Hiker survives fall on mountain near Mission Falls
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ST. IGNATIUS — A Lakeside man who fell more than 100 feet while hiking in the Mission Mountains Saturday must have been a “skilled faller,” as he sustained minimal injuries for the scope of the fall, Lake County Search and Rescue’s Christy Rhine said.
Evan Kreps was transported by ambulance to St. Luke Community Hospital in Ronan Sunday around noon after being lifted by helicopter off Kakashe Mountain along with hiking buddy Tyler Schaefer, a Kalispell resident. Both men are in their early 20s.
Around 2:30 p.m. Saturday, LCSR was dispatched to the Mission Falls area near St. Ignatius for an injured hiker. According to Schaefer, who called for help on a cell phone, Kreps fell at least 100 feet in about 15-foot increments over rocks and rough terrain and suffered a head injury and severe gashes to his arm and leg. Schaefer described the men’s location and gave compass coordinates to search and rescue personnel by phone, and LCSR team members began hiking in to where they thought the men were.
But at around 3 p.m., an Alert helicopter from Kalispell spotted the hikers on a different part of the mountain, and the first search team turned around from an unsuccessful three-mile hike.
“(The distressed hikers) didn’t know where they were,” Rhine said.
With the hikers’ location confirmed, Rhine, four other LCSR members and two Mission Valley Ambulance EMTs headed out on another trail that turned out to be barely passable. At two miles in, the trail was covered with downed trees, and for the next 4.5 miles, the crew battled through the blow-over area without a visible trail to follow.
“We just went straight up the mountain,” Rhine said.
The first search team reached Kreps and Schaefer at about 10 p.m., seven hours after beginning the hike. Additional search teams arrived around 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. Sunday, with a total of 21 responders camping at the cold, windy rescue site nearly 7,000 feet up on Kakashe Mountain.
EMTs treated Kreps’ injuries and monitored his condition throughout the night until a team of sawyers from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Division of Fire could hike in and clear a landing area large enough for a helicopter.
“(Kreps) actually was really strong and was a real trooper the whole time,” Rhine said.
The saw team worked for about four hours to clear a landing site, Rhine said, and Kreps and Schaefer were finally flown to the St. Ignatius Airport at around noon on Sunday before being taken to the hospital.
“(The sawyers) did an awesome job,” Rhine noted.
CSKT Fish and Game personnel also aided in the search, she added.
