During a recent search for a missing skier, I took the base operations role to support our teams going into the field. The initial planning and coordination of objectives and teams was naturally hectic but once we had teams in the field headed into the night for a four hour hike in the radio traffic died down and we had long periods of quite time in the communications van. The two of us in the communications van did our speculation of the mission and what had happened as well as some minor planning in the event the teams located the subject.
Finally the radio came to life with the sound of teams reaching their objective and dropping into the search area. Anticipation and hope draped the Comm van followed by long periods of radio silence. I’ve been in the field when base keeps calling asking this and that telling me where I need to search or what to do next but I have found that to be distracting from the task at hand. In the field, if I need direction or have completed a task I will call in and inform base. So sitting in base not feeling part of the active search I had to remind myself to let the field teams do their job and not bother them with radio traffic unless it was especially important. Of course, I couldn’t think of anything especially important to tell the teams so there I sat.
Then around 3AM the two teams had merged and were beginning to ask about avalanche and weather forecasts (we had done a preliminary avalanche and weather review prior to the teams entering the field, but were looking for an updated forecast). Finally some way to help in the search effort. We jumped on the laptop, evaluated the temperatures, forecasted rain/snow and avalanche forecast and provided it to the teams. The teams decided on a concrete turnaround time based on their current conditions, forecasted warming temperatures and increasing avalanche forecast.
While I wanted the teams to stay in the field so they could achieve their goal both for their success and the success of the mission, I know that people in base cannot make a call based on the conditions teams are experiencing in the field. Also, my responsibility is to do what I can to take care of my team members, listen to what they are telling me about conditions and relate that to the Incident Commander to give him/her a knowledgeable answer about why “I” am pulling my teams out of the field.
While in base I felt an unusual helplessness despite being involved in the mission, but did feel engaged with my teams in the field being able to relate to what they were seeing and doing. It took more than I thought to sit quietly and let the teams do their jobs without interrupting them every few minutes to get an update. I’m not a fan of being in base, but I do value having someone there watching out for our teams and being able to relate field information to the Incident Commander and explain why things are going the way they are. I do plan to be in the field on the next mission. I don’t think I can drink that much coffee again…
