Mock Vertical Rescue Training Weber County Sheriff's Search and Rescue Team

These images were taken by Sheri Trbovich and are all copyright 1998-2007.

In this training excercise we have a pair of rock climbers who had an "accident." The lead climber dislodged a large rock that struck the climber and then the belayer. The lead rope "thankfully" jamed but not before the lead climber fell far enough to sustain further injury. The belayer is unresponsive and the lead climber has called out (in pain) for help. A "passerby" has called 911 and our team is dispatched by the sheriff's office to help.

The location is on a cliff face above a ledge. The ledge is 30 feet above a scree field of refrigerator sized boulders that is about 1000 vertical feet high. The rescue team did not know the situation prior to arrival at the staged scene. They found two patients, one on the ledge and one that was 50 feet above the ledge.

Here our intrepid "patient", John Sohl, is ready to play "injured climber" for the training:

Slumped over the belay, with an injured and fallen lead climber over head:

A close up of the primary injury in our unresponsive patient:

First rescuer on the scene is Regan Howell:

Regan attempts to assess the patient, without much response:

And more assessment, the patient is breathing and has a head injury, is the heart still going?:

Time for some more help and a chance to update incident command:

Lets see if we can straighten him out and improve his airway:

Rescuer number 2, Jeff Hirschi, arrives and provides some traction on the c-spine:

Jeff communicates with the other injured climber while maintaining traction on the patient's head. Other rescuers are arriving on scene and setting up anchor systems to prepare for an evacuation:

 

Other team members, led by Wayne Aprill, attempt to release the tension on the climbing rope between our two injured climbers:

With the rope removed, the more seriously injured belayer can be moved into position to be splinted and evacuated:

With limited personnel on hand, maintaining traction is difficult but possible:

Next step is the vacuum splint now that the patient is located at a better site:

Oops, this is why we do trainings, notice that traction has been lost on the head:

Traction has been recovered and a c-collar applied by Nate Pincombe to help stabilize the neck:

Time out for a brief bit of instruction:

The next problem is to get an injured (broken wrist and ankle) lead climber, Mark Miller, down from a vertical wall some 30 feet above a ledge that is nearly 1000 vertical feet above the parking lot. (Much of the terrain between the parking lot and the ledge is steep talus!):

Patient #2 is carefully set down on the ledge, injuries are initially assessed to avoid doing more harm.

Once he is lowered, we must assess carefully the injuries.

"Does that hurt?" (The obvious injury at the arm has already been assessed as a fracture.)

The fractured wrist is splinted with a vacuum splint.

The rescuer now realigns an injured leg to recover circulation and feeling:

A vacuum splint is now applied to the injured leg:

Condition is assessed along with circulation and sensation, as is always done after a splint is applied:

Now that patient #2 is stable, it is time to return to patient #1. A full body vacuum splint is prepared:

The patient is secured in the vacuum splint and placed in a litter for lowering:

The litter is attached to the lowering line and moved into position:

A second belayer (Nate Crowther) is ready in case of a failure of the main lowering line:

The backup belay is attached and the team prepares for vertical lowering over the edge of the cliff:

The patient is anchored into the litter and tied into the lowering and belay lines too. The litter attendent (Jeff Hirschi) is also attached to these lines and the litter:

The litter is brought to the edge:

The patient is secure, it is now up to the attendent and the rope tenders:

"Down slow!"

The patient is now at the bottom of the cliff (30 vertical feet) and is being readied for a 1000 foot scree evacuation. At this point members of the Weber County Sheriff's Jeep Patrol (Kris Harrop, in green and Scott Combe in blue) are on hand to assist with the technical lowering down the boulder field.

Off they go...

Now that the more serious patient has been evacuated from the ledge and is on the way down the slope, it is time to move patient #2 into place for lowering. Notice the safety line:

Patient #2 is assisted into place and the lowering line is attached along with the backup belay line:

At this point the patient is lowered while carefully protecting the injuries. Once this patient is at the bottom of the cliff (and the top of the scree slope) the pratice is called off and everyone debriefs. Careful discussion of each month's training is one of the most important aspects of the operation.

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Copyright 1998-2007
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