Everett, Wash.
Published: Saturday, October 6, 2007

Hikers endured 29 nervous hours apart

A man trekked 40 miles to get help for his wife after she hurt her knee near Glacier Peak.

By Diana Hefley
Herald Writer

 Even after her knee gave out and she had to shuffle and crawl down a steep slope, Roxanne Tenscher thought she could make it through the mountains of Snohomish County to the next supply stop on her journey.

"Initially I thought I was OK. I couldn't put any weight on it, but I'm bull-headed. When we pulled out the topographic map, I knew I couldn't go the 40 miles," Tenscher recently said. "At that point, I knew I needed Max to go look for help."

Max Tenscher, 53, left his wife at a makeshift camp near Glacier Peak the next morning and trekked 40 miles over rugged terrain to Stehekin, a remote town on the northwest shores of Lake Chelan. A little more than a day after he set out for help, Tenscher contacted rescuers. Two hours later, the Snohomish County sheriff's helicopter crew rescued his wife and flew her to an Everett hospital.

"I knew he wouldn't leave me there," said Roxanne Tenscher, 53.

The couple said they are home safely because of the generosity of other hikers on the trail and the quick response by Snohomish County sheriff's deputies and volunteers.

"Everybody pitched in. Other hikers were so supportive, and the search-and-rescue crew was just amazing," Roxanne Tenscher said. "It could have been a lot worse."

The Oregon couple set out in early September just south of Mount Adams to finish the last leg of the Washington section of the Pacific Crest Trail. The popular hiking route runs from Mexico to Canada, zig-zagging through California, Oregon and Washington. The Tenschers had hiked the Oregon section last summer and a part of the Washington section earlier this year. They were about two weeks into a monthlong trek to the Canadian border when Roxanne Tenscher injured her knee.

"I landed coming over a log and my whole knee popped," she said.

She hobbled along for about 1 1/2 miles to a small clearing on the east side of Milk Creek, where the couple set up a small camp. Max Tenscher scouted the area and concluded that the quickest way out, along Milk Creek trail, was no longer accessible.

"It was seven miles of mystery," Max Tenscher said. "There was no evidence it was used, not a single footprint."

That evening, three other Pacific Crest Trail hikers came by camp. One hiker had a handheld computer with a global positioning system. They programmed the coordinates of the camp's location. Max Tenscher took a set and the other hiker kept a record.

Max Tenscher knew he needed to hike out for help, but he also wanted to make sure there was backup if he couldn't get there.

He went over and over the plan. He would set out with a small group of hikers who had passed by camp and hurry to Stehekin.

"My worry was if the weather got any worse, the window to get a helicopter in there would close," he said. "It's not easy to leave. The challenge is not knowing what is happening and not knowing how she is."

He took some comfort knowing other hikers had come to their camp and others might pass by.

Roxanne Tenscher was confident she would manage alone. Her husband had left behind nearly all the supplies. He made sure she had a dry shelter and plenty of water. The avid outdoorswoman is comfortable on the trail.

"I was prepared to stay a week," she said.

She was worried about her husband hiking alone without shelter in rainy weather and no way to cook food.

"I knew I was OK. He knew he was OK," she said. "We didn't know about each other."

As Max Tenscher covered mile after mile in the rugged North Cascades, his wife waited.

"I hunkered down and slept quite a bit," she said.

A couple hikers came through. One gave her some sudoku puzzles to pass the time and one man asked her if she needed anything.

"Really, the only thing is help take care of Max, my husband," she told the last hiker who passed her.

That night a hiker offered Max Tenscher, a nurse, a warm meal and shared his shelter with him. Early the next morning, both men set out for Stehekin.

Just 29 hours after he left his wife, Max Tenscher found help. He had hiked 40 miles. That's about twice what the couple covered in a typical day of hard traveling.

"That's not a 40-mile hike down the Centennial Trail. That's pretty darn rugged," sheriff's Sgt. Danny Wikstrom said. "He was hauling."

Max Tenscher found a forest ranger who had a satellite phone and reached authorities in Snohomish County. The sheriff's helicopter crew got word of the injured hiker about noon Sept. 21. Max Tenscher provided them with the GPS coordinates.

The weather held enough to send in the helicopter. The crew reached the injured woman in about 90 minutes. A paramedic from Gold Bar and another volunteer were lowered to ground using a new motorized hoist mounted to the helicopter.

They lifted Roxanne Tenscher aboard the aircraft and she was admitted to an Everett hospital about 30 minutes later.

The crew got word to Max Tenscher that his wife was OK. He got a flight out of Stehekin to Wenatchee, where sheriff's deputies had rented him a car. He drove to Everett while doctors tended to his wife's injured knee.

"I thought about him all the time," Roxanne Tenscher said. "I knew I was in good hands."

The successful rescue is proof that being prepared out in the wilderness can make all of the difference, said Wikstrom, who oversees search and rescue operations for the sheriff's office.

"You're going to survive out there because of your own preparedness," he said.

The Tenschers were physically fit, carrying the right equipment and had the sense to know their best option for a rescue, Wikstrom said.

"You could say the stars were all aligned, too," he said.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA