It was a chilly Tuesday morning; the motel wake-up call woke up everybody at 6:00 am local time, which was one hour earlier than the Pacific time. Within an hour or so, everybody was in the parking lot chatting or doing morning exercises.

It only took few minutes from the motel to the Bryce Canyon park entrance. Once we got off the bus, you could feel the cold air because we were at about 8000 feet above the sea level. The rocks erected from the bottom of the canyon were all over the valley; their color and shapes were magnificent. As the sun started rising from the horizon, you could see the reflection from the stones. The tour lady showed us the trail that would lead to the bottom of the canyon. Since we had one hour to kill, I decided to walk down the trail.

There was a lady walking in front of me; judging from her swift steps, I thought she was a regular hiker. I caught up with her and we exchanged few words. I found out her name was Daisy 峰社 朱雪娟 and she said that she was a classmate of my elder brother 郭禎祥. Within minutes, we reached the bottom of the canyon. While we were resting, we saw a guy approaching. Daisy told me that guy was Peter Woo 講社 胡樹江 -- a nice man from Palm Springs. Peter was looking for a stream, but the riverbed was all dried up. We took some pictures and we wandered around the area for a little while, but due to the time constraint, we could not explore any further. We started heading up. Going up was much harder than coming down. The trail was so steep that after few minutes, my t-shirt was soaked in sweat. About half way up, we ran into few other passengers. Peter stayed behind taking pictures for them, so Daisy and I just kept going.

I started feeling chilly in the shade because of the wet t-shirt. I just wanted to get back to the top so I could receive the warm sun. Daisy was quietly walking up; we took a few breaks to catch our breath. About a quarter away from the viewing area, we ran into a few other female passengers. We stopped there to exchange greetings, also taking a longer break. Daisy was leaning against the hillside and I was standing in front of her. I noticed her left leg suddenly bent forward, I asked her if she was okay. She said that she was fine. A few seconds later, her body started sliding downward. I grasped her upper body and let her sit on the ground.

Her hands were ice cold and her face was pale. People around me said “let her lie down, let her lie down.” So I laid her down and had her head resting on my thigh. It was a shock to me and I did not know what was happening. I told her to take deep slow breathe and she could respond to what I said. People started fanning her for more air, someone put a jacket on her and someone tried to pour water into her mouth. A lady put some “white flower” ointment 白花油 on her forehead and I started rubbing her face. Her face was cold and her lips color were blue. My hands were warm; I just kept massaging her face, hoping that would warm her up.

An old man told me to press my thumbs in the 虎口 area between her thumb and her index finger. “Do it as hard as you can,” he commanded. “This will wake her up.” So I pressed my thumbs on Daisy’s tiny hands as hard as I could. I believed she was awake subconsciously; she could hear people voices around her. She could move her hands when I asked her. She was too weak to speak. Minutes later, people said that a doctor was coming. Dr. Ma (大社 馬燦坤) was one of the passengers and he checked her pulse. He said that her pulse was very weak. He asked her if she had high blood pressure. She nodded slowly. 馬燦坤 Dr. Ma’s diagnosis was lack of oxygen. He told her to stay put and rest. A couple of people offered to carry Daisy on their back but she refused. She did try to get up but was unsuccessful. I knew she felt bad for holding up the trip schedule.

Suddenly two park rangers appeared in front of us. The male ranger was talking to Dr. Ma and radioed in for oxygen, the female ranger was talking to us, explaining that because of our rapid advance from the bottom of the canyon to 8000 feet above sea level, our bodies could not adjust to the thin air in a short period of time. She suggested we rubbed water on her wrists and arms. A few minutes later, her lips color changed. I could feel her body temperature was warmer. By that time, Daisy started to have conversation with people around her. She wanted to get up but was told to stay until oxygen arrived. Another park ranger arrived with the rescue gear. They measured her blood pressure – 110/70. It was good. Daisy told them that she did not need oxygen, they agreed. I held her up and started walking toward the viewing point with the escort of the rangers. She was back to normal in no time.

It was a shocking experience to see someone collapse in front of you. The lessons I learned from this incident are:

a). Do not hike alone.
b). Progress in a slow pace when in large variation of elevation.

I do hope everybody had a safe and memorable trip during their vacation.

Tony T. Kwok, Class of ‘67

West Hills, California