Mt. Washington Misadventure: The Story and Rescue - Public speaker/keynote speaker Dr. Bernie Dahl talks about his "lessons from living" from his near-death experience.

The Story/Rescue
(An outline of the presentation at Husson College and broadcast on Maine Public Broadcasting)
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"It was a night out he would remember for a very long time."

-The Rocky Horror Picture Show

"It was a dark and stormy night."

-Bulwer-Lytton

Mt. Washington, New Hampshire: It was truly a “dark and stormy night”, perhaps the darkest and stormiest night of my life, for I came within minutes of death...my death. As a pathologist for almost 30 years I had developed a close professional relationship with “death and dying”...but not with my dying...certainly not with my death.

The Plan: It was quite simple: a one-day hike in the Presidential Range of the White Mountains in northern New Hampshire. The goal was to test effects of not “carbo-loading” before and during a strenuous eight to ten hours hike. It is amazing what energy one can derive from just a quarter-pound each of sliced turkey and mozzarella cheese.

The Hike: It was a rainy and cool Fall day when I started out solo from the Pinkham Notch camp of the Appalachian Mountain Club. My clothing and pack we geared for a rainy and windy day, not for high winds, snow, and sub-freezing temperatures. The original plan was to hike up Tuckerman’s Ravine, but was changed to a hike up Lion Head Trail, across the relatively flat Alpine Garden Trail to the Auto Road and then down the rather lengthy and meandering Auto Road. At the junction with the Huntington Ravine Trail, I saw a sign indicating that I should turn left to reach the Auto Road, only 0.3 miles further. Soon this ordeal would be over.

The “Hunkering Down”: However, as I turned to the left I was now heading into the shifting and increasing wind. I noticed that the cairns were wider and higher and spaced closer and closer together. Soon the increasing wind and snow developed into a “whiteout” and I could not see the next cairn. It was about 3:00 PM so I “hunkered down” in a pocket in the snow adjacent to a large cairn and climbed into my aluminized “space blanket” fabric bivvy sac. Then I realized that I had my cell phone with me... the first time I had ever taken it on a hike. It worked and I completed a series of 911 calls to share my location and status. Then I simply waited. I assumed that a rescue team would simply arrive in a four-wheel vehicle via the Auto Road. Little did I know, for the Auto Road had recently been closed and left unplowed and the snow-cat was not yet ready for winter service.

The Crisis: From within my cocoon I could hear that the wind was increasing and I could feel the weight of the snow as it covered my body. I became concerned that my body would be so covered with snow that I would not be seen by the rescuers, so I slowly and carefully inched my way up onto the surface of the new-fallen snow. As I opened the end of my cocoon, my bivvy sac, to peek out, a gust of wind filled the sac, tore it partially, but worst of all, wrenched it from my body and hurdled it towards Huntington Ravine. Now it was me, in my late fall hiking outfit against weather that can be “the worst recorded weather on Earth.” I had no additional survival gear in my pack, and the day had turned into night. My hope was that the rescuers would come soon, but this hope was blunted by reality of the situation, heavy snow and 85 to 90 mile per hour winds, with gusts to 98 miles per hour!

The next five hours passed by very very slowly. I made one desperate attempt to “make a run for the Auto Road," but I could not marshal the strength to climb in the deepened snow and against the wind. More than ever. I increased my isometric exercising to develop heat, but soon my muscles became weak, painful, and spastic. There was some prayers, some bargaining with God, some promises made to live a better Christian life... to be more tolerant, more loving, more forgiving... should I survive. Eventually, however, I finally gave up and simply prepared to die. Now there was even more time to think.

"The threat of hanging [dying], tends to focus the mind."

-James Boswell

Anticipating Death: As I lay dying, the process was not as morose as I might have expected. There was no self-pity, no anger, and no tears. Having enjoyed a full, advantaged, successful, and exciting life, albeit a bit frenetic, I had only a few regrets. The greatest regret was in leaving my wife Elaine... for this small hike on Mt. Washington may have evolved into a very selfish act. As a pied-piper of strategic planning, I have always updated and implemented my life’s plans. Having great accountants and attorneys, I had kept my financial data and will up-to-date and backed-up. I had maintained great plans...preparation for life, but was I prepared to die? This experience... this real-life brush with death, would suggest so. Above all, was I about to learn first-hand the great mystery of Life, Death?

The Rescue: As the hours stretched on, I recalled the lectures on dying from hypothermia, a death characterized by a feeling of “warmth” near the end. In this setting of darkness, high winds, and heavy snow, I simply waited to be “warm” and then to die. There was no “white light” described by near-death adventurers... but at about 10:30 P.M. a light did appear and into a mirage came seven energetic, albeit exhausted, men from the Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue Team and Mountain Rescue led by Mike Pelchat... the leader who encouraged the team to search for “five more minutes." They set up a small tent, set me on an insulated pad, covered my legs with a sleeping bag, and massaged my spastic legs. Ben Miller, an ICU staffer at nearby Memorial Hospital in North Conway, fed me warm fluids and snacks and provided encouragement and up-to-date information. These stalwarts took turns standing on the outer hold-down straps of the tent in blizzard conditions as we waited for two hours on the site as the Auto Road was partially cleared of snow and a large Thiokol -- a tracked snow vehicle -- was brought up along with a litter-toboggan. I was loaded on to the toboggan and taken down to the Thiokol, which took me to Mike’s four-wheel drive truck with tire chains and on to a very warm waiting ambulance. In the ambulance my clothing was removed and I was covered with warm blankets. My core temperature was an amazingly high 97° F by that time... I was alive and amazingly well. The great mystery of death would not be solved for me... at least not yet.

In about 30 minutes I was at the Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin, NH for observation and treatment for hypothermia and possible frostbite. I suffered from neither but I did suffer from rhabdomyolysis, that is, the breakdown of muscle tissue due to all my muscle exertion to create heat in my body. My blood CPK enzyme was over 13,000 units... upper limits of normal being 100. Since myoglobin and other breakdown products of rhabdomyolysis can cause acute renal failure, Dr. Deborah Perry administered large volumes of fluids by IV and by mouth to “flush out” these toxins. After a two days, I was discharged from the hospital.


Dr. Dahl reclining after summitting Mt. Elbrus in Russia, the highest mountain in Europe.	Dr. Dahl at the crater's edge of Popo in Mexico. Ixta can be seen in the background.

The Big Picture: Since early childhood I have been a hiker... on five continents, to the summits of Mt. Elbrus in the Caucasus Mountains of Russia, Kilimanjaro in Africa, and Popo and Ixta in Mexico. To 21,600 ft. on Aconcagua in Argentina, to the summits of all the big mountains in Colorado and New England. Only this past summer I climbed Mt. Washington and knew the area, but not well enough! I have enjoyed decades of hiking without such a major incident. This “event” was caused by some significant risk-taking and errors on my part, and then complicated and compounded by a wide range of cascading problems that worked largely against me. Fortunately in the end, they worked for me.

The Real “Take Home” Message: What lessons can be learned from this “near-death” experience?

	Be prepared to die! Sort of a “Boy Scout’s Motto plus”. Have your economic world in order, your will and insurance updated, succession plans for your company, organization, or professional group, family, etc. Death is the price we will all pay for the gift of Life.
	Have a plan to live! Be prepared to live an orderly life, an examined life as Socrates advised. I remind you of the words of Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric who said “take charge or your life or someone else will”. Create your own personal and business or professional strategic plan. Write it down. Sure, have mission and vision statements, do your SWOT analysis, but before you choose your focused action plans or more specific tasks, take the time to look at you. Ask, “who am I”? Look closely at your values and create a values statement. Look at your world, your wants verses your needs, your obligations, your challenges, your opportunities and how they relate to your values. Remember the formula, B=ƒ(V•E) (behavior is a function of one’s values and environment) for everything you do, every decision you make, every word you utter is a product of your values. Understand your values. Develop a balance between having and sharing, between doing and simply being. Perhaps, for you, you may wish to get close... perhaps even closer to your Supreme Being... your Jehovah, your God, your Allah, now, for we all will do so, later.
	Do it now! Opportunities vanish, people move away, some move on, some die, you may die. So take some risks -- wise risks, hopefully -- but do it now. Given this wonderful gift of life, the greatest risk of all is to take no risk at all.

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

-Socrates

If I had died on Mt. Washington due to my own folly and considerable bad luck, for some that might have been sad. But my misadventure cascaded into a series of events that caused others to risk their lives, voluntarily, to save my life. Due to their expertise, their experience, but above all their perseverance, we all survived my Mt. Washington misadventure. I am now bit older and wiser. I have been given a reprieve. Thankfully, I will continue to hike the majestic hills and mountains and to look forward to “seeing you on the summit."

Thanks and Appreciation are extended to the Finestkind Folk at:

	Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue
	Mountain Rescue Service
	The Mt. Washington Auto Road and Brian Bennett
	WMTV TV- 8 / Thiokol Team
	Motorola
	Nokia and UniCel
	911 operators in Maine and New Hampshire
	New Hampshire State Police
	New Hampshire Fish & Game
	Gorham Ambulance Service
	Androscoggin Valley Hospital
	Dr. Deborah Perry

My rescue was a TEAM effort!
It is risky to focus on a select few... but there are the Magnificent Rescuers of the team that found me, who risked their lives and supported me on the mountain, who should be given Special Thanks:

	Mike Pelchat
	Neil Brodien
	Craig Taylor
	Rob Adair
	Ben Miller
	Peter Lewis
	Ian Turnbull