A Coast Guard helicopter lifted a Haines woman and her father off Mount Ripinsky 3:30 p.m. Tuesday after the pair spent a night lost on the mountain. Kelly Williamson, 44, and father, John Hamilton, 66, of Melrose, Fla., were exhausted and dehydrated when a search crew on foot reached them at a spot on the mountain near […]
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Records fall in Mount Ripinsky run
Mount Ripinsky Run champion Chandler Kemp of Haines on Wednesday chopped a whopping 44 seconds off the race course record he set three years ago in the Fourth of July classic, etching the new mark at 24:28. Kemp topped 21 other finishers on the round-trip course that starts at the American Legion Hall and climbs to a […]
Posted inNews, Search and Rescue
Hikers use iPhone for Ripinsky rescue
A Haines search and rescue squad located two hikers lost on Mount Ripinsky and brought them down in a few hours Saturday, thanks to an iPhone that one of the hikers was carrying. The pair – two sisters from New York – got lost while heading down the mountain when they missed the Piedad Road trail, a […]
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Ripinsky Romp
Laurie Dadourian and Sandy Barclay snowshoe down Mount Ripinsky recently.
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National award for Ripinsky rescuers
The crew of the Coast Guard helicopter that plucked a Haines hiker from a Mount Ripinsky cliffside in January received a national award from the head of the service during a banquet at a New York City ballroom Thursday. The crew of CGNR 6038 – commander Andy Schanno, co-pilot Mike Snyder, flight mechanic Nick Giumette and rescue […]
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Rescue chopper lost visibility against side of Ripinsky
As they lowered rescue swimmer Craig Powers 120 feet to pluck injured hiker Keith Hutchins off a Mount Ripinsky cliffside, U.S. Coast Guard crewmen lost visibility out their port and forward windows, then, several times, lost sight of Hutchins and Powers below. “As we started the hoist, we were in a cloud,” pilot Andy Schanno said in […]
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Rescuers reach for fallen Ripinsky hiker
A team from Haines and Skagway early today climbed within shouting distance of a fallen hiker who’d spent 12 hours braced against a tree on a Mount Ripinsky cliff face, unable to move due to injuries and his precarious position. Keith Hutchins, 40, of Haines used a cell phone to call for a rescue at 2:15 p.m. […]
Chilkat Valley Newsletter Friday August 21
Skagway will be indefinitely without state ferry service after cracks were discovered in its ferry terminal last week. Engineers first discovered cracks in concrete supports under the vehicle and passenger transfer bridges last Thursday. The dock was closed two days later, after the M/V Hubbard completed its Saturday docking at the facility, the state’s Department […]