Guardians of Grail

cheapbag214s · Posted: Wed 2:13, 14 Aug 2013 Post subject: Chimney Tops December 1988

Chimney Tops December 1988
After reading Mike's post I thought I would share one of my own. I would be interested in knowing if it ever hit the local paper. I grew up in Orlando, Florida and sadly had never heard of the Great Smoky National Park. With that said When December 1988 came around I was excited to get on the bus in the Church parking lot with almost 40 of my closest friends and head towards the park for a youth group field trip. Remember we were from Orlando,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], what is hiking attire????Well, cotton shirts, COTTON sweat pants, some with gloves some without, some with hats some without and most in tennis shoes. We reached the Chimney Tops trailhead at about 3:00pm on that December Saturday. As we exited the bus the non profit organization responsible for the group said there were two ways to get to the top. One was the wimpy way and the other would be more challenging. Ages ranged from thirteen all the way up to a few adults. I was seventeen at the time and like most of my friends we thought we ain't going up the wimpy way. So there we were in cotton sweatpants and sneakers hiking the back way in snow trying to reach the top of the Chimneys. It was slow going with many of the younger hikers complaining about the hike.
It wasn't long until it really started getting cold and the sun was beginning to fall behind the mountains. It was then we knew things were starting to go south. I don't know how far we had hiked but one of the girls had slipped on a rock and twisted an ankle and provoked an old leg injury. She was no longer able to hike. Some of the tour guides had stayed with her while we pushed on. It was well after dark when we reached the top cold,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],shivering completely unprepared. Truthfully we had know idea what prepared meant. I vividly remember one in the group thinking he saw the path down and decided he was going to head that way. He wouldn't have made it there was no path he was beginning to see things that weren't there. Hypothermia was setting in quickly (though at the time no one had any idea what that was). We huddled up trying to figure out how in the world we would get down without someone dying. As the hours past You could see the parking lot with the lights of the fire trucks, ambulances and patrol cars. I remember saying God if you get me off this mountain alive I will become a priest (ok I still feel a little guilty about that). As 3:00am approached we heard voices coming from the other side of the Chimney's. I remember thinking thank God there are people here to get us off this mountain. One by One (not all 40 of us) the rescue team tied rope around us and got us to the other side so we were able to begin are slow hike down. Numb,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], frozen and tired it was a trek I will never forget. Ten of the forty ended up in the hospital in Gatlinburg. Two needed surgery to repair leg injuries when we returned to Florida. I remember not having feeling in my toes for a couple of weeks and afraid feeling may never come back. A couple of excerpts from the Orlando Sentinel:
1. One thing that particularly peeved the rangers was that most of the hikers shunned the park trail in favor of an ungroomed path up the back the mountain. Acree calls it a "steep,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], rough,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], rocky cliff.
2. "We try to tell kids we don't want them on a cakewalk-the paved path up to Laurel Falls", he said. "We are interested in challenging kids physically and spiritually. Everything we do is with the hope that it will unapologetically have a spiritual impact".
3. "Taking a party that large and that unprepared and in that age group, and being unfamiliar with the terrain and weather conditions-that is poor judgement," said Bill Acree, the ranger who led the rescue. "It could have been a lot worse"."
The most important quote the newspaper had was the one that sticks with me
These mountains can be very nasty,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]. They are unforgiving if you make too many mistakes or one major mistake. -Ranger Bill Acree
I returned to the Chimneys years later with my wife and wanted to hike a little ways up (summertime) to remember that December,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]. I rounded the bend and saw a chain and I sign that stated it was closed due to one death and 28 rescues,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]. I have never figured out if we were part of that. Mike thanks again for sharing your story. It brought back memories and reminded me of the importance of never underestimating the power of those mountains,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych].
Comment by Mike Gourley on April 14,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 2011 at 10:51pm
Thanks Frank for sharing your story. It is a good thing that someone was able to get rescue people up to everyone. I hate to even think what would have happened if you and your group had to spend the night up there. I doubt many,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], if anyone would have lived to tell the tale.
I think that is another reason I told my story. I did not want people reading my other blogs thinking that it is easy and something I run out and do without preparation. Some of the hikes are not hard, but you decide to go off exploring then you better know the area around you. My first attempt at one of Mike Maple's blogs was the hike on Copeland Divide. Somehow I lost the ridge and ended up diving down to Copeland Creek. But I knew it was copeland creek and that I could either go out to 321 or up to the OST and back around.
Glad your story ended OK for you my friend,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]. Let us both never forget our stories nor our respect for the mountains.
Comment by Mike Thompson on April 14,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 2011 at 9:31pm
Wow, and to think that so many newbies do this trail everyday. It was one of the very first hikes I did in the Smokies. Sure I recognized danger. Some of what we witnessed looked dangerous. We went the wimpy way also and got to see a person on a backboard being hauled down by a rescue team. We wondered at the time "did he fall off the top"? We climbed to the top with all the rest of the idiots. Upon returning to the car we knew our hike was more dangerous than it should have been. We had no buisiness up on the top of those rocks. We could have been next to fall off. We thought "Never again, God spared us this time". Many times since we think back to that hike and say to ourselves that God spared us more than once and we shouldn't put that on Him again.
We have probably all done idiotic things,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]. I know I have,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]. We should all learn from these blogs and share with any newbies we meet so they too may have fun safe hikes and not end up in newspapers.
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