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American Morning

Rescued Skier

Aired January 07, 2004 - 09:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: His son is an expert skier, but Robert Witkowski knows also that his 25-year-old son, Dan, is lucky to be alive. Dan Witkowski survived four freezing days and nights in Washington's Cascade Mountains before he was rescued. He disappeared on New Year's Eve while skiing alone in the rugged back country. Robert Witkowski joins us this morning from Seattle to talk about his son's ordeal.
Mr. Witkowski nice to see you. Thanks for being with us. And, wow, what wonderful news. You must just be absolutely walking on the air, hearing that your son is alive and that he's well. I know you've been, obviously, very close to his recovery in the hospital. How's he doing and what's he been saying?

ROBERT WITKOWSKI, FATHER OF RESCUED SKIER: He was been doing fine. When we first started, of course, it was the sort of essence of Dan, because he was pretty wrapped and out of it, but he's now back to Dan, and he's got frostbite issues in his fingers and feet that he'll have to deal with, but he's in satisfactory condition.

Kent (ph) County Rescue and Alpanpol (ph) Ski Patrol started the ball rolling. Harvard U. Medical Center is just keeping going, and essentially God just keeps getting this story better and better to us.

O'BRIEN: I know you are great novel a lot of folks. Have the doctors told you they expect him to recover fully, or what have they told you about those frostbite issues they mentioned?

WITKOWSKI: Frostbite is going to be assessed -- they are going to give as much time for the tissue to repair itself, and then they'll look at it. They expect they'll probably be some problems with some of his toes and parts of his feet. But that's, you know, right now, that's what they're hoping, in terms of his overall health, and the rest of his major limbs and everything else. He's fine.

O'BRIEN: And he's incredibly lucky, because, you know the story better than anybody else, five days, four nights, he had no water, he had no food, he had no shelter, he was essentially wearing the clothes he went out in the back country with. Why do you think he was able to survive? Many people felt the last couple of days there that it was recovery effort, not a rescue.

WITKOWSKI: Of course. There's an awful lot of, you know, divine guidance in this, but I -- Dan decided to will himself to stay alive as long as he could, and so he moved a lot, slept very little. And he knew that if he -- he had to move, because he wasn't dressed well enough. The snow wasn't packed well enough to really encamp himself, and he didn't have the tools, unfortunately. He made a big mistake, and hopefully others are going to learn from that.

But he stayed long enough, alive long enough to let people get to him. And there were three 300, 400 people over the course of the time. Eventually, he gave them enough time to get to him. And so he did it because he was tough, but he also did it because there were an awful lot of people pulling for him out there.

O'BRIEN: A lot of people taking part in that rescue. But to some degree, he helped save himself. He is, as you well know, an expert skier. Many people say he broke the fundamental rule, do not ski alone, especially out in the much more dangerous back country. Have you talked to him about that? Has he said why? Many people were surprised he would do that.

WITKOWSKI: Yes, we're going to talk more about that, because he has the responsibility, I think, to address those issues with people and try to get the message out. He's young, and he's strong and he's a great skier. So he got overconfident. He left his stuff in his car, didn't think he would be out that long, and decided to, on the spur-of-the-moment, ski a bowl that he hadn't skied yet, and that was a big mistake.

And you bet, all the communication devices in the world, but the best communication device is a friend, is another person, and he didn't take that person with him, didn't have one, and he should have opted out then. He didn't do it. I'm hoping we can draw the scenario to show other people that, you know, this doesn't work most of the time, and we've got to do it differently the next time.

O'BRIEN: Well, we are glad he's going to be around to make that message clear, and maybe some young, confident skiers as well, maybe save some lives in the future. Robert Witkowski, it's nice to see you. Congratulations to you on really wonderful news. It's nice news to be able to report and talk about as well. We're thrilled for you. Thanks for being with us.

WITKOWSKI: Yes, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 7, 2004 - 09:37   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: His son is an expert skier, but Robert Witkowski knows also that his 25-year-old son, Dan, is lucky to be alive. Dan Witkowski survived four freezing days and nights in Washington's Cascade Mountains before he was rescued. He disappeared on New Year's Eve while skiing alone in the rugged back country. Robert Witkowski joins us this morning from Seattle to talk about his son's ordeal.
Mr. Witkowski nice to see you. Thanks for being with us. And, wow, what wonderful news. You must just be absolutely walking on the air, hearing that your son is alive and that he's well. I know you've been, obviously, very close to his recovery in the hospital. How's he doing and what's he been saying?

ROBERT WITKOWSKI, FATHER OF RESCUED SKIER: He was been doing fine. When we first started, of course, it was the sort of essence of Dan, because he was pretty wrapped and out of it, but he's now back to Dan, and he's got frostbite issues in his fingers and feet that he'll have to deal with, but he's in satisfactory condition.

Kent (ph) County Rescue and Alpanpol (ph) Ski Patrol started the ball rolling. Harvard U. Medical Center is just keeping going, and essentially God just keeps getting this story better and better to us.

O'BRIEN: I know you are great novel a lot of folks. Have the doctors told you they expect him to recover fully, or what have they told you about those frostbite issues they mentioned?

WITKOWSKI: Frostbite is going to be assessed -- they are going to give as much time for the tissue to repair itself, and then they'll look at it. They expect they'll probably be some problems with some of his toes and parts of his feet. But that's, you know, right now, that's what they're hoping, in terms of his overall health, and the rest of his major limbs and everything else. He's fine.

O'BRIEN: And he's incredibly lucky, because, you know the story better than anybody else, five days, four nights, he had no water, he had no food, he had no shelter, he was essentially wearing the clothes he went out in the back country with. Why do you think he was able to survive? Many people felt the last couple of days there that it was recovery effort, not a rescue.

WITKOWSKI: Of course. There's an awful lot of, you know, divine guidance in this, but I -- Dan decided to will himself to stay alive as long as he could, and so he moved a lot, slept very little. And he knew that if he -- he had to move, because he wasn't dressed well enough. The snow wasn't packed well enough to really encamp himself, and he didn't have the tools, unfortunately. He made a big mistake, and hopefully others are going to learn from that.

But he stayed long enough, alive long enough to let people get to him. And there were three 300, 400 people over the course of the time. Eventually, he gave them enough time to get to him. And so he did it because he was tough, but he also did it because there were an awful lot of people pulling for him out there.

O'BRIEN: A lot of people taking part in that rescue. But to some degree, he helped save himself. He is, as you well know, an expert skier. Many people say he broke the fundamental rule, do not ski alone, especially out in the much more dangerous back country. Have you talked to him about that? Has he said why? Many people were surprised he would do that.

WITKOWSKI: Yes, we're going to talk more about that, because he has the responsibility, I think, to address those issues with people and try to get the message out. He's young, and he's strong and he's a great skier. So he got overconfident. He left his stuff in his car, didn't think he would be out that long, and decided to, on the spur-of-the-moment, ski a bowl that he hadn't skied yet, and that was a big mistake.

And you bet, all the communication devices in the world, but the best communication device is a friend, is another person, and he didn't take that person with him, didn't have one, and he should have opted out then. He didn't do it. I'm hoping we can draw the scenario to show other people that, you know, this doesn't work most of the time, and we've got to do it differently the next time.

O'BRIEN: Well, we are glad he's going to be around to make that message clear, and maybe some young, confident skiers as well, maybe save some lives in the future. Robert Witkowski, it's nice to see you. Congratulations to you on really wonderful news. It's nice news to be able to report and talk about as well. We're thrilled for you. Thanks for being with us.

WITKOWSKI: Yes, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com