Rescuers save hunter's life

Roughly 12 inches of rock and the same number of men saved the life of a Juneau hunter stranded for more than eight hours Sunday.

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Jrad Librando, 25, lost his way Sunday afternoon in Spaulding Meadows. He was walking off the trail toward Tee Harbor when he slipped and tumbled about 180 feet, free-falling probably for another 10 to 20 feet. He landed on a rock ledge just large enough for him to sit, according to rescue officials. The Spaulding Meadows Trail starts about 12 miles north of downtown.

There wasn't another ledge 20 feet to the right or left of Librando's landing place, which hung over a 150-foot drop, rescue climber Joshua Shrader said.

Librando told his rescuers he probably blacked out during the fall. When Librando regained consciousness at about 4 p.m. Sunday, he called the Alaska State Troopers and told them he was stuck "big time," according to Bruce Bowler, a member of SEADOGS search and rescue team.

"If Juneau Mountain Rescue had not been there and had not everything come together the way it did, that man wouldn't of survived," Bowler said.

It took officials about an hour and a half to assemble the rescue team and plan a course of action, he said. Personnel from the Alaska State Troopers, Juneau Mountain Rescue, SEADOGS and TEMSCO Helicopters all participated in the operation.

A helicopter landed on the mountain above Librando, dropping three men at about 5:30 p.m. They started walking, then repelling down to his position. The team found Librando, but they were 75 feet away from him. They had to climb to his ledge without being tethered to the mountain. They then built a harness to bolt Librando to the slope. Once he was anchored to the rock wall above the cliff, rescuers gave him hot chocolate and a candy bar to prepare him for the descent.

"He was pretty calm for where he was at," Shrader said. "It was amazing to look up from were he was to where he stopped."

Six rescue climbers helped lower Librando down the mountain. First they fastened him to the team's medic, then lowered both down a 150-foot drop. Team members continued to lower Librando and the medic another quarter of a mile down to the base of the mountain. Librando was off the mountain just after midnight. Officials said he lost some gear but otherwise suffered no major injuries.

Steve Handy, 44, another climber with Juneau Mountain Rescue, said the operation was very difficult.

"It was one of our most technical challenges," Handy said. "It was a very intense rescue."

Shrader agreed, "That was by far the hardest climb I've done on a rescue."

As demanding as the rescue was, it could have been worse, rescuers said. Librando was dressed appropriately for the weather, carried a fully charged cell phone, a two-way radio and a global positioning system. He could not be reached Monday.

"What he equipped himself with made it a lot easier to get to him," Handy said. "I'm just so, so glad it wasn't a recovery. The outcome could have easily been a lot worse."