Man Survives Fall into Mount St. Helens Crater

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

Remember Mount St. Helens, that volcano that exploded back in 1980? Well, over the weekend, a man fell into that volcano - and he lived to tell the story.

On Saturday, John Slemp was cruising the mountain's lower slopes with his son and a friend. His son had just returned from a year's tour in Iraq. They parked their snowmobiles and began to climb; up they went over ice and fresh snow. It was a gorgeous day, and they wanted to see the view from the top. But when they reached the rim of the crater, Mr. Slemp went a little too far. The snow at the edge of the rim gave way, and he fell hundreds of feet down into the crater.

Hours later, Will Rinta arrived on the scene. He's a volunteer medical technician with North Country Emergency Medical Service, and he joins us now from Yacolt, Washington.

Welcome to the program.

Mr. WILL RINTA (Medical Technician, North Country Emergency Medical Service): Hi.

NORRIS: Now, I understand that you were on a helicopter that flew into the crater. Into the crater, what did it look like coming inside that crater?

Mr. RINTA: Well, it's impressive - quite a large area. He was still on the wall, so it was a steep slope.

NORRIS: And was - he was conscious, even though he took quite a fall?

Mr. RINTA: Yes, he was standing up, waving at us, trying to get our attention.

NORRIS: How did you actually get him out?

Mr. RINTA: We had to - flew in and had one other individual with us, and we tried to land, and just a little bit too heavy. So we went back over and landed on the dome and deposited one individual and some of the gear there. And flew back over, and we were able to do just one skid landing on the snow which doesn't give very much stability. And I off-loaded and the helicopter left me there to treat the patient.

NORRIS: You mentioned the dome, what is that?

Mr. RINTA: Well, it's the lava dome that's in the middle of the volcano there that's been building for, you know, some period of time.

NORRIS: So you don't want to disturb that?

Mr. RINTA: No. It's - they've been landing on it a lot. There is where we landed, monitoring equipment's set up there. The pilot that flew us in there has spent a tremendous amount of time in there. And, yeah, he chose to put us down in that location.

NORRIS: So, they left you to treat the patient. What kind of condition was John Slemp in?

Mr. RINTA: He was upbeat. Surprisingly good condition from what one would expect. Naturally, had a few bumps and bruises and was, you know, favoring one leg, but overall, generally pretty good condition. He was getting cold. It's late in the day; he'd been there for a while.

NORRIS: Ever done anything like this before?

Mr. RINTA: Not — well, every rescue is interesting and different. This one is definitely interesting and different, for sure.

NORRIS: Is this the first time that someone has actually fallen inside the crater?

Mr. RINTA: Yes, it is. He's the first one.

NORRIS: So, you had no protocol to follow in terms of trying to get inside, get him help, and get him out.

Mr. RINTA: Yes. It's — as is with many rescues, you never really know just exactly what you're up against, and so - until you get there, what's reported and what you find can be different at times. So, yeah, I - we weren't sure 100 percent what to expect, whether we were going to have to traverse the glacier or what we were going to have to do. We're sort of, kind of, ready for everything and actually worked out very good.

NORRIS: Will Rinta is a volunteer with a rescue team based near Mount St. Helens in Washington State.

Mr. Rinta, thank you so much for speaking with us.

Mr. RINTA: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.