On Sunday, September 13, an Oklahoma woman died of hypothermia after being caught in a late-summer snowstorm while attempting to thru-hike the Enchantments in Washington state.
On Sunday afternoon, conditions began to deteriorate significantly as Sybil Claborn and her husband entered the remote, high-elevation Core Zone. The couple, traveling with no overnight gear, were halted by an early-season storm that dropped nearly two feet of snow on the region, making travel nearly impossible. They became stranded between 7,000 and 8,000 feet, roughly nine miles from the nearest trailhead.
At 5:26 p.m., Claborn’s husband texted 911, reporting that his wife was unable to move. In a follow-up call around 5:50 p.m., he reported that she was under an emergency blanket, buried by more than a foot of snow, and that the two were in immediate need of rescue.
At 8 p.m. and 10:50 p.m., respectively, two rescue attempts were made by helicopter, but neither was successful. In both instances, the pilots were forced to turn back as the snowstorm made air travel and landing nearly impossible.
It was not until 3:30 a.m. on Monday, September 14, that a Chelan County Mountain Rescue team finally made contac...