January 2, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The AdAmAn Club
Has an Eventful Climb
Colorado
Springs, Colorado January
2, 2012----------
On Saturday, December 31, 2011 the AdAmAn Club
completed its annual trek up Pikes Peak to ring in the New Year with a fireworks
show for the Pikes Peak region.
Twenty five members and seven guests made this year's climb. New member Ann
Nichols, the 3rd woman member of the club and its 94th member led the climbing
party in what was a notable climb.
The club was happy to put two new members on the summit this year. Because
the club was turned around last year due to severe weather, the 2010 new member,
Bill Lahman made it to the summit for the first time as a member along with this year's new member. But this climb
will be remembered for extremely high winds and the injury of
Carl Lindeman.
AdAmAn member Mark Szabo captured a picture of the output from the summit
weather station shortly after we arrived at the summit. The max wind gust
of the day clocked in at 110.6 mph! The last half mile of the
climb was brutal. Members often found themselves on all fours crawling
into the wind towards the summit or blown completely off their feet by a sudden
wind gust. Carl Lindeman was injured when a wind gust sent him
cartwheeling in the boulders south east of the summit. He injured his knee
and couldn't stand at all.
With thirty plus climbers
expecting adverse conditions the AdAmAn club is safety
conscious and prepared to deal with injured or sick comrades. The Trailmaster,
Bill Lahman sent word ahead that Carl was injured and the general extent of his
injury. He then took precautions to keep both himself and Carl as warm as
possible in the approximately -30 wind chill until help could arrive. Almost
immediately Dr. Sean O'Donnell went to Carl's aid and stayed with him through
his evacuation.
The club
thought it best to call on El Paso County Search and Rescue to help get Carl off
the mountain since the highway had been closed even to Pikes Peak Highway
Personnel due to the extreme winds. Not knowing what condition the road
might be in, EPSCAR could potentially use their CAT to drive over snow
drifts. Fortunately, the wind was abating by the time they arrived and the
Pikes Peak Highway was able to clear a path through snow drifts and get them to
the summit.
With any outside help two plus hours out, the club determined it would be best
to transport Carl to the summit rather than a closer point lower down on the
Pikes Peak Highway. Rev. David Hunting a Manitou Springs volunteer
firefighter, assumed internal incident command and tracked who was where on the
mountain, as well as organizing groups of climbers to take turns going back out
into the elements to help carry Carl to the summit. Dr. Chuck Fogleman
prepared an area in the summit house for Carl and worked with Dr. O'Donnell once
the rescue group arrived at the summit.
After Carl was brought into the summit house, EPSCAR arrived and attended to
transporting him to a waiting ambulance at Glen Cove. The club is
thankful to EPSCAR for their quick and professional response.
Once Carl was safely taken care of, the club turned its attention to preparing
to ring in the New Year with their usual fireworks show.
Due to the extremely high winds, the club held off loading the fireworks trailer
and opted to launch five flares at 9:00 pm in honor of the original five members
of the club, the "Frozen Five".
When the winds had died to a dull roar, the fireworks were set up and at the stroke of midnight the Club greeted the
New Year with a spectacular fireworks display from the 14,115-foot summit.
The local four wheel drive group gave the club a ride off the summit after the
fireworks show.
Based on comments on the club's Facebook page, the fireworks show was well
received by the local community.
Those interested can learn more about the club including its history and a list of its members on the web at
http://www.adaman.org.
Summit Weather Station Readings
upon Arrival at Summit House - Mark Szabo
