Another night could've meant death

She was shaking uncontrollably. Her clothes were soaked and her lips, hands and feet had turned blue.

She was ready to give up, she later told the first rescuer to reach her. She was convinced she could not survive another night in the rugged backcountry near Snoqualmie Pass.

Cindy Wysocki, a 31-year-old Seattle attorney who went missing Saturday afternoon while snowshoeing on the Denny Creek Trail, was rescued from the banks of the Pratt River on Monday after she was spotted around noon by a King County sheriff's helicopter crew.

Unable to land along the narrow, tree-lined river, the helicopter pilot doubled back to the sheriff's command post and picked up Sgt. Sydney Jackson and a backpack crammed with supplies. Jackson, who is the sergeant for the sheriff's air-support and search-and-rescue units, was flown to Wysocki's location and leapt from the hovering chopper to a rock in the middle of the river. She then waded over to Wysocki.

Jackson helped Wysocki into dry clothes, fed her energy bars and warm water, and wrapped her in a sleeping bag as they awaited the arrival of a Navy helicopter. About an hour later, they were hoisted to safety.

Wysocki told Jackson that she kept moving throughout her nights on the mountain, afraid that if she stopped, she would die.

"That's probably accurate — we were surprised to find her alive," Jackson said Monday, a few hours after Wysocki was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

"She said she had got to the point where she couldn't go on anymore. She didn't think she could make it another night," Jackson said.

On both Saturday and Sunday nights, the temperature hovered near freezing around Snoqualmie Pass, said Dana Felton, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle. Though it didn't rain Saturday, the area where Wysocki was lost got light showers Sunday evening, with the rain starting up again around 4 a.m. Monday, Felton said.

By Monday evening, rain was turning to snow, with "a big band of showers coming in," he said.

Had Wysocki not been found when she was, it's almost certain she would have perished before rescuers could reach her, Jackson said.

And with bad weather moving into the area, the sheriff's helicopters soon would have been useless in the search, she said.

According to Jackson, Wysocki was snowshoeing with her boyfriend and another man when she decided to head back to the car because she was cold.

Thinking the men were right behind her, she went down the trail, but took a wrong turn somewhere.

She was last seen around 1 p.m. Saturday near Hemlock Pass. Her friends looked for her until 2:13 a.m. Sunday, then they alerted authorities, according to sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart.

Prepared only for a day hike, Wysocki was wearing a wool cap, hiking boots, a sweater, a rain jacket and nylon pants over tights or long johns, Jackson said. "She was lost, cold, wet and not prepared to spend the night" outdoors, she added.

Wysocki hiked north, west and north again, and ended up 10 miles "on the opposite ridge" from the Denny Creek trailhead, Jackson said.

"It's very common for folks to follow rivers down, thinking they're going towards civilization," she said. "But it's the long way to North Bend."

Wysocki, Jackson said, "was very humble, and she's embarrassed but she's very appreciative of the rescue effort" that involved up to 100 searchers from agencies across the region who fanned out over 16 to 20 square miles.

The area where Wysocki was found is "a very confusing drainage," Jackson said, noting it is the same area where Dan Witkowski was found in January 2004 after skiing down the wrong side of a ridge and becoming lost for four days. Witkowski, an Ellensburg man who was then 25, suffered frostbite on his fingers and toes.

On Monday, after being evaluated by Harborview emergency-room doctors and given soup and warm liquids, Wysocki was admitted in satisfactory condition, said hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg-Hanson.

"Her extremities are something we'll be watching closely overnight, but right now she's looking pretty good," Gregg-Hanson said. "She's a lucky, lucky woman."

Numerous family members had either arrived or were en route from Chicago, Wysocki's hometown, Gregg-Hanson said.

"Her color is coming back and she's very cheerful and has a good spirit," she said.

Wysocki is an attorney for the Northwest Defenders Association; she works out of its downtown Seattle office.

"I think it's a testament to her capabilities that she survived two nights in these conditions," said Eileen Farley, director of the association. "But she had to be very fortunate."

Farley said she expects Wysocki will "probably become a poster child for carrying emergency gear," and will make sure to tell others to be prepared when they go hiking.

On Monday, Farley sent an e-mail to her entire staff. She was only half-joking when she wrote: "Anyone who goes hiking over the Thanksgiving weekend is fired."

Times staff reporters Erik Lacitis, Jennifer Sullivan, Natalie Singer and Warren Cornwall contributed to this report.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com