Scouting, Volume 69, Number 2, March-April 1981 Page: 6
58, E1-E24, [34] p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Miracle on
Mount Gabb
BY BILL SLOAN
Illustration by David Strand
"Angels from heaven could
not have impressed me
more," said a grateful Bud
Stewart of the Explorers
who rescued him from a
snow-covered mountainside
in the High Sierras.
IN THE GATHERING darkness
near the snow-covered summit of
Mount Gabb in the rugged High
Sierras, 57-year-old Bud Stewart lay
helpless, bleeding, and alone—know-
ing he could not survive the night
without a miracle.
Hours earlier, as he and his 12-
year-old son Jon were descending
a snowbank, a sudden slip had sent
him cascading nearly 200 feet down
the rock-studded mountainside. Now
he was weak, chilled to the bone, and
unable to move. His agonizing injur-
ies included several broken vertebra
in his lower back, multiple fractures of
his left foot, gashes and lacerations
from his scalp to his shins, and inter-
nal injuries. To make matters even
worse, he was clad only in shorts, a
light shirt, and a sweatshirt.
Although it was mid-summer—
Aug. 6, 1980, to be exact—Stewart
knew that temperatures at this eleva-
tion (near 13,000 feet) would fall
below freezing overnight. And al-
though he had sent his son for help a
seeming eternity ago, the boy had
also been hurt in the fall, and Stewart
had no way of knowing if he had been
able to make his way unaided down
the treacherous mountain trails.
The only thing Stewart knew was
that if something didn't happen soon,
the combined effects of his injuries,
6 Exploring
loss of blood, and hypothermia would
surely kill him within a few more
hours.
Then, as both consciousness and
hope were about to desert him, he
thought he heard a shout. Weakly, he
shouted back, but heard nothing
more. Was he delerious or halluci-
nating? Desperately, he yelled
again— and again and again—until
his voice was hoarse and cracking.
Suddenly, the figures of three
young men materialized over a slight
rise. Stewart stared at the figures,
almost afraid to believe his smarting
eyes. Were they mere figments of his
tortured mind?
No, they were real! He felt quick,
competent hands shoving his own
numb limbs into a warm down jacket
and pulling its hood up around his
face, then stripping off his wet, bloody
shorts, socks, and boots and replacing
them with dry socks and long pants.
And, finally, seeing that it would be
impossible for him to get down the
mountain, even with help, they car-
ried him to a sleeping bag and zipped
it around him.
"Angels from heaven could not
have impressed me more!" Bud
Stewart would recall gratefully as he
recuperated in a hospital bed several
days later.
Stewart didn't know it at the time,
but he could not have picked a more
capable or better-trained group of
rescuers if he had tried. The three
young "angels of mercy" on the
mountainside that night were Jeff
Olkie, Kevin Jones, and Jay Cornet of
mountaineering Explorer Post 92E of
Manhattan Beach, Calif. This unit
just happens to be the oldest coed
mountaineering post in the world, and
despite their relatively young ages, all
its members are seasoned climbers
with extensive training in first-aid and
mountain survival and rescue tech-
niques.
Not only had members of the post
conquered such famed peaks as
Mount Rainier and Mount Whitney,
but had participated in numerous
simulated rescue operations and one
«rNV^
actual previous rescue and evacua-
tion of a critically ill boy.
Since Stewart was totally im-
mobilized by his injuries, only a tricky
helicopter rescue could actually get
him off the mountain and to the kind
of medical treatment he had to have.
Thus, only a quarter-hour after
locating Stewart, Jeff Olkie was on his
way back down the mountain with
detailed information about Stewart's
injuries and exact location.
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 69, Number 2, March-April 1981, periodical, March 1981; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353561/m1/76/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.