Helicopter bucks bad weather in search for climber who fell into Mount St. Helens crater

Helicopter bucks bad weather in search for climber

SEATTLE — A Navy helicopter made two passes Tuesday at Mount St. Helens trying to rescue a veteran climber whose chances of survival were dimming after he fell 1,500 feet into the dormant crater and spent more than a day in the snow.

Clouds and wind hampered efforts to reach Joseph Bohlig, 52, who had been posing for a picture Monday on the rim of the dormant crater when a snow overhang gave way and he fell into the volcano.

The helicopter from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station failed to reach Bohlig on its initial pass in the morning. It refueled in Portland before heading back to the mountain before dark.

“Hopefully, they can get in there, find this guy and get him out of there,” Skamania County Undersheriff David Cox said.

Cox said Bohlig may not have survived, but rescuers won’t know until they reach him.

Two attempts to reach Bohlig by helicopter were turned back Monday by winds and fading daylight after crews spotted his body covered by snow, with his arms, legs and head sticking out.

“There was no movement of the head, no attempt to signal,” said Lt. Brooks Crawford, the pilot of a Coast Guard helicopter.

The National Weather Service said the overnight temperature Monday on the mountain likely dropped to the upper 20s.

Bohlig, of Kelso, Wash., reached the summit with his friend Scott Salkovics after a four-hour hike. Bohlig took off his backpack and a layer of clothing then decided to pose for pictures.

Salkovics told KGW that Bohlig handed a camera to another hiker and was backing up when the snow gave way and he fell. The hiker threw himself toward Bohlig but couldn’t catch him.

“Boom, it busted off and I saw him clawing for the edge with a startled look on his face, and then he disappeared,” Salkovics told the TV station.

Bohlig was alive and blowing a rescue whistle soon after the fall.

Salkovics, an experienced climber as well, threw a backpack with supplies down the crater but wasn’t sure if his friend reached it.

Richard Bohlig, the climber’s 84-year-old father, waited for updates at his home, saying it was the only thing he could do.

He said his son is an avid mountaineer who has climbed peaks in many countries, but Mount St. Helens was his home mountain.

“He used to go up even before the eruption as a child, play in the snow and that,” Richard Bohlig said. “I don’t know why he liked it, but he does. … I guess it’s a challenge for him. He likes to take people up to St. Helens.”

Bohlig had climbed the volcano 68 times before the accident, Cox said.

Crawford said Bohlig fell into an area between the slope of the crater wall and a magma dome on the crater floor. The pilot said he had to leave the mountain because his helicopter didn’t have enough power to hover at that altitude in those conditions.

The volcano about 100 miles south of Seattle exploded in a massive eruption in 1980 but has been quiet in recent years.

The U.S. Forest Service said the climbing route provides views of the crater, lava dome and eruption area. Most climbers can complete the round trip in seven to 12 hours.

The trail reaches an elevation of 8,365 feet. Climbers are advised to stay well back from the rim due to its instability.

McDowell, who has been with the local emergency agency for 39 years, said the only other time a person fell from the rim was in 2008 when a snow cornice gave way under a snowmobiler, who was rescued by a helicopter and suffered a knee injury.

About 13,000 people climb the mountain each year, mostly in the summer months.

On the Net:

www.mountsthelens.com/index.html