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Weekend weather conditions lead to multiple rescues
By Lynn Hotaling
Mother Nature played a delayed April Fool’s trick on almost 200 outdoor sports enthusiasts who traveled to Jackson County for this past weekend’s Smoky Mountain Adventure Race.
The competition, a challenging 40-hour event, required three-person teams to paddle, bike and hike from Cashiers to Canada to Caney Fork. The course, which would be grueling under any conditions, turned potentially deadly when wind, snow and sub-freezing temperatures hit the area on Saturday (April 2).
Smoky Mountain Adventure Race participants braved wind and icy snow as they neared Catheys Gap Saturday (April 2). Coming a day after April Fool’s, the wintry weather was no joke to almost 200 outdoor enthusiasts who traveled to Jackson County for the event. Hazardous conditions Saturday, including almost 2 feet of snow on part of the course, halted the race, which included paddling on Lake Glenville and mountain biking and hiking through the Nantahala National Forest. – Herald photo by Lynn Hotaling
The race was plagued with problems from the start, according to Craig Burrell, chief of the Jackson County Rescue Squad, and participant Tom Baker of Sylva, who said he “froze out on Sugar Creek Gap” around 5 p.m.
Around 30 people had to be rescued, including one team that capsized their canoe during the event’s first leg, Burrell said.
Gusty wind and heavy rain complicated the Lake Glenville circuit, said Baker, who was behind the group that tipped its canoe and plunged into the icy water.
“They barely made it to shore,” he said. “They were extremely hypothermic.”
As weather conditions worsened Saturday, Burrell made the decision to call in support from neighboring areas.
“I activated mutual aid around 3 p.m.,” he said. “We had to get people out even before the race was cancelled around 7:30 p.m.”
The decision to end the event was made by race director Tony Berwald and local emergency officials after lead teams reported snow accumulations of 18 to 24 inches on Old Bald, Burrell said.
Some 66 people were unaccounted for when the race was declared over, Burrell said. Rescue personnel then coor-dinated efforts between the Canada and Caney Fork sides and made a sweep, Bur-rell said.
“We picked up six or eight teams, mostly from the Sugar Creek Gap and Wet Camp Gap areas,” he said. None had injuries serious enough to require hospitalization, Burrell said.
By about 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, only one team was still out, Burrell said. That group made radio contact a short time later, and all-terrain vehicles were dispatched to bring them in, he said.
Rescuers located the adventurers on the headwaters of Chastine Creek around 10:45 p.m. and transported them to the rescue truck around 11:20 p.m. They were then transported to a command post at the Moses Creek Baptist Church and given warm clothing and hot food, Burrell said.
“Those folks were in bad shape at first, but we got them warmed up,” Burrell said. “They were grateful.”
Fire departments from Canada and Cullowhee, along with rescue squads from Transylvania, Haywood and Swain counties, Brevard, Little River, and Balsam Grove assisted with Saturday’s rescues, Burrell said.
Race officials coordinated the event with local emergency management, said Mike Ensley, county emergency services director.
The adventure challenge was first scheduled for last October but was postponed in the wake of back-to-back Hurricanes Frances and Ivan.
“They said they had never had an accident before but thought it would be good if we were standing by,” Burrell said. “The weather’s really what got them. Only about five of the 80 teams made it to the race checkpoint on Moses Creek.”
Race course designer Tim Morris of Sylva agreed with Burrell’s assessment.
“The weather was quite surprising,” he said Tuesday. “One member of the second-place team is from Idaho and helps with back-country rescues out there. He said we had some of the worst conditions he’d seen for a race.”
Prizes went to the top five teams who completed the paddling and Saturday bicycle leg of the event, Morris said, with the fastest finishers on the course around 22 hours. Hooked on the Outdoors, sponsored by an Atlanta-based adventure magazine, placed first; Team Subaru from California was second; and Adventure Sports Magazine, another Atlanta-area team, took third.
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