Mary Grimm – 6 days stranded up a frozen mountain

Time stranded: 6 days

Distance traveled: 2,500 to 3,000 meters

Terrain types: Mountain, extreme cold

Deaths: 0

Situation ended: Rescued by search team

Location: Mount Hood, Oregon

Certain people feel they have always had a purpose in life, and for Mary Grimm, that purpose was to spread the word of god as a missionary. Mary was a highly intelligent person and always had an interest in languages, after graduating with a degree in linguistics, she decided to use this skill to help translate the bible for people across the world who had not yet had the chance to read it.

Her interest in being a missionary first started on a week-long trip to Mexico when she was still in school, and then further increased during a series of short trips to Papua New Guinea where she expressed interest in becoming a missionary full time to translate the bible for groups of tribal people she met there. Her father was also deeply religious and recalled how she was certain of two things after returning from her trips, “The first was that God had called her to a life of missionary service, and the second was that she never wanted to wear shoes again. From that time on she only wore them if absolutely necessary or when compelled.”

One thing Mary loved about these trips away was being in nature, something that always made her feel safe and closer to god, this love of the outdoors was the reason she would often go on long hikes and climb local mountains, and it was during a long hike across the Pacific crest trail in 2010 that she first laid eyes on Mount Hood, a 3,429 m tall snow-capped mountain that is also the highest point in the state of Oregon.

Ever since she first saw it, she felt a strong urge to reach the shining white peak but over the next couple of years, trip after trip fell through for various reasons, something that caused her great frustration. It wasn’t until 2013 that she planned to go to Mount Hood with one of her friends, but yet again the trip fell through. She received an email from her climbing partner the day before the trip saying that he didn’t like the look of the weather and thought they should cancel due to safety concerns, but this didn’t sit well with Mary who wasn’t prepared to be disappointed yet again.

It was a cold Saturday morning in April on the day she was supposed to make the climb, but after her partner canceled, she decided to go alone and left her dorm room early in the morning and drove to Mount St Helens to test out her kit. After a short hike, she decided to add a couple of things to her backpack and then drove to the base of Mount Hood, planning to start the climb alone early the next day.

After reaching the mountain, she stayed in the car park of Timberline Lodge and slept in the back of her truck, planning to wake up early and start the climb before sunrise, but she didn’t wake up until around 10 am. The lodge she stayed outside of was already about 1,500 meters from the base, so she only had to tackle around 2,000 meters to reach the summit, a climb that should have taken about 5 or 6 hours.

(Mount Hood, Oregon’s tallest mountain at 3,429 m high, and one of the most popular places in the state for hikers)

She gathered her things and left her vehicle, making good time up the first half of the mountain, following a well-worn path that leads directly to the summit. The further up the mountain she went, the thicker the clouds became and the faster the temperature dropped, but she was in no state of mind to turn back. This determination is what stopped her from making the decision to turn back, especially when visibility dropped to about 50 feet and the clouds started to turn into a thick freezing fog.

She pushed on up the trail and walked for hours, expecting to reach the summit at any moment, but it wasn’t until a huge gust of wind showed her how much trouble she was in. As she was walking along, the wind gave her a few seconds to view her surroundings and she found herself dangerously close to the top of an ice-covered cliff so big she couldn’t see the bottom. It was at this point that she realized she was lost and must have walked off the path at an unknown point, maybe hours ago. After stopping for a short while she realized how much trouble she was in and how wet her clothing was, then the real panic set in when she saw her trail had been quickly covered up by the snow, giving her no indication as to which direction she should go back.

She started to panic and made her best guess as to which way was the correct route down, but since she had left the summit trail hours ago, there was no chance of her finding a safe path back down, especially now it had started to snow heavily. She couldn’t see very far and with the changing wind directions, she decided to use snowballs and see which way they rolled, following the ones that rolled the fastest. She used this method until she almost fell into a small crevice, about 4 feet wide but deep enough to kill her. This scared her into not risking going any further until she could see properly, but it was now about 2 am and all she could do was lay her tarp in the most sheltered area she could find and wrap herself up in her poncho and try to get some sleep.

She woke a few hours later to find that the snow was far too deep to wade through and her only option was to try and reach a ridge she could see a short distance higher up the mountain. The slope up to the ridge had less snow on it but was still difficult to move through, and she had to use her ice axe for some extra grip. As she climbed the ground became steeper and rockier and then it happened, the moment that would almost end her life.

After sinking her axe into the next piece of rock, she lost her grip on the handle and fell. She can’t recall how far the fall was but she did remember trying desperately to grab onto anything she could, bouncing off rocks and tree stumps as she fell. When she finally came to a stop she didn’t initially feel any pain, but after a minute or so it finally set in and she saw the huge 8-inch gash on her inner thigh, and felt the intense sprain in her ankle which was bad enough to stop her from walking.

Being a deeply religious person, she decided to pray and ask god for help, but for the first time in her life she didn’t feel his presence and this is when the extreme terror set in. She had no idea where she was and couldn’t walk, and on top of that she made one of the worst mistakes that anyone going into the wilderness could ever make, she didn’t tell a single person where she was going.

Walking anywhere wasn’t an option, so the only thing she could do was sit tight and hope someone would find her. She dug out a small cave in the snow, patting it down with her good foot, and crawled inside, wrapping herself in her tarp and poncho and hoping someone would pass by. She thought this was the place her life would come to an end so she set up her camera and recorded a few messages for her family and friends. It didn’t take long before she was shivering too much to speak and decided to try and get some rest, drifting in and out of consciousness over the next few hours until falling asleep for the rest of the day.

(A properly built snow shelter, far from what Mary was able to make with her wounded leg. If it wasn’t for the tarp and poncho she brought along, she would have certainly frozen to death.)

She awoke on Tuesday morning to find the entrance to the cave was almost covered by snow falling down the mountain, and she knew she couldn’t stay there. She wrapped herself in the tarp for a little extra heat and crawled across the snow toward a canyon she thought would be more visible to anyone on the mountain, but due to her condition, it took several hours to move about 100 feet. She dug a small depression into the snow to escape the wind and regain her strength, but the cold and her injuries made it impossible to move any further.

She stayed there for the next two days, packing snow into her water bottle and melting it by breathing on it. She called out now and then in the hope that someone would hear her, but no one would answer her calls. It wasn’t until Friday morning that she felt hope for the first time in days in the form of a small plane flying over the mountain. It looked like a search plane and she shouted and waved her arms, thinking it had seen her, but no one came and it wasn’t until the evening she knew no one saw her.

A few days earlier some of her friends had raised concerns over her whereabouts. She was known to disappear sometimes for short periods and do things without telling people, but it was unusual for her to be gone for so long and after several phone calls between her friends and family, they worked out something was very wrong and reported her missing.

The plane that flew over on Friday morning was indeed looking for her, but other than the rescuers suspecting she was on the mountain, they had no idea where to actually search. Mary knew she couldn’t move anywhere and settled in for another night, waking early the next day in a state close to death. Suddenly in the distance she caught the sound of something close to an engine, and then the sound turned into what she recognized as a helicopter. Hope filled her entire body and then she saw it, a rescue helicopter rising over the ridge directly in front of her. She waved her arms frantically and both of the crew on board waved back, quickly racing towards her to the nearest landing spot.

Both crew members got out and ran towards her, with one of the rescuers offering to carry her, but she refused, wanting to make the final push to safety herself. The rescuer nodded and began to crawl next to her as a kind gesture, something that made her smile for the first time in days. She was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for her wounds, making a full recovery and going back to her normal life with a large scar to remind her of the ordeal.