Bill Mize was just 150 feet from the summit of North Sister mountain in the Central Cascades when a watermelon-sized rock came off the lip of a ledge right above him and hit him in the head, knocking him down a steep incline 60 feet. Regaining consciousness after what he thinks was half an hour, he realized his left leg was badly injured. Then another rock fell and struck him on the right shoulder, sending him down another 40 feet.
Mize, a 28-year-old union electrician in Prineville, is an experienced mountaineer and had summited North Sister three times before. He had left the Pole Creek Trailhead solo around midnight July 6 in order to reach the peak by sunrise. Now he was alone on the side of the mountain without the use of his legs. He tried to use his cell phone to call 911 but couldn’t get reception. So he crawled — he thinks about 40 feet — to the other side of a ridge, and was able to get a signal.
Not long after, a rescue helicopter landed a Lane County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue team on a glacier below, and after hours of effort, they were able to get him off the steep slope where he landed, onto a stretcher, and into the helicopter. At St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, he learned the extent of the damage: a kneecap broken, and all the ligaments in his left knee torn. Six surgeries — and some surgical complications — later, he still doesn’t know whether he’ll be able to use the leg again.
“I never took my legs for granted,” Mize says. “I was always very appreciative of them.”
Mize joined IBEW Local 280 in 2018, and completed his apprenticeship last September. At the time of the accident, he was working for Aspen Ridge Electric at a remodel project at Redmond High School.
Reached by phone a month after the accident, he relates what happened that day without a trace of self-pity. Mountaineering is inherently dangerous, and looking back Mize doesn’t think anything he did or didn’t do made the rock decide to tumble when it did.
“I pride myself on being safe,” Mize said.
He also declined a suggestion by friends that a GoFundMe page be created to help him.
“Things are tight, but I had a savings account for a reason. I wanted to be prepared.”
Mize’s union brothers and sisters at Local 280 are raising funds anyway, to help him with lost income. The union is raffling off a Blackstone 36-inch propane-fueled outdoor griddle. Tickets are $10; Taunia Blakely, 541-220-3570, is coordinating sales.
Mize doesn’t know what the future holds, but has no regrets. “I really like the trade, and I really like the guys in the trade,” Mize said. “It’s been a great experience.”
