 2/13/06 webcam photo is great.

Is it generally pretty easy to get a last minute shelter reservation in January/February? I'd like to make a trip up there next year and coincide it with lots of snow. It's hard to know the weather 30 days in advance (best time to reserve)!”

“The pics from the second week of Novermber of last year are cool too. Nice foliage.”

“no it's pretty hard to get any shelter in that area. kephart is easier...icewater impossible, and leconte is hard too...2 week in advance most of the time...single spots sporadic”

“I have found late in the week will result in single spots due to fallout.

Now that I have alot of time on my hands, I am figuring on a hike up top.”

“How hard is it to get a reservation at the Laurel Gap Shelter these days? When I was a kid (long long time ago) it was pretty easy since it's way back there. But I've heard it's harder to get, now. A ranger told me they had taken down the chain link recently and put up bear cables for packs and such.

”

“Winter in the Smokies briefly arrived and left. As of 7 pm it's 58 degrees at Look Rock.”

“It was 70 today in Pigeon Forge.

Bob, not sure on how hard reservations will be to get, but they are taking the fences down on all shelters. Trying to get them down on at least two per year until they are all off.”

“looks like winter is hanging on in the Smokies. Newfoundgap has 3" of snow, Mt LeConte 5"

webcam view from Purchase Knob
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/parks/grsmpkcam/grsmpkcam.cfm

view from Look Rock, hope the camera is just down
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/parks/grsmcam/grsmcam.cfm
last edited: 3/24/06 9:51:58 AM”

“Here in the eastern Blue Ridge foothills snow accumulated down to about 2500' overnight.”

“Still snowing in Townsend. Nothing on the ground below 2500.

I think I will day hike up to Rich Mountain today.”

“I just heard from HPM again; it's been snowing the better part of their trip in PNF, but it doesn't hang around very long. The newbies are loving it.”

“Right now there's a 11 degree difference between Lookrock and Purchase Knob in the Smokies. A lot of snow out at PK too. COol. It's currently 16 out where HPM is in Pisgah. Brr.”

“It's been warmer over here on the West side.”