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Safety Highlight – Rescue/Assist on Dragontail Basic Climb
 Lessons from Mountaineer Incidents

Seattle Climbing and Seattle Safety committees are experimenting with raising awareness of safety issues that can arise on climbs, scrambles, backcountry skiing, and other Mountaineer activities. Previous Safety Highlights and other information are available on the Safety Committee’s web page.

 -- Dave Shema, Seattle Branch Safety Officer

 Identifying information has been removed or disguised.

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A basic climb turns into a rescue, then a Search And Rescue (SAR)  assist.   Recent training  aided the response, making it "almost like one of the scenarios".


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June 24, 2012 - Dragontail Peak / Colchuck Col, Basic Climb

Injuries: Solo Climber with Broken leg - Rescue/Assist

Our team came across a solo hiker who had broke his leg. We changed from a climb to a rescue. We provided the first aid and sought out help the injured hiker. We then were recruited by SAR to assist with transporting the hiker to a LZ for airlift.Our team did a great job assisting in this rescue. Total time from from finding the victim to victim extraction was a little over ten hours.

Follow up - I (the leader) did just retake the WFA (Wilderness First Aid) course as my original MOFA had expired, followed up with the Decision Making in Emergency Situations seminar. Both made this rescue almost like one of the scenarios.  I will definitely steer folks towards that seminar in the future. I felt like I really knew what to expect.

The only thing the seminars don't quite touch on is how much physical work it is to transport a person on a litter in rugged terrain. It was exhausting.

Here's hoping to NOT USE my WFA again!!!

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A number of scenario-based leadership seminars were available to Mountaineer members in 2012.

Keep an eye out for 2013 seminars.

 

Visit/Return To: Safety Highlights web page