Good Article in the Jan. 2011 edition of Outside Magazine

On a recent trip to see family over the holidays I picked up the Jan. 2011 edition of Outside Magazine. I found an article called, “The Man Who Saw Too Much” about an Aspen Mountain Rescue veteran who now suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). My first thought was, Crap, I’ve been scooped since I have an article for BCR sitting on my computer for final edits written along similar lines. Then I realized that bringing PTSD to light in SAR is very important and that any information about this could help someone. Also, the Outside article mainly focuses on the Aspen Veteran and not how to begin working through various missions. Finally, the article for BCR was written by a licensed psychotherapist and think will be a useful tool.

I highly recommend reading the Outside Magazine article and will post the link when it is available on Outside Online. In SAR we see things that can have lasting impact on our psyche and we must work hard to be mindful of how we are impacted.

Prusiks!! Damn Prusiks

Earlier this year I bought a bunch of prusik cord to replace my units prusiks. Before cutting the any of the prusik cord I referred to Lipke’s (1^st edition) rigging flip book for desired lengths which said cut the short to 53 inches. The lengths are also confirmed in, “On Belay.”  So I then spent much of the afternoon cutting rope for 4 different rigging kits. Our rigging kits have a set of 5 prusiks in each kit, so 20 sets in all. After tying 40 individual prusiks, my raw fingers were glad to be done.

A couple of weeks ago, during a highline training several members commented that the short prusiks were too short, barely long enough to reach in front of the Prusik Minding Pulley (PMP). With the forces of a highline, we needed to be sure we had complete prusik coverage. So, not to be stopped by too short prusiks, my team members untied some of the long prusiks to make them fit.

Long story short, I have found Lipke’s (2^nd edition) rigging flip book which calls for prusik lengths for the short prusik to be 55 inches. So, now I’m cutting more prusik cord and now get to retie all 20 sets of prusiks. I guess the saying measure twice and cut once refers to rope as well as carpentry. Also helps to have the latest edition of manual. ARGH!

127 Hours Movie Review

Last week I had planned to hike with one of the sheriff’s deputies in the SAR unit, but that fell through because of a conflict that came up for the deputy. This worked out well for me because I was feeling pretty crappy with a cold. While I probably should have stayed in bed at home, I decided to venture to the movie theater to see the movie 127 Hours, about Aron Ralston getting trapped by a boulder in Blue John Canyon in Canyon lands.

I had not read Ralston’s book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place but I was familiar with the story and had seen the trailers. I was a bit skeptical about the movie initially, but a friend saw the movie and told me that it was done along the lines of, “Touching the Void” which was in-line with the book.

The movie moves along in character development reasonably quickly and has some beautiful cinematography of the canyon lands. I eventually found myself waiting for the big event. Like the iceberg in Titanic, you know it’s coming and it is what happens afterward when the interesting part of the story begins. Once the boulder falls and Aron is trapped, the movie (director, Danny Boyle and actor, James Franco) do a great job of conveying the shock, disbelief, fear and ultimately realization of situation.

One thing I did not realize but mentioned in the movie, was that Aron was a volunteer with Search and Rescue. They touch on this quite briefly, but it spoke volumes to me that he had a feeling that while being part of SAR he felt he could handle any situation by himself. To me, this was a great message for SAR folks, “It can happen to you.”

There was a scene where Aron wraps webbing around his neck and covers his head which I took as an initial plan to hang himself, but I later read an article in Outside Magazine where he used the webbing as a neck warmer and the rope around his arms like a blanket.

The movie continues through the various emotional roller coaster feelings he experiences to his ultimate realization of the solution to the problem and ultimate self-rescue (at least until he found someone).

One thing about the movie I found a bit uncomfortable was that there are several very quiet parts and I became aware of my popcorn munching. My apologies to the two ladies who sat in front of me at the theater. It was probably a bit distracting to be munching popcorn while the main character is cutting off his arm.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie and got a chance to think about what I would do in a similar situation realizing I’d have no idea. But I do plan to always leave a note on the kitchen counter to where I was going. Theater or DVD, this was a good movie with great cinematography and a good story.

Hikes in the Rain

On Tuesday three of us from Seattle Mountain Rescue decided to go for a hike. Nothing exciting or technical, just a walk up a local mountain that we’ve probably been up hundreds of times over the years (Doug had walked up the day before). The hike gains about 3,500 ft in about 3 miles and the trail is reasonable. The weather on Tuesday was a bit strange with a warm front moving in and cold air below. We left the car with the temperatures in the low to mid-30s and rain. As we continued up the trail, we ran into slushy snow and the temperatures felt warmer. We got to the top and headed down after about a minute.

These hikes are usually fun because we get some exercise and are able to talk about various subjects typically relating to our Mtn. Rescue unit ranging from the holiday party preparations to where we should do the next highline training. At some point during our hike I noticed that the conversation level had completely dropped off which is not usual (especially for me).  I realized that everyone was probably entrenched in the misery of the cold wet rain and even the most controversial topic was of little interest to anyone.

As we were about ½ way down, we ran into another guy from our unit heading up. He was completely drenched and looked like he had just come out of a pool. The conversation picked up again, perhaps because we were all glad we were headed down (at least I was). No amount of Goretex or other rain shell could have kept us dry and the temperatures made it bone chilling. As we sat in the car watching the battle of the fogged windows vs. the defroster, Bree said, “wouldn’t it be awesome to have a mission right now.” Both Doug and I looked at each other with apprehension hoping that Bree’s comment didn’t trigger the pager gods.

This hike, with exception for the company, was miserable. Cold, drenching, non-stop rain, doesn’t sound fun, but I look at it as building the fortitude to be prepared for missions when they come. If anything, the long hot shower afterward was reward enough.

Calories to Burn

Have you ever received a page for a search or a rescue that you thought was going to be pretty burley? You get your pack together; grab some high calorie food and water jump in the car and head to the trailhead. On the way, you down the high calorie foods and slug as much water as your stomach can hold knowing that you will burn the calories and need the hydration. You arrive at the trailhead with your bladder about to burst, sign-in and jump behind a tree to do some quick business. After a couple of minutes getting your boots on, appropriate gear ready and team assigned you are ready to head up the trail only to hear over the radio that the subject just walked out of his campsite wondering what all the fuss was about.

For the most part this is actually great news. The subject was found quickly and you have averted untold hours in adverse weather conditions searching for someone. The downside is that you’ve consumed all this high calorie food that you were expecting to burn off over the expected search/rescue. Now as you drive home you begin wondering how are you going to burn off these calories.

This was my experience today and with temperatures in the teens and 10 inches of new snow, I decided that I better eat an extra bar since a search today would be pretty strenuous. Fortunately, our subject was found rather quickly given the conditions. I suppose it could have been worse had we spent all day and night searching only to learn that instead of going for the hike the subject told his wife about, he decided to head to the local watering hole.

Oh well, I guess I’ll do a few more reps at the gym tomorrow.

LCAN - Can it be used for SAR?

As a firefighter I was taught to use the acronym LCAN when giving status reports to the incident commander. LCAN stands for Location, Conditions, Air pressure and Needs. In the fire service LCAN can be used from basic team status to mayday scenarios. Here's and example:

IC: Engine 282 from IC
E282: Engine 282, go ahead
IC: Give me LCAN status
E282: E282 is located on the second floor, top of the stairs side B. Conditions, very hot with heavy smoke, Air (given the lowest air pressure on the team) 3000psi, Need ventilation.
IC: Received LCAN sending Ladder 87 to ventilate roof

I tried using LCAN in a SAR environment recently. Turns out it is better if base/IC knows what LCAN stands for, but they quickly the picture. For SAR purposes, I changed the LCAN a bit to stand for: Location, Conditions (team/subject), Altitude, and Needs.

For Location, I gave my GPS coordinates. Conditions could be used for either team condition or condition of subject(s) depending where you are in the search/rescue. Conditions could be current weather conditions and visibility if you are expecting/hoping for a helicopter. Altitude may or may not be necessary depending on regional landscape, but I found it useful for helping to further pinpoint your location. You should probably use the altitude off of a separate unit from the GPS. Finally, Needs, seems pretty straight forward. If you are hiking up a trail and you have no needs, you can report that. If you have located the subject and find they are injured your needs may be a litter, wheel and manpower.

I'm not sure if LCAN can or should be used widely across SAR operations, but I've found that it provides me with prompts I can let base know in my oxygen starved brain when I arrive at the subject.

Soccer Dad Empathizes With Lost Subjects

I recently took my daughter to her Saturday morning soccer game. The weather was a damp 45 degrees Fahrenheit with a very light breeze. We setup our car camping chairs along the sideline and sipped hot coffee from my tumbler. I’ve found that if I sit at the game I’m less likely to be one of those obnoxious parents (you know who you are).

Knowing that I’d be sitting for at least an hour, I decided to layer appropriately which included a light synthetic down jacket under a heavy Gore-Tex jacket. I also had a knit hat and gloves. While I thought this would be a bit overkill, my legs soon became cold because of the breeze. I grabbed my daughter’s rain coat (she wasn’t using it) and put it over my legs to cut the wind. That helped quite a bit, but for most of the game I was pretty cold.

 My personal whimpyness aside, I began to think about the effects of the cold on a lost person especially if he/she wasn’t prepared for the weather. I had the luxury of knowing I’d be sitting for only an hour and the temperature wasn’t desperately cold, perhaps even balmy for some regions.

The key point I learned was just how quickly a person can get cold not moving and just sitting in the elements.  I will keep this in mind on future rescue/search missions for both prepared and unprepared hikers.

Why does it take so long to get the subject's cell phone lat/long?

The short answer: Turns out that law enforcement must send a fax, yes a fax to the cell phone service provider to get permission for the cell company to "ping" the specific cell phone. Ah ha! It is a privacy issue, glad big brother isn't tracking my Costco runs.

But the person already called 911 isn't that enough? Turns out the answer is yes & no. When a person calls 911, location information is sent to the 911 operator along with the person's name and telephone number. Most phones these days have a GPS chip which is activated when a 911 call is placed, but if you own a GPS you know it takes a few minutes to aquire an accurate location. The 911 operator may get the initial tower triangulation location which may or may not be accurate.

If the caller hangs up or is diconnected on the 911 call, the 911 operator calls back as part of proceedure. If they are able to get an answer, then further location infomation may be obtained. If there is no answer, then the operator may assign the call to an officer who then begins the process of getting location information on the phone. Thus the whole fax process.

There is actually some more detail about which cell companies (network technology) can "ping" a phone, but I'll save that for an upcoming article on Backcountry Rescuer.

Full Stomach Mission - ugh!

The other night my unit got paged out for a couple of hikers who were benighted on a popular hike. They had a Lat/Long location off of the cell phone and this was looking like a pretty straight forward, “Snatch & Grab” mission. The cell phone location put them at 3,800 ft. elevation and in thick timber; though they reported they were on a boulder field. The trail starts at 1,000 ft elevation and gains 3,800 ft. to the summit (4,800 ft.) in about 2.5 miles.

There of course were a couple of issues. The weather had gotten worse and it was now raining and cold. The hikers did not have rain gear, or flashlights/headlamps. On the way there I was managed to grab a couple of spare Gore-Tex jackets and two extra balaclavas. I was also thinking that these guys were probably going to be pretty cold with the temperature at 48 degrees and dropping.

I was the first to the trailhead, signed in and began up the trail. With the urgency of hypothermia in my mind I started off at a faster pace than I normally do for this hike. BTW, I hiked up the same trail the day before. Not only did my legs feel heavy from the previous day’s hike, but I had just finished dinner when the pager went off so I had a full stomach. While trying to hustle up the trail, I got to taste supper a couple times and at one point thought I might and actually hoped I would lose it. Everything stayed down and I managed to finally get into a reasonable pace, eventually reaching the stranded couple in a respectable time.

The hikers were about 50 yards off of the trail on a boulder field. Their actual elevation was 4080 ft. about 280 ft higher than the cell location. They were damp and cold so I offered both subjects a jacket and a balaclava but only the female subject accepted. I gave them headlamps, checked their vitals and we were back on the trail hiking down within 15 minutes. I keep thinking this should have been faster.

All in all a pretty straight forward mission, I only wish I had not had that second helping of squash.

Almost there & kicking myself

I was recently on a search mission for an overdue female hiker. She had been out for three nights after the weather came in on Saturday dumping about 2 to 2.5 feet of snow. We had several teams in the field and the team I was on was assigned to hike up and over a pass then hike up a drainage to a lake and then loop back to base.

We had four in our group and we hiked up to the pass. Along the way we put on snow shoes since the snow was up to our thighs in several places. We noticed lots of wind blown snow and several bare spots where the wind had blown the snow off the ridge. As we gained the ridge and made it to the pass, we had quite breezy conditions and noticed several cornices had developed. Looking down the pass we could see a couple of spots where cornices had failed and slid down the open slope. We evaluated the conditions and were concerned for possible wind slab avalanche conditions as well as the cornices. We traversed the ridge looking for a better way to drop down into the valley floor, but we didn't find any good spots. We then returned back to the main trail and got reassigned.

On the drive home, I started wondering if we could have made it down the NE side of the pass. Sure the NE slopes are classic for wind slab, but perhaps if we had had a rope one of us (me) could have explored the slope to see what the conditions were like.

Fortunately, the weather broke enough to get a helicopter in the valley and they were able to spot the missing woman who had created a shelter under a poncho. Where they located her would have been close to our planned route, but not sure if it would have been within earshot of a voice check of not.

Anyway, I'm still thinking about that slope and wondering if we could have made it down. BTW, the other three team members didn't think it was safe either so I guess that makes me feel a bit better.

Need to figure out what food to take in my pack

I was recently at a safety fair for a local company where they had various "safety" agencies. One of the booths was for fitness, blood pressure and measure fat. Since I wasn't getting much interest in my booth filled with rescue equipment, I strolled over to the fitness booth. I talked with one of the personal trainers about the types of foods I should be carrying in my pack. I pulled my food back out of my pack and reviewed the contents.

• a couple Power Bar gels
• Cliff Bar shot blocks
• Snickers bar

The personal trainer gave a bit of a groan and then gave me a look. I gave a curious look back, "What" not nutritious enough? Apparently the foods I had in my pack are basic sugars that will last me for a while, but will then burn out quickly. The trainer mentioned a couple of things to consider like coconut water (yeah, coconut water). I've never heard of it, but I'd be willing to give it a try. We then got interrupted by attendees and I didn't get a chance to talk with the trainer more, but I've got their email and plan to find out more on the ideal foods.

The whole conversation got me thinking about what to carry in my food back for hiking and climbing. I've typically been find with Pilot Bread (big saltine crackers w/o the salt), chocolate and a Cliff Bar or Odwalla bar. I plan to find out more from the trainer and figure out what to do next.

If you have any favorite hiking foods please let me know.

More on 911 calling from the backcountry

So you have a good reason to call 911 in the backcountry, your are injured and are not able to self-rescue, you are significantly lost or you forgot your flashlight and are not prepared to spend the night outdoors. You call 911 even though you don't have a carrier signal. You are able to get out on the e911 network and get help started. You give the 911 operator details of where you think you are:

• The trailhead you started from and the route you are on or planned to go on
• If lost, were you left the trail
• If injured, the best location of your injured party and condition
• Details about if you are prepared for a night outdoors

When the 911 operator dispatches the Search and Rescue (SAR) unit the 911 operator will likely share these details with the SAR unit or Sheriff. Many times, a person from the SAR unit or Sheriff will want to call you back to get further details that may help them locate you.

Here is where it gets interesting if you called 911 without a carrier signal. Neither the 911 operator nor the Sheriff/SAR unit will not be able to call you back to get further details. The reason is that your phone does not have a carrier signal and cannot receive incoming calls without a carrier signal. Essentially, this is the same as if one of your friends were trying to call you and you are out of coverage. The only reason you are able to make a call to 911 is that all carriers are required by law to carry a 911 call. You phone is essentially a radio programmed to a specific frequency (your carrier), when you call 911 however, the phone uses a universal frequency that all carriers support (a specific 911 frequency if you will).

Keeping this in mind, you may want to give the 911 operator a call back after an hour to see if they need any further information on your location. This may or may not work as you call may be seen as a new "service ticket" or might be able to be sync'd or merged with the ongoing "service ticket."

Finally, after you have called the 911 operator back, you probably should try to preserve you phone's battery by turning it off. With no bars, your phone will continue to search for a network which requires additional battery power.

Hopefully you will never need to call 911 from the backcountry, but if you do it is helpful to have some ideas about how phone systems work and that you may be able to call 911 without having to hike for a signal.

Calling 911 in the backcountry

A friend of mine recently asked me about 911 calls from cell phones and was referencing Steph Abegg's recent accident on Vesper. His question was regarding having to hike to find cell service and the FCC’s 911 law that carriers have to allow 911 service over their network.

I spoke with a contact, who works for T-Mobile about this and her response was essentially, even if your phone does not show a signal it may be worthwhile to try to make a 911 call before leaving an injured person. Your carrier may not have an agreement to provide service in the area but another carrier may and a 911 call may be able to get out. Certainly, there are areas where there is zero cell coverage, but it could be worth it to try a call even if your phone shows no signal.