Ice Climber falls and breaks leg - Activates ACR PLB

On May 22 an ice climber fell and broke his leg at 11,000 feet near Mt. Gilbert in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. There was no way for the injured climber to hike out so his partner switched on his ACR Electronics MicroFix™ 406 GPS PLB to summon help.

When the Navy rescuers were notified of the distress alert, they were already preparing for an exercise. They quickly transitioned to the actual, real-life Search and Rescue (SAR) mission. The crew used high altitude army training skills to hoist both climbers from their snowy encampment. They were flown to a nearby airport where ambulance and sheriff personnel were waiting.

In a subsequent interview online in “The Gear Junkie”, Bill Becher, the climber who owned and activated the MicroFix™, said the Navy SAR team and the sheriff thanked him for having a PLB and said they wished others would carry one. “The SAR sheriff said they’d just had a training session on the PLB and this was the first experience with actually using it. He was impressed with how well it worked. If they hadn’t been able to get the chopper in, it would have taken a 12-man team with a wheeled litter to get my injured partner out,” said Becher.