At Seattle Mountain Rescue, we often meet people who are having a bad day –potentially the worst day of their lives. Unfortunately, for Anna Fisher, a casual trail run through Melakwa Lake ended up being that kind of day.
Anna Fisher is no stranger to the backcountry. As a North Face sponsored ultra runner, Anna spends most of her time running trails, either training or racing distances up to 100km. This July, she and her boyfriend Jimmy traveled from their home in Midway, Utah to Snoqualmie, WA to visit friends and continue her training for an upcoming 100K mountain race in France.
The Melakwa Lake trail is a challenging, moderately used trail connecting the Pratt Lake with Melakwa Lake within Alpine Lakes Wilderness. You’re traversing through forest and open slopes with great views 10 miles down the Pratt River Valley to the Middle Fork River.
No one sets out on an adventure expecting it to go wrong, but nearly every long-term outdoor enthusiast has been in a situation where disaster was just one unforeseen accident away. Many times, an accident is a combination of several factors, some that are impossible to control.
Anna has spent a lot of time reflecting on the days leading up to her accident. There were a lot of coincidences leading up to that day”, Anna says. “The night before, my friend took us to a local brewery – Volition. We ordered “The 11th Essential”, a beer that benefited Seattle Mountain Rescue. My friend knew a member of SMR, and we had just been talking about what missions are like the night before.” Anna says she didn’t really know much about mountain rescue. She had seen the Utah SAR out on trails at home but was unsure about how they operated.
“I run by myself a lot, but at the last minute my boyfriend Jimmy decided to join me on the run (he is an ultra-runner as well). Everything was going fine, we had just stopped at Melakwa lake and were heading back towards our car at the trailhead. In a particularly technical and overgrown section, I slipped on a wet rock, and lodged my foot. I fell and heard a loud snap. Then the pain kicked in.”
“Both Jimmy and I have taken wilderness first aid, so we did our best to assess the situation. I struggle asking for help, so I tried walking out, but it was clear that I was in too much pain, and I was going to make my injury worse. We were also worried about making it out before nightfall. I had food, my water filter, but no headlamp and no jacket.”
Anna and Jimmy didn’t have cell service and were 8 miles from their car. “He ran ahead to get cell service to call Search and Rescue and told hikers along the way to look out for me. Strangers refilled my water bottle and gave me Tylenol.” Even though she knew she should stay where she was, Anna kept hobbling as far as she could go.
For Seattle Mountain Rescue, this would be the third mission that day. Earlier, SMR was called to Mailbox Peak for a hiker suffering from heat cramps. A team was heading up the Mailbox trail when the call came in for a trail runner with an ankle injury. The trail leading to Anna is extremely rough and takes a large team to get a loaded litter down this mile long section. SMR had packed a climber out of this section of trail with a broken ankle about two years ago and it was an all-night affair. When the team learned that Anna was slowly making her way, limping on the bad foot, they knew it would be an easier evacuation but that she would also be in a great deal of pain.
SMR and King County Explorer Search and Rescue (ESAR) headed in with the litter and first aid equipment and found Anna sitting on a rock at the top of the Olallie Lake trail. It took her several minutes to recover from the shot of pain from touching her foot, so the team knew she would need to be transported in the litter. The team assembled the litter, installed a full vacuum splint on her leg, loaded her in, secured her and soon were off rolling down the trail on the wheel under the litter.
As much as Anna was relieved to see the team, and as much as she knew she needed support, she felt conflicted about needing to be rescued. Often, the more experienced outdoor enthusiasts struggle to make the call for search and rescue. There’s a common misconception that only unprepared and inexperienced people need search and rescue. Seattle Mountain Rescue is called on missions for every level of experience and more times than not we are rescuing someone who knows what they’re doing. Accidents happen.
“I was embarrassed. On top of the pain, it was a hard pill for me to swallow that I was this hurt and that these people were out here for me on a Saturday night.” Anna says that despite her grumpiness, everyone was extremely kind, efficient, and even told her, “This is where we want to be.”
After the team made it back to the trailhead, Anna and Jimmy were ready to head to the ER in Snoqualmie. “I asked if they needed my insurance card or how I needed to exchange information. I was taken aback that they spent all this time helping me and were doing it as volunteers with nothing in return.” The ER confirmed Anna’s fibula was broken and back in Utah, she met with an orthopedic team that told her surgery was needed. If she had continued to walk out on her own it could have been a lot worse. She’s on the road to recovery and is managing the disappointment of not being able to race this summer. Anna is spending the time healing and mentally training for what lies ahead. In addition, she is still processing everything that happened on the day of her injury. “All of the coincidences leading up to it are so interesting. My friend knowing someone in SMR, the beer at Volition, and even Jimmy joining me that morning when I normally go alone.”
Anna is also grateful for the people who came to help her when she needed it most. “They were seeing me at my worst and spending their entire day rescuing me.” Once Anna was back in Utah, she emailed Seattle Mountain Rescue to thank the entire team. If she had not made the call for search and rescue, she could have caused irreparable damage to her ankle. Everyone at SMR appreciates how hard it can be to ask for help, but at the end of the day it’s why we’re here and it’s what we love to do. As the SMR Field Member told Anna that day, “this is where we want to be.”