RCC was contacted and a chopper was launched after paramedics with the Butte Fire Department found they could not reach the scene of a climbing accident on Pioneer Peak on Tuesday night, the trooper dispatch revealed on Wednesday.

Palmer-based troopers were notified that climber, 23-year-old Shawnee Whitehorse of Palmer had fallen and “had an ice pick lodged in her back,” at 9:44 pm Tuesday. According to the report, Whitehorse “was unable to move” and “required immediate assistance” in the falling temperatures along the peak.

Unable to continue out of the terrain, Whitehorse’s climbing partner, 46-year-old Lisa Pierimarchi, called in and provided GPS coordinates to their position.[xyz-ihs snippet=”adsense-body-ad”]Armed with that information, paramedics hiked into the area and made contact with the climbing victim. Because of the elevation and terrain, the paramedics found that they needed the assistance of RCC to extract the climber. A helicopter was immediately launched, and with the assistance of the Butte Fire Department paramedics, plucked Whitehorse from the mountain and transported her to the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center for treatment of her injuries.

After her rescue, Whitehorse, on her Facebook page, called the incident a “horrible, freak accident.” Other than the accident, she called the climb an “amazing, beautiful, challenging, and spiritually enlightening.”

Pioneer Peak, in the Chugach Mountain Range, is a popular location for climbers. Located next to the Knik River, just six miles outside of Anchorage’s city limits, the peak rises up from its surrounding to a height of 6,398 feet.[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adversal-468×60″]

  accident, Alaska, climbing, ice pick, medevac, pioneer peak, rcc, rescue, shawnee whitehorse