A pair of thrill-seeking climbers were buried in a massive avalanche on a California mountain over the weekend — and it took 11 hours to get them both down to safety, authorities said.
The two adventure seekers were trying to summit Mount Shasta on Saturday when they found themselves in the path of a wave of snow, which sent one of them plummeting 1,000 feet down the side of the mountain — aptly known as Avalanche Gulch, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook.
The sheriff’s office received a 911 call from one of the injured climbers shortly before 12:30 p.m., saying he was hurt and stranded at 12,200 feet, while his buddy lay buried further down the slope.
That’s when the rescue operation hit a snag.
“Strong winds and poor visibility inhibited the helicopter’s ability to safely land near the climbers, so the SCSO Search and Rescue Team mobilized, along with US [Forest Service] Climbing Rangers and a group of professional mountain guide volunteers to begin an extraction operation on foot,” the office said.
A break in the weather allowed the chopper to eventually managed to land just above the tree line — about 6,000 feet below the injured climbers. Rescuers climbed into the night on foot and were able to carry the two men down the mountain and onto the chopper around midnight.
Both men, described as expert mountaineers who sought to snowboard down from the summit, suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were recovering at an area hospital.
One climber suffered a knee injury and the other, who was hurled down the mountain by the avalanche, suffered a broken femur and a “deep crampon puncture wound,” officials said.
The sheriff’s office said the heart-pounding rescue should serve as a cautionary tale about the dangers and unpredictable conditions on the 13,000-foot peak.
“It is worth noting that the two climbers caught in the April 27 avalanche were highly skilled mountaineers with extensive experience on Mount Shasta,” the department said.
“Their ordeal and the 11-hour rescue process that followed are reminders that no amount of experience makes one immune to the hazards encountered on Mount Shasta, and that ever-changing mountain conditions can turn a rapid-extraction operations into a time and resource-intensive process.”
Police did not release the names of the two injured climbers.
