Missing hiker found alive | Local News Stories | frontiersman.com
Note: This was (I think) the third bear attack recently (last few days).
Note: This was (I think) the third bear attack recently (last few days).
If you think your last 36 hours "SUCKED".
- Thread starter Sourdough
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Thanks for the update and I am glad she made it out alive. It will be interesting to learn more of the specifics of what happened. That is a challenging area to hike particularly by yourself at 1:30 am.
A friend of ours, her husband and my wife worked together for years. This is quite the buzz among our friends. I don't have any more info, than the news article Sourdough posted, at this point.
It would appear that she was chased off the trail by bears, used her bear spray, but was unable to find the trail again. She had waterproof matches and was able to start a fire.
Palmer hiker injured but alive after 2-day ordeal along Pioneer Ridge Trail
updated article with a bit more informatoon.
updated article with a bit more informatoon.
I hope she is O.K. Scary ordeal.
She was prepared far more then most, even far more then most Alaskans, who tend to get sloppy about basic survival stuff. Those "serious" wilderness hikers, tend to delete the firearm because of weight. But you can purchase .357 Magnum that only weighs 12.5 oz. (I have zero idea what a can of bear spray weighs, but I'll bet it is more)
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Any mention of what her injuries were? I’m so glad she survived.
Absent any injury from a bear, she was forced off trail in an area with thick bush that is almost impossible to navigate, almost vertical terrain, and cold nights. Name your injury and she probably had them. I have hiked that trail many times and I am amazed that she navigated out off trail, particularly when this started at night. Out was obviously down, and I am sure she had slips and falls.
Was not spelled out.......but referenced as what one experiences, aggressively trying to get down the mountain, through thick Alaska wilderness vegetation. So figure minor cuts, abrasions, strains, she did complain of being cold. But nothing super serious. My guess is the greatest impact was extreme "stress" of trying to survive.
Updated article. Her injuries were caused when she fell as I suspected above. I have hiked that trail often and I know how unforgiving it is. Knowing the area, she must have been a remarkably skilled outdoorswoman.
Palmer hiker injured but alive after 2-day ordeal along Pioneer Ridge Trail
Her is a picture of the ridge trail:
And here is the mountain:
If she was forced off trail, like I said, the only way was down. And that’s a lot of steep down.
Palmer hiker injured but alive after 2-day ordeal along Pioneer Ridge Trail
Her is a picture of the ridge trail:
And here is the mountain:
If she was forced off trail, like I said, the only way was down. And that’s a lot of steep down.
Nope! I'd never take that trail. Glad she survived but NOPE.
The trail she regularly hikes three or four times a week just for exercise and giggles is not a "cake'walk.
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One of these days... I would love to have a satellite messenger system as a backup to keep from ending up like the missing woman in the article...
Maybe something like Spot: SPOT Satellite Communication Devices | Saved by SPOT
It would be well worth it for a few hundred bucks to be able to activate the service when I am way out in the boonies in bear country. The ability to use satellite to signal for help and ensure the rescue team has my gps location would be priceless...
It would majorly suck to be seriously injured or crippled with a misstep and a broken leg (or two) and not have a chance at all...
Maybe something like Spot: SPOT Satellite Communication Devices | Saved by SPOT
It would be well worth it for a few hundred bucks to be able to activate the service when I am way out in the boonies in bear country. The ability to use satellite to signal for help and ensure the rescue team has my gps location would be priceless...
It would majorly suck to be seriously injured or crippled with a misstep and a broken leg (or two) and not have a chance at all...
One of the issues I’ve had with satellite communication are the tracks of the satellites being more southern than Alaska. She was on the northern side of a near vertical 6,000 foot mountain. I’ve had low probability of getting a signal under such conditions in the past causing me to discontinue mine years ago. There might be communication satellites that have arctic overhead coverage now, as my experience is about 8 years old now. Maybe some of our Alaskan/Arctic members can weigh in on what current capabilities are.
And there are a significant lack of switchbacks on that trail, so it’s like 7 plus hours on an extreme, non stop stair stepper for someone in great shape at a brisk pace to reach the summit. I know people who do that as well, but it takes me a bit longer to summit. With the ups and downs on the ridges, it’s over an 8,000 foot vertical rise from the trailhead.
She had cell reception but her battery went dead after her 0130 call to her husband. Luckily she got that call out before the battery died. She had a fire, had she made a nice smoky one it is likely that it would have been noticed as tens of thousands have a view of that mountain.
Last summer another friend of ours had a fall while hiking, though there was no bear involved. She broke her hip, got herself back up onto the trail, hiked to the trail head, and drove herself to the hospital. Alaska grows some pretty tough women. Both these gals are pretty easy on the eyes too.
She left their home Monday about 2 p.m. but Steve Kiefer said he imagined she didn’t start her hike until about 4 p.m. He said he was in contact with Fina several times throughout the evening by cell phone and she assured him she was fine, although the trail was taking longer than anticipated. He said she checked in again at 11 p.m.
Then, at 1 a.m. Tuesday, he received a text saying she’d been charged by two bears and only had half a can of bear spray left.
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Steve Kiefer called 911 when he couldn’t get back in touch with Fina. He said it was frightening not knowing what she was experiencing and not being able to communicate. Later, she told him she’d hiked back up the mountain to avoid the bears and had gotten lost off trail. Her cell phone had stopped working.
Fina told her husband she could see helicopters searching for her during the two-day ordeal, but they were never able to spot her in the dense brush. She spent the night in the woods, lighting a fire with water-proof matches she carried and continued to walk down.
Fina Kiefer described making it back down off the mountain and finding herself in someone’s yard.
“And I could have kissed their lawn,” she said.
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She said she rang the doorbell of the home, but no one was there. That’s when she went out to the road.
“Four vehicles passed me,” she said. “And I knew I had to get back to the ... parking lot because my vehicle was there, and I could get all my wet clothes off and get in my vehicle and get warm.”
That’s when volunteer searcher Stephen Dunphy found her around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, and took her back to the search basecamp.
Steve Kiefer said his wife was taken to the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center but released that evening. He was thrilled to have her back at home surrounded by several family members who had flown in from out of state as the ordeal was unfolding. Steve Kiefer said he was amazed at the response to help find her and grateful to everyone who participated in the search.
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Fina Kiefer did make it to the top of the Pioneer Peak trail, which had been her goal. But she said it first dawned on her she was in trouble when she realized she had started on the trail too late in the day. It was getting late and she left the trail in an attempt to get back to the parking lot faster.
“I didn’t realize how vigorous the trail was until I was actually on the trail,” she said. “And the second mistake I made was not staying on the trail, trying to go on my own — making my own trail down. And by the time I realized I wasn’t going to make it to the trailhead, the parking lot, my battery of my cell phone was dwindling.”
Fina Kiefer described encountering what she initially thought were moose as she tried to make her way down off the mountain, while she was in a valley.
“Once he turned his head, and we both looked at each other, I knew it was a bear,” she said. “We both looked at each other, and then at that very moment I had to make a decision.
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“At that moment I thought, ‘is this the way I’m going to die, God?’” she continued. “He’s charging me and he’s going (from) 50 yards to 25, and I have to turn around, and I stood my ground, grabbed my bear spray and then ... I had to look at him while he’s charging at me. By the time he came about me, about 25 feet, that’s when I said ... I yelled ‘Hey!’ And then I spayed and then he stopped.”
She said the bear hesitated, looking at her. She deployed her bear spray again and yelled at the bear to go. The bear turned around and ran away, along with a second bear that was nearby.
Fina Kiefer said the bears were blocking her way back to the main trail. She climbed back out of the valley, and sent the text to her husband saying she had been charged by bears. It’s the only text he could receive from her before her phone died, and that’s when he alerted the Alaska State Troopers.
She described hearing and seeing the helicopters searching for her on Tuesday, but said they couldn’t see her through the thick brush. While she waited and worked to get off the mountain, she said she ate cranberries and snow.
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She found a creek to use as a water source.
At one point while making her way through the brush, Fina Kiefer described falling and hitting her head. As darkness came on Tuesday, she found a place to build a fire with her water-proof matches. She slept on and off through that night.
She described watching the searching helicopters continue to pass her location, even while she had a fire lit.
“I was praying a lot,” Fina Kiefer said.
ADVERTISEMENT
By Wednesday, she said it was clear the searchers couldn’t see her from the air. With the weather turning, she knew she had to get off the mountain.
She could hear the dogs that were part of one of the search groups, but the people looking couldn’t hear her.
Fina Kiefer said she followed a creek down off the mountain, which led her to the home and the backyard.
She said she thanks the Lord for giving her the ability to make it back alive. She also thanked the first responders and all the people who prayed for her.
ADVERTISEMENT
“It makes me be so happy that I’m able to hug them again,” she said of her family. “Because nothing else matters if you don’t have that.”
https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2...arching-her-they-never-spotted-her-off-trail/
Then, at 1 a.m. Tuesday, he received a text saying she’d been charged by two bears and only had half a can of bear spray left.
ADVERTISEMENT
Steve Kiefer called 911 when he couldn’t get back in touch with Fina. He said it was frightening not knowing what she was experiencing and not being able to communicate. Later, she told him she’d hiked back up the mountain to avoid the bears and had gotten lost off trail. Her cell phone had stopped working.
Fina told her husband she could see helicopters searching for her during the two-day ordeal, but they were never able to spot her in the dense brush. She spent the night in the woods, lighting a fire with water-proof matches she carried and continued to walk down.
Fina Kiefer described making it back down off the mountain and finding herself in someone’s yard.
“And I could have kissed their lawn,” she said.
ADVERTISEMENT
She said she rang the doorbell of the home, but no one was there. That’s when she went out to the road.
“Four vehicles passed me,” she said. “And I knew I had to get back to the ... parking lot because my vehicle was there, and I could get all my wet clothes off and get in my vehicle and get warm.”
That’s when volunteer searcher Stephen Dunphy found her around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, and took her back to the search basecamp.
Steve Kiefer said his wife was taken to the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center but released that evening. He was thrilled to have her back at home surrounded by several family members who had flown in from out of state as the ordeal was unfolding. Steve Kiefer said he was amazed at the response to help find her and grateful to everyone who participated in the search.
ADVERTISEMENT
Fina Kiefer did make it to the top of the Pioneer Peak trail, which had been her goal. But she said it first dawned on her she was in trouble when she realized she had started on the trail too late in the day. It was getting late and she left the trail in an attempt to get back to the parking lot faster.
“I didn’t realize how vigorous the trail was until I was actually on the trail,” she said. “And the second mistake I made was not staying on the trail, trying to go on my own — making my own trail down. And by the time I realized I wasn’t going to make it to the trailhead, the parking lot, my battery of my cell phone was dwindling.”
Fina Kiefer described encountering what she initially thought were moose as she tried to make her way down off the mountain, while she was in a valley.
“Once he turned his head, and we both looked at each other, I knew it was a bear,” she said. “We both looked at each other, and then at that very moment I had to make a decision.
ADVERTISEMENT
“At that moment I thought, ‘is this the way I’m going to die, God?’” she continued. “He’s charging me and he’s going (from) 50 yards to 25, and I have to turn around, and I stood my ground, grabbed my bear spray and then ... I had to look at him while he’s charging at me. By the time he came about me, about 25 feet, that’s when I said ... I yelled ‘Hey!’ And then I spayed and then he stopped.”
She said the bear hesitated, looking at her. She deployed her bear spray again and yelled at the bear to go. The bear turned around and ran away, along with a second bear that was nearby.
Fina Kiefer said the bears were blocking her way back to the main trail. She climbed back out of the valley, and sent the text to her husband saying she had been charged by bears. It’s the only text he could receive from her before her phone died, and that’s when he alerted the Alaska State Troopers.
She described hearing and seeing the helicopters searching for her on Tuesday, but said they couldn’t see her through the thick brush. While she waited and worked to get off the mountain, she said she ate cranberries and snow.
ADVERTISEMENT
She found a creek to use as a water source.
At one point while making her way through the brush, Fina Kiefer described falling and hitting her head. As darkness came on Tuesday, she found a place to build a fire with her water-proof matches. She slept on and off through that night.
She described watching the searching helicopters continue to pass her location, even while she had a fire lit.
“I was praying a lot,” Fina Kiefer said.
ADVERTISEMENT
By Wednesday, she said it was clear the searchers couldn’t see her from the air. With the weather turning, she knew she had to get off the mountain.
She could hear the dogs that were part of one of the search groups, but the people looking couldn’t hear her.
Fina Kiefer said she followed a creek down off the mountain, which led her to the home and the backyard.
She said she thanks the Lord for giving her the ability to make it back alive. She also thanked the first responders and all the people who prayed for her.
ADVERTISEMENT
“It makes me be so happy that I’m able to hug them again,” she said of her family. “Because nothing else matters if you don’t have that.”
https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2...arching-her-they-never-spotted-her-off-trail/
