She slipped and fell at 6,000 feet on Mount St. Helens. ‘I literally thought I was dead’

Brittany Fintel was about 6,000 feet up on Mount St. Helens on Saturday when she slipped and fell down a snowy slope and into a rock formation, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

“The moment I slipped, I literally thought I was dead,” Fintel, who is originally from Omaha, Nebraska, told KATU, adding that she kept crashing into boulders until she finally came to a stop — just above a steep drop-off.

The Skamania County Sheriff’s Office received word of an injured hiker on Mount St. Helens at about 11:18 a.m., according to a news release from the agency.

The agency was told that a hiker slipped and fell near the Monitor Ridge Climbing Route, and that the hiker possibly had a severe hip injury, according to the news release.

The Sheriff’s Department called the U.S. Coast Guard to airlift Fintel from the mountain, according to the release.

Fintel, 32, was rescued by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter at about 1 p.m., according to the Coast Guard.

She was flown to the Oregon Health and Science University Hospital, where she was diagnosed with a broken hip, a concussion and “several deep lacerations,” according to KATU. The station also reported that Fintel fell more than 300 feet.

Fintel, who planned to summit the 8,366-foot high mountain, told KATU that she left the trail to hike on the snow because her dog, who she was hiking with, was more comfortable on that surface. She added that she didn’t have the right equipment for the ice.

“I probably should’ve been a little bit smarter when I came to the mountain,” she said. “Mountains are dangerous things.”

In the summer, the Monitor Ridge Climbing Route begins at a trailhead known as Climber’s Bivouac, according to the United States Forest Service. The route is steep, and hikers navigate loose pumice, lava flows and ash above the timberline. The last 1,300 feet of the climb is unmarked, the Forest Service said, and covered in loose rocks, pumice and ash.

In the Forest Service’s general notes on the route, officials ask climbers to be prepared for treacherous, steep slopes and to learn how to use an ice axe or ski poles on snow slopes before climbing.

This story was originally published July 17, 2018 at 11:38 AM.