Fallen Into An Ice Cave

This article originally appeared on Backpacker

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Two friends, Dan and Jim, embark on their annual climbing trip in the stunning yet treacherous terrains of the Tetons. Their adventurous spirits are tested when a glissading misstep sends one plummeting 50 feet below the snow surface into a hidden ice cave.

Transcript

Host: In our meticulous preparations for an ascent, we become experts at navigating technical terrain, armed with the proper gear and skills we’ve honed over years of practice. On the descent, though, when the skies are clear, and the trailhead is beckoning, it’s tempting to believe we’ve bested the challenge we came for.

But the mountain stands indifferent to our triumph, not caring which way we’re going. And it’s during these moments of high spirits and lowered guards that we might find ourselves with a climb we never even saw coming.

Dan Wenker: So I’m Dan Wanker and I live in Atlanta. Jim and I became friends when we both lived in the state of Washington. We both lived in the Yakima area.

Jim Zingerman: I’m Jim Zingerman and I’m a family physician in Washington state. Dan and I have become good friends through our hiking adventures.

Dan Wenker: My outdoor experience began when I lived in Washington.

For my 50th birthday, I decided to climb Mt. Rainier. As a guy from Philadelphia, I didn’t know what was involved, to tell you the truth. Did that, and summited the top, and quite frankly, other than the birth of my children and the marriage to my wife, it was the most impactful thing that I’ve done in my life.

Host: Over the next 14 years, Dan and Jim ticked off major peaks in Washington and California and even traveled together to Africa to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. They became members of a close-knit climbing group. And even after Dan and his family moved from Washington to Atlanta, they would get together annually to continue their outdoor adventures.

Jim Zingerman: I have a theory about memories that it’s a goal in life to try to acquire as many memories as you can. And one of the ways that for sure locks in a memory is adrenaline.

I try to put myself in a situation where adrenaline could happen, and of course, good adrenaline is what you seek, you don’t seek the bad adrenaline.

Dan Wenker: Last year, 2022, during our ski trip, we thought it’d be cool to climb Grand Teton, which sounded like a wonderful thing. And so we made arrangements to do that.

We headed out on the 28 of June, went up to the lower saddle on the Grand Teton, and it really was, everything was going very well.

Host: On this particular adventure, the pair were joined by two other friends, Mark and Nicholas McGuire, both of whom had extensive technical climbing experience. The group planned to do the mountain’s popular Owen Spaulding Route.

Dan Wenker: We got up to the saddle, set up our camp. Got everything together and went to bed that night with the idea that we would summit the next day. It was about that time that we saw the winds starting to increase. When we woke up the next day, the weather had changed a bit and there were threatening thunderstorms in the area.

Wind was increasing at the time. We decided during that day that maybe the winds had dropped the next day so we’d get an early start and head out at about 4 in the morning and still were what we thought was on schedule. What happened is what happens a lot of times, is the weather went the other way.

Host: Dan and Jim spent a sleepless night managing their tents in the high winds, which reached 50 miles per hour at times. Mark and Nicholas, the more experienced technical climbers, decided to continue their bid for the summit. If the conditions improved, they would radio down for Dan and Jim to join them.

Dan Wenker: After being there for a while, we got the text from Mark and said that they were delayed because of the weather and the winds at the top. And so they recommended that we climb down. So Jim and I figured, "Well, that’ll be fine." We started to do that. And while we were doing that, there was a Jenny Lake Park ranger that was on his way to the top of the Grand Teton too. He stopped by to talk to us and asked us what we were doing. And we mentioned that we were heading down. He asked us if we were going to be glissading at all. And we said, "Yeah, probably."

Host: Glissading is like sledding without a sled. You slide down a snowy or icy slope on your backside, sometimes using an ice ax for control. It’s a way for mountaineers to quickly descend after climbing up.

Dan Wenker: His comment at the time was that, just make sure that you know where you’re going, make sure you can see where you’re going, and make sure you can control your speed. Jim and I have never talked about it completely, but when I looked at him I was like, "We’ve been doing this for quite a long time, and so we know what we’re doing here. But thanks for the help."

Host: So Jim and Dan geared up for their next steep downclimb.

Dan Wenker: Since that was what we thought was the steepest part, once we got down to the boot trail that led to the regular trail that would take us back, we were pretty excited. We figured that’s the most difficult part, so we packed up our ice axes, figuring we wouldn’t need them again and grabbed our poles and took off some of our outer shells because it was just a phenomenal day. Crystal clear blue skies, sun was warm. We were out there, life was good. So we started hiking down, and once we got a little ways we kept looking over at the snow field to our right and said, "We should be glissading instead of hiking."

Just because it’s easier and quite frankly a whole lot more fun. We started glissading down this first snow field and Jim went first and stopped at a little bit of a landing and then I followed him. We got to that landing and we were laughing. It was such a great day. Snow was soft. Life was good.

Host: They continued to make their way down the mountain, choosing a glissade toward an outcropping of rock.

Jim Zingerman: I was finishing my slide into the rock area. I was a little bit taken off guard because we’ve done a lot of glissading. I’ve never slid out of control and onto the rocks. And I said, "Wow, that was a little out of control. I think that was probably not very wise."

Dan Wenker: There’s a big boulder and a bunch of rocks where the snow stops.

Jim Zingerman: I got up and I looked over the ledge and I saw this big hole in the snow. So I said, Oh, this is really bad.

Dan Wenker: So he glissaded down, stopped there.

Jim Zingerman: I turned around to yell to Dan.

Dan Wenker: I saw that he was saying something, but I really couldn’t hear him. So I started down. And halfway between that point to where Jim realized I was going a little too fast.

Host: Dan dug his feet into the snow and attempted to break with his trekking poles, but he only picked up speed. He could see Jim and a pile of boulders coming towards him faster and faster.

Dan Wenker: And all I could think of, at least I’m going to stop. But when I stop, this is really gonna hurt.

Jim Zingerman: I thought about, I could jump on him, but then we’re both going over the ledge and I said, that doesn’t make any sense.

Dan Wenker: And so when I got to Jim, though, Jim was sitting there. When I got to him, instead of stopping on the rocks, for some reason, I accelerated through the rocks. And once I got through the rocks there, I realized why Jim had stopped there is that there was a pretty significant dropoff. I thought it was something that I could just leap over. I tried to do that, and instead of leaping over, I hit the other side, went into a hole in the snow.

Jim Zingerman: I saw him go up and over the hole and under the snow, and I really felt like he was gone. There was nothing I could do to help him, and there was no way out from under there.

Dan Wenker: Once I went in there, I banged around for a while.

So I was knocked out, got the wind knocked out of me, bounced around a few more times, and then landed on a small ledge at the bottom of an ice moat. On the right of me was this big waterfall. under the ground. To the left of me was an ice wall where the little landing had been carved out.

Behind me was all ice, and in front of me was a straight sheer rock wall, but it was all wet because of the water from the waterfall. So I ended up on a ledge that was probably about 3 feet wide. And when I looked up, It looked like it was about 50 feet up to where the sun was.

Jim Zingerman: My thoughts were "Life is about to change drastically, seeing your buddy just die like that."

I panicked, and of course, what do you do when you’re in an emergency? You call 911. So I got out my phone, and I’m trying to call 911, and I can’t get any reception. We’re way up in the mountains. We’re in the middle of nowhere. I was sure there was nothing I could do.

Dan Wenker: When I went to feel the wall in front of me, it was very wet. The glacial water from the waterfall was falling on my head. My hands were really cold. So at that point I started to think this is really not very good. A couple thoughts came through. We were out there on the trip. My daughter got married in Utah the week before, but when I left my wife off at the airport after the wedding, I mentioned to her that we were doing this.

It was probably the most technical climb we had ever done. And if anything happened, then just don’t call my daughter if I’m dead and don’t ruin their honeymoon as a result of this. There are quick really quick thoughts and it was more thoughts about "How do I get out of here?" And "What do I need to do?" Whatever you describe it as, I think was a bit of divine intervention. But at that time in my head I heard "Remain calm, breathe slowly," because I knew that would be the best way to try and get out of there.

Jim Zingerman: I’m yelling out in thin air, "God. I need you now, and Dan doesn’t have much time down there."

Dan Wenker: And then also it came to me, it said, "Today’s not your day to die." And so while I’m standing there with all that’s gone through my mind, trying to slow down my breath and wondering how I’m going to get out of there. And it was after maybe 5 or 10 minutes, I screamed Jim’s name for the first time, and I couldn’t hear anything coming back.

Jim Zingerman: I could hear him calling my name. I’ve done a little bit of cave exploring with water. And you can’t hear when the water’s rushing past you. You can’t hear a person standing next to you. So I knew he couldn’t hear me, even though I could hear him. And I said, "This is awful, because he’s alive down there for a little while. I know hypothermia is going to set in pretty quickly down in the water there." I knew that we were in a crisis.

Dan Wenker: All I could do is look up at that small amount of light that was above me and think "at least he saw me go in here. Hopefully he’s getting some people together to try and rescue me."

So I called his name again. It was dark down there. It was wet. It was loud. And all I could think of when I didn’t hear anything back from him and I saw where I was, I could think, "This just really isn’t going to end very well."

Host: Dan’s hands were dangerously cold, but he knew he’d need them to try to climb up the rock wall in front of him. He tried to warm his hands, meanwhile, scoping for any route upward.

Dan Wenker: The rock wall in front of me was straight up, and it was wet, and I kept trying to see if there was anything I could grab onto, and there was nothing I could grab onto. I didn’t see me getting out of there.

Jim Zingerman: I heard a voice that said "Rope." I said, that’s right. I agreed to take down the extra rope. It’s a 10 pound rope. And so I’m not the strongest climber. So usually the stronger guys carry the rope. And I said, "Nah, I’ll take it down. I can do that." So I take the rope out and uncoil it and I’m trying to cast it over the edge of the ledge. I got my heels into a little divot in the rock.

That’s pretty steep pitch that we were on there. So I got my heels into that little wedge in the rock and. kept casting the rope where I thought Dan went over and it just kept sliding right in front of me, and so blindly I’m just beating this rope over the ledge.

Dan Wenker: And probably after about 25 minutes or so while I was standing there all of a sudden in the dark on my right shoulder I feel something touching me and when I go to to look I notice that it’s a rope and so I grabbed the rope, pull on it three times to let who’s ever on the other end know that I’m alive.

Jim Zingerman: And all of a sudden I got a tug on the rope and it was pretty exciting to say, he got the rope. That’s good. And I said, "If it were me, I’d probably want a little slack so I can tie it around myself."

Dan Wenker: I tied it in a knot around my waist because I was so afraid that ledge that I was on was so small and it looked like it was so precarious that I was so afraid I was gonna that ledge was going to give away and all I could see was the darkness next to me with that waterfall and figuring that all I’m going to do is just go down further under the ice. What I also did was wrap the rope around my right hand and then we’re on my left hand and then leaned back a little bit and started pulling on the rope and climbing up. And what I noticed was as I was climbing up, the slack was being pulled in, and so I thought, this is pretty good.

Jim Zingerman: I feel the rope coming toward me. You’re not physically strong enough to pull somebody up out of a hole. You just don’t have that kind of strength unless you have a Z pulley set up or something like that, which I didn’t. I’m just pulling on the rope to try to give him some counterbalance. So if he slips, at least I can hold him still until he regains his footing.

Dan Wenker: But nobody was really pulling the rope. And so, kept going up that way, and when I got up a little ways, I could feel the ice behind me, and so I wedged my way and leaned back a little further to relieve the tension of pulling up, just wedging myself in between the two.

Host: Dan gradually made his way up, eventually climbing into view of the opening, where he could see Jim about 15 feet away.

Dan Wenker: The first thing that he said to me is, and I’ll never forget it in my life, he said,

Jim Zingerman: "Dan, it’s so good to see your face." And at that point, Dan said, "Don’t let go of the rope." I said, "I won’t. You’re right here. Let’s not let go of the rope now."

Dan Wenker: I said, "I just need to rest here for a little bit." Because at that point I had climbed most of the way out. And so then it took a couple of minutes, climbing a little further. And then when I got to Jim, I said, "Where should I go?" He said, "Just jump on top of me."

Jim Zingerman: He was as white as a sheet. He was cold as ice and I knew I needed to get him warmed up. So just held onto him for a little while and then put my coat on him and tried to warm him up as best I could.

Dan Wenker: The two of us are on the rocks there just laughing and crying, because Jim thought I was dead when I went in the hole. I really wasn’t sure when I was down there, and to be out of there was just remarkable to me.

Jim Zingerman: It was a Lazarus moment for me. When you see somebody you thought was dead and now is alive. I felt like, man, this is something impossible. I never thought he would be back alive again, so we were just ecstatic and words can’t describe the moment like that.

Dan Wenker: He said, "I don’t have any cell service here, so I’m having a hard time getting a hold of people." And I said, "Don’t leave me because I don’t want to fall back in there." And at that point, nothing really, my hip hurt a little bit but didn’t really feel like anything had been injured at all, which I felt pretty lucky about. So he said, "Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to wrap this rope around under your arms, and I’m going to secure it off, and I’m going to see if I can yell for help."

Jim Zingerman: I climbed up where we could the rope around a boulder, and called for help, but where is help going to be?

You don’t think anybody’s going to be in that area. That whistle that you carry with you, that you never think you’re going to use, right? First time I’ve ever used the whistle.

Host: But someone did hear Jim’s whistle. The park ranger, Noah, who they had run into earlier that morning, just happened to be in the vicinity where he heard whistles and calls for help.

Jim Zingerman: I heard this voice say, "I’m coming to help." And I said, "Great, I hope you’re more help than I am."

Dan Wenker: At about that time, I heard him talking to a guy and this ranger showed up. And Jim, I heard him talking to Jim and Jim said to him, "My buddy’s down there. I’m not sure how injured he is, but he fell down into that ice moat and I thought he was dead."

Host: Noah assessed Dan’s injuries. After learning that he had lost consciousness in the cave and was also on blood thinners, Noah decided to call for a helicopter.

Dan Wenker: And so he kept going back and forth between Jim and I. When he came back the next time I was talking to him, I said, "You’re the same ranger that we saw when we left."

The lower saddle. He said, "Yeah, I was." I said, "I guess now is when you’re going to give me the speech about glissading." He said, "Nah, there’s, there’s no judgment here. I’m just glad you’re glad you’re well."

Host: Within 45 minutes, Dan was loaded into a basket with a rescuer from the helicopter.

Dan Wenker: I was short-hauled down, dangling from underneath the helicopter. When we got close, he opened up, he had my eyes covered for a while for the downwash, and I could see this helicopter, again, the blue sky, and just thinking, this is just awesome. This is all going on that I made it out of there and here I am on this helicopter ride, which was pretty cool.

Host: Jim was also taken off the mountain via helicopter after Dan.

Jim Zingerman: If you ever get a chance to hang from a helicopter and fly through Grand Teton park, you gotta try that. That was one of the most thrilling things I think I’ve ever done. I wondered when they were hooking me up to that helicopter whether I should take this ride because they just give you this little apron to put on and a couple of rings on it.

You hook it into a carabiner and they just lift you up off the mountain and you’re flying around hanging from a helicopter. I’ve been to Six Flags and Disney and there’s nothing like that ride. You can’t pay for a ride like that.

Dan Wenker: They dropped me into a field, undid the basket, and there was an ambulance waiting there. They put me on a stretcher. Along the way, when I was on the flight with an EMT, they said, "You’re pretty lucky you survived." I said, "Well, yeah, I know. I think I’m pretty lucky." He said, "You know, you don’t understand. Over the past few years, there were three other people that went in where you went in and you’re the first one that we’ve been able to save and pull out of there alive."

Host: Dan and Jim were both taken by ambulance to the hospital where they learned that Dan suffered a broken leg and extreme bruising.

Dan Wenker: It was then too that Jim suggested, he said, "You probably really need to call your wife." And I said, "I really don’t want to do that right now." She’s going to ask a lot of questions that quite frankly, I don’t want to answer right now.

I had lost my phone in the fall, so I didn’t have a phone. So Jim gave me his phone, called my wife. I said, "I had a little accident while I was hiking. I fell, I hit my head. I broke my leg. But I’m doing okay. I’m in the emergency room. I’ll be home tomorrow." So I’m supposed to fly out back to Atlanta the following day, and then a short while after that, she sends a text to Jim saying, "How did you guys get down?" And he said, "Dangling from underneath a helicopter." At that point, then the phone blew up again, and that’s my wife calling. And so she had a bunch of the questions that I thought she’d start asking. So I had to fess up to her.

Jim talked to his wife. And while he’s talking to her, he said, "Never again. This is the last time for us."

Jim Zingerman: I do think that for me it’s an never again experience. I really don’t plan to put myself into extreme situations. I feel like I can enjoy the outdoors and go on adventures, but not have to do the extreme.

Dan Wenker: After a pretty emotional goodbye with Jim in the driveway there, a pretty long hug with some, with obviously some tears and both of us wondering what exactly happened.

Has it changed my life? The first thing I would say is gratitude, really very grateful to be alive. And I quite frankly, pray to God every morning saying "thank you for my life. Thank you for allowing me to live and grateful for the experience, to tell you the truth." How much it helps you appreciate looking around you every day people say that lightly. I’m not saying my life has dramatically changed, but just taking a peek at things and realizing how quickly it could go away and the final thing is wondering why, and I struggle with that wondering why me. Jim and I have a good friend of ours that five about five years ago or so had a hiking accident, fell and died. His fall wasn’t as extreme as mine at the time.

He fell a long way, but didn’t fall underground or any of that, and he died, and here I am. Lying there with the most grateful broken leg anybody could have, as compared to what could have happened. It was a beautiful day. It was a phenomenal day, and the wilderness can lull you into a sense of false security.

And so, I think that came into play when I put my ice ax away, I should have kept it out. Would have probably been able to stop or at least self arrest on the way down. The wilderness is impersonal, and while it’s beautiful and everything else, it can change pretty quickly.

Host: This episode of Out Alive was produced and written by me, Louisa Albanese, and Zoe Gates.

Scoring and sound design was by Jason Patton. Thanks so much to Dan Wanker and Jim Zingerman for sharing your story with us. If you have a survival story you want to share, you can email me at outalive@outsideinc.com. Thanks for listening to Out Alive. And if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a five star review. We’ll be back in two weeks with another survival story.

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