Slaying the Beast - An Update

Not much new to report this week other than steady as she goes! Much of the slow improvement that I described last week continued this week. Slow going...

The last two weeks have been quite challenging, both from a family perspective and from a work perspective. First the family challenge! I will let my son-in-law Ben describe the chilling experience.

“San Jacinto Peak. This was taken just prior to one of the toughest nights of our lives. We started this hike at about 10:00 in the morning on Sunday. We were super underprepared but made it to the peak just fine. We started our descent at about noon and quickly got completely lost. By 3:00 in the afternoon, we knew that we were running out of daylight and weren't going to be able to get off the mountain on our own. We had few warm clothes and were wearing running shoes with our ankles exposed. We were without fire, food and many other hiking necessities.

We scrambled to a place where we had service and called the ranger station. Shortly later the ranger station sent guys out to where they thought we were, however, those guys turned around fairly quickly as they cramped up and were not well enough prepared for avalanche terrain.

The ranger station then called search and rescue at 8:00 in the evening. By that time, both to get out of the wind and believing that it would be easier for a heli-rescue, Leanne and I had scrambled up an icy peak using sticks as ice picks.

From that location, we again had service. We phoned 911 and they traced our location for search and rescue. However, our call pinged off two cell towers and left them with two sets of coordinates on the mountain. The search and rescue also had us read off our compass coordinates from the compass app.

Search and rescue began their search at 10:00 in the evening at the earliest. They began by searching another peak, the first that our call pinged. It took them over three hours to get up there. Once that spot was eliminated, they used the second ping and the compass coordinates to better determine our location, which was about a three hour hike away from the first ping.

As Leanne and I waited, we started to get pretty cold. We knew that we needed to keep moving for warmth. We stomped, danced, jogged, paced and snuggled in the dark for a couple hours.

We kept in contact with a dispatcher and a ranger about once an hour. We were told numerous times that we were getting rescued in the next hour. It was disappointing each time no one arrived but we tried to remain hopeful. However, our sense of urgency was increasing dramatically with every hour as we knew that a wet storm was in the forecast and without rain coats we would get much much colder.

At about 5:00 on Monday morning we heard the yells of the rescue team. The rain was just starting. By this time, we had been on the mountain for 19 hours and lost for about 17 hours.

Kevin, Cameron and Wayne were great. They got us set up with warm clothes, a hot beverage, and snowshoes for the descent. After about 15 minutes, they led us out the backside of the mountain. It took us seven hours to navigate to the town of Idyllwild where a truck was waiting to drive us back to our car. By this time, we had been on the mountain for 26 hours.

We have come out of this experience with no physical injuries, much to the surprise of the rescue team (they expected at least one of us to be hypothermic.) Stupidity and under preparedness got us into this bad situation. We've definitely learned our lesson.

Some things that the rescue team said saved our lives were: the compass app coordinates; our fitness levels and ability to keep moving for 13 hours after a day of hiking; cell service; and that we were able to get out of the wind by scrambling up the peak.”

And a Godly miracle!!

Loretta and I received a phone call on Sunday, shortly after midnight, from Ben’s parents with the distressing news that Leanne and Ben were lost on a mountain and search and rescue had been engaged.  This started the longest night of our lives, as we waited until 6:30 AM before hearing that the search and rescue team had found them and they were in good shape. Amen! But the journey continued as now they had to be rescued off of the mountain, which we expected would be another 3 - 5 hours.  We started to become quite nervous again when that window came and went and we hadn’t heard anything more about the rescue mission.  So back to the desperate phone calls to try to get an update. Finally, at about 2:30 PM we heard that they were off of the mountain and were being driven back to their car. The more we talk to them and to the rescue folks, the more convinced we are that their escape from the mountain is an epic miracle and we are so thankful! But they are still grounded!

Now the work related challenge!  I received official confirmation last week that I have been approved for an Extended Disability Leave (EDL) through our insurance plan. While this type of plan is definitely a blessing as it provides some additional financial stability and ongoing access to things like Dental and Pension plans, it was yet another reminder of the new normal for our life in the next months. Like so many things - a blessing but yet still difficult.

I was reminded last week of what a gift my work with the Teaching for Transformation (TFT) program has been to me, especially as a couple of key TFT leaders (sister Gayle and great friend Darryl deBoer) spent 5 days visiting TFT schools in the central US.  Many of the school leaders and teachers took some time to fire me encouraging emails and promises for continued prayers.  This was fantastic!  It was very difficult to be removed from the conversations and planning work that were so much a part of my work but also encouraging to hear about the continued passion for the work. I am appreciative of the fine work that continues in my absence.

My next scheduled appointment with the Cross is on February 28 with Dr. Easaw, who will oversee the next round of chemotherapy, which we expect to start in early March, maybe after my birthday on the 2nd!  We will plan the next blog update for after the meeting with Dr. Easaw. Please continue to storm the gates with prayers that the beast will be slain!!!

- Doug