Park rescue re-enacted
What happened Tuesday was a re-enactment filmed for a Discovery Channel program - and the re-enactment was not in Glacier Park, but at Kalispell Regional Medical Center and near Hubbart Dam southwest of Kalispell.
By JIM MANN
The Daily Inter Lake
The radio transmissions Tuesday afternoon from the ALERT helicopter sounded serious - a man had fallen 35 feet down a waterfall in Glacier National Park's Red Gap Pass area.
It turns out the accident occurred six years ago.
What happened Tuesday was a re-enactment filmed for a Discovery Channel program - and the re-enactment was not in Glacier Park, but at Kalispell Regional Medical Center and near Hubbart Dam southwest of Kalispell.
"We're re-creating it," hospital spokesman Jim Oliverson said. "We're trying to endow the ALERT helicopter so we couldn't pass up on this kind of attention."
The production got under way Monday with rescue scenes filmed near the dam at the foot of Hubbart Reservoir. More filming was done Tuesday, including a scene with the ALERT helicopter landing at the hospital and scenes of the "patient," played by an actor, being treated in the emergency room, an operating room and a recovery room.
"We're filming the recovery room right now," Oliverson said late Tuesday.
"Thirty-Fracture Fall" will be a segment in the Discovery Health Channel's series, "Impact: Stories of Survival" that will be broadcast before the end of the year, Oliverson said.
The film recounts events of Aug. 15, 1998, when Erik Josef Von Ranson, 32, slipped while filling his water bottle in an unnamed waterfall near Glacier's Red Gap Pass. Von Ranson broke multiple bones in the 40-foot fall.
What followed was a fairly elaborate "short-haul" rescue, the first of its kind in Northwest Montana.
A Minuteman helicopter delivered park rangers to within a 30-minute hike of Von Ranson, who was visiting the park from Manhattan, N.Y.
Because the victim was in a ravine where a helicopter could not land, a crew of wardens trained in short-haul extractions was dispatched from Canada's Waterton Lakes National Park.
From a helicopter, they lowered a rescuer on a 60-foot line to the base of the waterfall, where Von Ranson was secured in a special harness. Both he and the rescuer were hauled out and dropped off at a meadow where the ALERT helicopter was waiting.
That incident prompted ALERT to develop their its own short-haul extraction capabilities. Since 2002, ALERT crews have conducted several short-haul rescues.
While Von Ranson's rescue actually involved three helicopters, the re-creation involved only one, the ALERT helicopter.
Glacier Park public affairs officer Amy Vanderbilt said the project is being developed by LMNO Productions of Encino, Calif.
Producers "wanted to work with some of the rangers who were involved, but we have not been able to facilitate that," Vanderbilt said. "The seasonals from 1998 are no longer working in the park."
But three of those originally involved were available for the production: Chuck Curry, the Flathead County undersheriff and an ALERT paramedic; Dr. Steve Martini, who assisted in the operating room; and Dr. Keith Lara, who was also involved with Von Ranson's care.
"So we had some of the originals," Oliverson said.
Some scenes also involved hospital employees acting as extras, he said.
Von Ranson and two friends with him that day were portrayed by actors.
Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com