Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Sharp End Podcast on Whitney accident from 1980s

One of the podcasts that I listen to regularly posted an account of an accident near the summit of Mt. Whitney from the early 1980s. The podcast link is located here: https://www.thesharpendpodcast.com/episode-63

The basic story is that this woman and her male partner summited Whitney and ran into some bad weather, and for some reason that is inexplicable decided to descend the North Face of Whitney(??). Upon downclimbing the North Face, the man falls 800' and is somehow OK and when the woman is downclimbing after reaching him, she falls 150-165' and breaks bones in her body, and then somehow, with broken vertebrae and other mortal injuries, somehow makes it over the Whitney-Russel col and descends to the Portal after a harrowing 5 day ordeal. It obviously sounds like an incredible story of survival, but upon listening to it, I just don't understand how the situation really makes any sense. Namely why would anyone with mountaineering experience decide in a storm to descend extremely opposed 4th/5th class terrain when there are much safer alternatives and how someone could make it out of that situation with those injuries. For all I know it's a completely true story, but it seems like some major fact checking is in order...

People do bizarre things when they are faced with unfamiliar territory. There was a fellow who summitted Whitney from the Crabtree area via the JMT, and may have thought he could shortcut back down by heading down the north side. He didn't make it out alive.

I have seen several trip reports of people ascending the north side of Whitney. But the trick seems to be doing it when there is snow -- crampons get way more grip on snow than hiking boots on granite.

For the 1980s story, people sometimes do superhuman things when injured -- like walking out with broken bones.

For more dark reading: Mt Whitney SAR activity: Injury, Rescue, Deaths, Recovery

Edit: Notes from listening to the podcast... Epic story! They had almost completed the JMT via snow in ~April/May. His slide was at least cushioned by snow; miraculously, he was not injured badly -- hairline fractures in his back. She was downclimbing with a 30 pound pack when she slipped. Her list of injuries is phenomenal! They stayed in their tent at the base of the north face two days waiting out the storm. Finally got to Lone Pine 5 days after being on the summit. She returned years later to the fall site, found the heel of her boot, and his ski. Recovery: bedridden 4 months. Was hiking the following summer. Plagued by chronic pain -- using walker in 2007. Went to Katmandu to see a physician who helped get past the pain. Her partner(and husband) did not want to discuss the problem; they eventually split after 20 years.