mooseburger
09-29-2007, 04:21 AM
Super survivorHunter signals to rescuers after spending three days alone beside creek
By GLENN KAUTH, SUN MEDIA
ROY GETSON
An Edson hunter is recovering at home after a slip down a narrow canyon left him trapped in the wilderness for three days.
"I don't even know how I slipped or what I slipped on. I just ended up at the bottom," 25-year-old Roy Getson said yesterday after he was rescued from his ordeal in the mountains near Nordegg, 298 km southwest of Edmonton.
On Monday Getson was heading back to his truck from a sheep-hunting expedition when he fell as he stopped to take a picture from a ledge above the canyon. He had no way up, so he tried lowering himself to the bottom but eventually found himself trapped in a three-metre-wide creek bed. He had gone hunting alone, and all he had to eat was some garlic sausage, which he rationed off in the coming days as he fired an occasional shot to attract attention.
By Tuesday night, his wife Rhonda was worried. She went to bed at 11:30 p.m. but couldn't sleep without hearing from her husband.
"I knew he wasn't OK because he hadn't called by then," she said.
She feared he must have been badly hurt because, she said, "Roy doesn't get lost. Roy never gets lost. You can't try to lose that bugger. You just can't."
The fall caused only minor injuries but Getson suffered for three days as he sat soaking wet next to a creek.
On the first two days, it rained and snowed, and after temperatures dipped below freezing, he developed hypothermia. "I didn't sleep for three days," he said, describing how he sat on a bed of gravel next to the creek, whose waters would rise every night. "I couldn't stop shivering."
In the meantime, Rhonda put the word out to family members and called police on Wednesday to report that Getson was missing.
By that afternoon, she was at the Blackstone Gap bracing for the worst.
But as volunteers from the Rocky Mountain House Search and Rescue team scoured the area, Getson noticed a helicopter flying above and decided to expend his last few bullets to signal where he was.
Because he was in such a narrow gap, however, the helicopter couldn't see him, so Getson threw a bright-orange neck warmer to the top of the ledge, which rescuers ended up spotting.
By then, it was too dark to pull him out with the helicopter, so one of the SAR team members rappelled down to bring him a sleeping bag and food.
The pair stayed in the canyon until Thursday morning, when Getson, a father of two girls, was finally able to hug Rhonda, who was waiting with family and friends.
Getson went to hospital, but because he had already gotten over the hypothermia and his injuries were minor, he was quickly released. Now, he's off for a few days from his job as a gas-plant operator while he recovers from sore hands and feet.
While he is an experienced hunter who has taken plenty of outdoor-survival training, the frightening experience has him vowing to do things differently next time.
"Now, after this, I'm going to start packing a lot of different stuff," he said, noting he'll carry plenty of orange-coloured clothes, flares and a safety blanket in the future.
More importantly, he added, "I'm not going to go sheep hunting alone, that's for sure."
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Thank God it turned out alright for this guy, could've been a lot worse!
mooseburger
By GLENN KAUTH, SUN MEDIA
ROY GETSON
An Edson hunter is recovering at home after a slip down a narrow canyon left him trapped in the wilderness for three days.
"I don't even know how I slipped or what I slipped on. I just ended up at the bottom," 25-year-old Roy Getson said yesterday after he was rescued from his ordeal in the mountains near Nordegg, 298 km southwest of Edmonton.
On Monday Getson was heading back to his truck from a sheep-hunting expedition when he fell as he stopped to take a picture from a ledge above the canyon. He had no way up, so he tried lowering himself to the bottom but eventually found himself trapped in a three-metre-wide creek bed. He had gone hunting alone, and all he had to eat was some garlic sausage, which he rationed off in the coming days as he fired an occasional shot to attract attention.
By Tuesday night, his wife Rhonda was worried. She went to bed at 11:30 p.m. but couldn't sleep without hearing from her husband.
"I knew he wasn't OK because he hadn't called by then," she said.
She feared he must have been badly hurt because, she said, "Roy doesn't get lost. Roy never gets lost. You can't try to lose that bugger. You just can't."
The fall caused only minor injuries but Getson suffered for three days as he sat soaking wet next to a creek.
On the first two days, it rained and snowed, and after temperatures dipped below freezing, he developed hypothermia. "I didn't sleep for three days," he said, describing how he sat on a bed of gravel next to the creek, whose waters would rise every night. "I couldn't stop shivering."
In the meantime, Rhonda put the word out to family members and called police on Wednesday to report that Getson was missing.
By that afternoon, she was at the Blackstone Gap bracing for the worst.
But as volunteers from the Rocky Mountain House Search and Rescue team scoured the area, Getson noticed a helicopter flying above and decided to expend his last few bullets to signal where he was.
Because he was in such a narrow gap, however, the helicopter couldn't see him, so Getson threw a bright-orange neck warmer to the top of the ledge, which rescuers ended up spotting.
By then, it was too dark to pull him out with the helicopter, so one of the SAR team members rappelled down to bring him a sleeping bag and food.
The pair stayed in the canyon until Thursday morning, when Getson, a father of two girls, was finally able to hug Rhonda, who was waiting with family and friends.
Getson went to hospital, but because he had already gotten over the hypothermia and his injuries were minor, he was quickly released. Now, he's off for a few days from his job as a gas-plant operator while he recovers from sore hands and feet.
While he is an experienced hunter who has taken plenty of outdoor-survival training, the frightening experience has him vowing to do things differently next time.
"Now, after this, I'm going to start packing a lot of different stuff," he said, noting he'll carry plenty of orange-coloured clothes, flares and a safety blanket in the future.
More importantly, he added, "I'm not going to go sheep hunting alone, that's for sure."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank God it turned out alright for this guy, could've been a lot worse!
mooseburger