Injured climber rescued in Glacier Park

Jack Beard is lucky to be alive.

The Kalispell mountain climber is hospitalized in stable condition after falling more than 600 feet Saturday in the northeast corner of Glacier National Park.

Beard, 60, was attempting to scale the glacial wall beneath the Lithoid Cusp, between Mount Merritt and Ipasha Peak, when he lost his footing in a snow chute at about 11:30 a.m.

He tumbled down the chute, over a rock ledge and down a waterfall, landing on a rock outcropping. He sustained a concussion and fractured his ribs, spine and right forearm. 

“I didn’t have time to think, I was just trying real hard to arrest myself,” Beard said by phone Monday from his room in the Benefis East Campus Hospital in Great Falls. “I think I probably lost consciousness.”

His climbing partner, David Steele of Kalispell, climbed down to where Beard lay, stabilized him and attempted to flag down help.

“I couldn’t see him for more than 30 feet of the fall, and I assumed he had gone all the way to the bottom of the basin,” Steele said Monday. “To climb down and find him down there, not only alive but sitting up and aware, that was a big turnaround.”

Steele said Beard came to a stop just above a further 2,500- to 3,000-foot drop.

He gave Beard food and water, built an anchor of rocks and put a pad down to provide some comfort to his injured partner, then draped a yellow tent over some rocks and snow next to Beard, hoping to attract attention from the air.

After failing to flag down sightseeing helicopters, Steele set out at 2 p.m. toward Margaret Lake, reclimbing the chute, crossing through a notch below the peak and dropping down the back side of a ridge. 

He eventually found a hiker who offered a satellite phone to report the incident.

At about 8:15 p.m., Steele met up with a park ranger, who got a rescue effort underway.

The Two Bear Air helicopter from the Flathead Valley was brought in due to the terrain and lack of a landing area. 

Chief pilot Jim Bob Pierce said he got the call at about 8:30 p.m., and reached the area within 12 to 14 minutes. When he arrived, he spotted Beard in a sleeping bag tied into the rocks on the side of the cliff.

A Two Bear crew member was lowered from the hovering chopper to Beard’s position on the cliff.

“We inserted the rescue specialist to him. He had to tie off with the victim, and then he put our extraction device on him to get him prepared for the hoist,” Pierce said. “It was a little tight, but the weather was good and everything.”

The helicopter flew Beard to Many Glacier. He was driven by ambulance to Browning, then transferred to Great Falls.

In a press release, Beard and Steele thanked park dispatch, the helicopter crews and incident teams, as well as Maddie Martin, the hiker who provided the satellite phone. Beard also praised Two Bear Air but reserved his deepest gratitude for Steele.

“He was sort of a hero to me. He did an amazing job of taking care of me.”

Pierce said this type of rescue isn’t common, and given the fall Beard took, he’s surprised he survived.

“That boy is the luckiest man I know,” he said.

Reporter Samuel Wilson may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.