RATTLE WITH DEATH
56 | June• 2019
By then, rivulets of blood, thinned
by the venom, ran from the punc-
ture wounds. My leg burned from
snake proteins that had evolved to
cause pain. I was in shock and lying
beside a large puddle of vomit, the
by-product of toxins. Turin rubbed
my b ack between bouts of vomiting.
“Get Bridger out of here,” I said. I
couldn’t stand them watching me
die. She carried him down the road,
watching from a distance while I
gripped my parents’ hands.
SPRINTING TOWARDSForesta,
Garrett r eached what should have
been a bridge, but it had been burnt
and all that was left was four steel gird-
ers. The creek was flooded and down-
stream, it swept off a 50-metre drop.
Garrett p aused. Across the valley, h e
could j ust make out my parents hud-
dled over me. He grabbed the rail with
both hands, dropped to his butt, and
crossed one of the girders.
According to dispatch logs, Gar-
rett ran more than three kilometres
and up 250 metres in 19 minutes. By
then, Jason Montoya, a park ranger in
Yosemite who specialises in technical
rescues for the elite Yosemite Search
and Rescue, was speeding from the
valley towards me, ambulance lights
on and horns blaring. He’d ordered a
second helicopter, plus a litter team
with six volunteers to hike up from
the park’s service town should the hel-
icopter rescue fail. Montoya figured
they’d ne ed to fly me out of the canyon
with a h oist-equipped helicopter, then
transfer me to a Life Flight.
During the busiest times of the
year, a hoist-equipped helicopter is
stationed in Yosemite. But it wasn’t
scheduled to arrive for another week.
The backup helicopter was on anoth-
er call. A second backup was sidelined
with an oil leak. Finally, at 1.11pm ahelicopter, an hour and 45 minutes
away, took off.
Just below Foresta, Garrett met the
ambulance. A fallen tree had blocked
its path and one wheel was stuck in
the road’s soft shoulder. Three med-
ics were scrambling to pull gear from
the truck: intravenous (IV) lines, an
inf latable backboard and medical
supplies. Garrett recognised one of
the paramedics immediately. The
year before, he’d met 34-year-old Levi
Yardley on a climb above the valley.
Yardley threw him a bag of medicalA FALLEN TREE HAD
BLOCKED T HE AMBULANCE’S PATH
AND A WHEEL WAS STUCK IN THE DIRT