‘Lucky to be alive’ Pallister emotionally recounts hiking-trail terror

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This article was published 21/11/2017 (2890 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Manitoba’s single-minded and frequently combative premier let down his guard Tuesday, becoming emotional several times while relating his harrowing and painful hiking misadventure last week in the New Mexico wilderness.

"I’m so happy to be alive," a clearly shaken Brian Pallister told reporters, choking back tears. "So thankful for the people down there.

"I am so appreciative of the expressions of sympathy and support from Manitobans and people across the country. It’s been a humbling experience for me.”

In a display of vulnerability unfamiliar to most Manitobans, Pallister was both teary and ebullient while describing the 11-hour ordeal — "the worst night of my life" — which was far more serious than his staff initially reported last Friday, four days after the mishap in the rugged and remote Mogollon Creek Trail in the Gila National Forest.

It was the first time he’d spoken with reporters since the life-altering experience Nov. 13.

Pallister said he took a government cellphone on the trip, but didn’t have it with him on the hike, where there is no service. He also acknowledged that Manitobans had a right to know about his mishap sooner, but he offered no explanation for the four-day delay.

The premier, who was on vacation with his wife Esther, flew home last week with a badly broken arm, an as-yet undiagnosed knee injury and myriad bruises, bumps and lacerations suffered after losing his way while hiking alone and ill-equipped on a treacherous trail in the rapidly darkening wilderness as the temperature plunged.

There were downed trees and washed-out areas making the trail hard to find at times, and he couldn’t keep the anticipated pace. He was not dressed for conditions that dropped from 25 C to about 8 C after dark, nor had he packed a flashlight.

When he didn’t make it to a pre-arranged meeting site with his wife — who’d taken an alternate trail — where they’d left their vehicle, she made her way to an area where there was cell service and called for help.

The battered-and-bleeding premier, who’d already taken "dozens" of falls into cactus — "my sweatpants were cut to crap" — and lost several encounters with barbed-wire fencing in the dark, said he was cramping up and dehydrated and decided to lie down to rest, but it wasn’t long before he began shaking in the cold, so he forced himself to get back on his feet.

"I got up and saw… a spotlight, which was pretty cool,” he said, barely above a whisper, fighting back tears.

He said he tried to remain calm.

"You’ve got to control your hopes; I did not get overly excited," he said, suggesting it could have been someone night hunting. "Who knows, right? Not somebody who intends to help me.

"What if it’s that?" he added with a laugh.

And then the light went out.

"That was not a happy moment," he said. "So what did I do? I screamed as loud as I could, and the guy went ‘woop!’ with his siren, and then I knew that I was gettin’ out of there… so, that was exciting."

But not the end of the story, unfortunately.

“This is the first time in all our hikes I’ve turned around.”

The New Mexico State Police trooper, in trying to light Pallister’s way to safety, inadvertently blinded him instead. He again ran into barbed wire and decided to climb over it. He said he took two steps on the other side and went over an embankment.

He said that what happened to his arm is too gruesome to describe, but he flew so far and landed so hard into a dry creek bed that he "blew out" his hiking boots from the impact.

Pallister said that he and his wife rented a trailer for their vacation, which they’d chosen after doing their usual research and talking to people who knew the area. But there was no warning that the trail hadn’t been cleared of weather damage.

"Twenty-seventeen, all in all, pretty shitty year for vacations," said the premier, who’s had to endure plenty of grief over his vacations at the family villa in Costa Rica.

<p>(pullQuoteBut at his news conference, officially called to brief reporters about Tuesday’s throne speech, he said that he appreciates as he gets older the way senior Manitobans feel, and quipped that a high government priority is "maintenance on hiking trails — I’d like to see real progress on that."</p>
<p>And he acknowledged that he needs to be better equipped when he sets out on future hikes.</p>
<p>"It was a rough deal," he said, adding he and his wife have thousands of kilometres under their hiking boots. "But what should you have done differently? Well, we’re going to plan differently in the future; you learn, I suppose."</p>
<p>And he intends to take another shot at the Mogollon Creek Trail. </p>
<p>"Absolutely — no trail beats me," he said.</p>
<p>nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca</p>

 

But at his news conference, officially called to brief reporters about Tuesday’s throne speech, he said that he appreciates as he gets older the way senior Manitobans feel, and quipped that a high government priority is "maintenance on hiking trails — I’d like to see real progress on that."

And he acknowledged that he needs to be better equipped when he sets out on future hikes.

"It was a rough deal," he said, adding he and his wife have thousands of kilometres under their hiking boots. "But what should you have done differently? Well, we’re going to plan differently in the future; you learn, I suppose."

And he intends to take another shot at the Mogollon Creek Trail. 

"Absolutely — no trail beats me," he said.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca