Rigging for Rescue
Well it's been a long time since I've posted! This time of year is always my slowest for taking photos, and this year we've been especially busy with other stuff, so that has held true. Last week, however, I went out for a seven day seminar behind Eklutna Lake in the Chugach Mountains, where we learned and practiced a bunch of different techniques and systems for rescuing people from steep terrain using ropes and rigging.
I've been a climber for fifteen years now, so when I signed up for this course I wondered what they could teach me about rigging that I don't already know. The answers were surprising to me, and I walked away feeling like my knowledge has multiplied in this short seven day seminar. And on top of that, it was tons of fun!
Setting the scene: The group of ten rescuers, an instructor, and a senior member of the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group headed out by snowmachine to a remote cabin maintained by the Park Service on a rental basis. The cabin is twelve miles off the end of a long road into the mountains, and we based our operations there, working over different systems in the mornings and then heading out to practice them for real for the duration of the day. Here, after a two mile hike from the end of the snowmachine trail, team members rope up prior to heading a bit higher onto the toe of the Eklutna Glacier, visible above.
This day we worked at crevasse rescue, lowering our subjects into a crevasse on the glacier and then working a number of different ways at lifting them back out again. Some of the challenges are the snow conditions, slippery terrain, overhanging snow at the crevasse edge, and lack of available manpower and support, to name just a couple. In this shot, three members of a four-person team (more people than is typical in glacier travel) rescue their fourth man while our instructor looks on.
During my turn at being the subject in the glacier, I had plenty of time to shoot a few scenic photos while my two team members worked at rigging and hauling me back to the safety of the snow slope.
Drifting snow cascades over the rippled blue ice of the glacier.
Just a few meters down the crevasse, one of the other teams is working to rescue a subject of their own. As for us, we just sit tight and wait while all the work goes on above us. In a typical glacier fall situation the stranded member would be doing all he could to rescue himself, but for these exercises we focused on team rescues instead.
Another day finds us atop a rocky escarpment, sending a victim over the edge and then finding different ways to lower a rescuer to them and then raise them both back up again. Interestingly enough, none of our exercises are at all hindered by the mucky spring weather, although our ropes and gear have certainly seen their share of ice and mud.
Back on the slopes high above the glacier, one of our drills is a long lower of a victim in a litter. You won't be able to pick out the victim and his two rescue attendants in this panorama, but they are mixed in there with the rigging team two anchors below our starting point. Our anchors way up here are simply aluminum stakes driven into the snow slope and packed with as much heavy snow as we could cover them with. Given a little time, the packed snow makes an incredibly solid anchor, and when tests have been done on these anchors in good snow conditions, the aluminum clip-in points on the stakes fail before the snow shows any sign of movement.
Our instructor says often when he does this course in his hometown in Colorado, he'll be the first to reach the working area, where he'll rig an anchor before anyone else arrives, and then go on about the class. Once the students have done some rigging of their own, he'll ask two of them to "grab that sling coming out of the snow and bring it to him." The two invariably will try to pull it out unsuccessfully, and then step up their efforts until it's everything both of them can do, and the sling stays anchored. He'll then tell them to dig it out of the snow, revealing that the anchor that has resisted their every effort to pull is simply a snickers bar tied to the sling and packed into the snow!
Farther down the slope, the last roped lower takes place and the attendants are having a bit of a struggle pulling the litter through the snow at this lower angle. After this point, we changed into a giant eight-person rope team surrounding the patient in the litter, a system which can carry a litter in perfect safety across the most delicate glacier terrain.
Our evenings in the cabin are spent reviewing the day's material, and then more often than not breaking out the dice for a game or two of "ten thousand" which generated a lot of good old fashioned fun!
Back on the glacier again, this time as a massive team of all twelve of us in a line, we head up onto the solid blue ice of the glacier itself. This is slow going, as the first step onto the glacier is a steep one, and each of us has to climb it independently while the others in turn maintain a safe belay. Here's a look back down the valley from my spot waiting for my turn to climb.
Once again at this point I took my turn as the victim, which allowed me to keep the camera out and clicking while everyone else worked on rescuing me.
With a good distance of easy terrain ahead of us, I am strapped in between four rescuers who simply walk me down the glacier, while others rig anchors and lowering systems ahead and clean them up behind as we make our way slowly to safety.
The glacier ice is solid and a beautiful blue just an inch or so under the light coating of snow on the surface, which means our anchors for this stretch are ice screws: solid shafts of aluminum screwed straight into the ice, with a hanger on top to attach to. Here two team members rig the next anchor in line as my attendants take me closer.
An interesting thing about glacier travel is that even though the surface is snowy and looks exactly like ordinary ground, just underneath is smooth and clear ice. Just a few moments after this photo, the gentleman on the left shifted his position slightly, and the teeth of his crampons popped out of the ice. Even on this gentle of a slope, with nothing sharp biting into the ice he took off on an unstoppable downhill run, desperately trying to use his ice axe to stop himself with no effect on the hard surface of the glacier. Fortunately for everyone involved, his fall terminated in a pile of snow, and only left him feeling sore in one shoulder. We were all quite relieved, and walked away thoroughly considering that even in a position of apparent safety, things can still go dramatically wrong. :dunno
Rescuers above my litter pause during the proceedings.
As the team wraps up the drill, the last of us make the rappel down the steep base of the glacier ice. This is my last shot from the set, so I hope you've all enjoyed this bit of a glimpse into the proceedings of rescues in steep terrain! I walked away from this course with enormously improved knowledge of rigging systems and the foundations behind them, and if you're at all interested in learning this stuff, I can definitely recommend the guys at Rigging for Rescue to teach it!
I've been a climber for fifteen years now, so when I signed up for this course I wondered what they could teach me about rigging that I don't already know. The answers were surprising to me, and I walked away feeling like my knowledge has multiplied in this short seven day seminar. And on top of that, it was tons of fun!
Setting the scene: The group of ten rescuers, an instructor, and a senior member of the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group headed out by snowmachine to a remote cabin maintained by the Park Service on a rental basis. The cabin is twelve miles off the end of a long road into the mountains, and we based our operations there, working over different systems in the mornings and then heading out to practice them for real for the duration of the day. Here, after a two mile hike from the end of the snowmachine trail, team members rope up prior to heading a bit higher onto the toe of the Eklutna Glacier, visible above.
This day we worked at crevasse rescue, lowering our subjects into a crevasse on the glacier and then working a number of different ways at lifting them back out again. Some of the challenges are the snow conditions, slippery terrain, overhanging snow at the crevasse edge, and lack of available manpower and support, to name just a couple. In this shot, three members of a four-person team (more people than is typical in glacier travel) rescue their fourth man while our instructor looks on.
During my turn at being the subject in the glacier, I had plenty of time to shoot a few scenic photos while my two team members worked at rigging and hauling me back to the safety of the snow slope.
Drifting snow cascades over the rippled blue ice of the glacier.
Just a few meters down the crevasse, one of the other teams is working to rescue a subject of their own. As for us, we just sit tight and wait while all the work goes on above us. In a typical glacier fall situation the stranded member would be doing all he could to rescue himself, but for these exercises we focused on team rescues instead.
Another day finds us atop a rocky escarpment, sending a victim over the edge and then finding different ways to lower a rescuer to them and then raise them both back up again. Interestingly enough, none of our exercises are at all hindered by the mucky spring weather, although our ropes and gear have certainly seen their share of ice and mud.
Back on the slopes high above the glacier, one of our drills is a long lower of a victim in a litter. You won't be able to pick out the victim and his two rescue attendants in this panorama, but they are mixed in there with the rigging team two anchors below our starting point. Our anchors way up here are simply aluminum stakes driven into the snow slope and packed with as much heavy snow as we could cover them with. Given a little time, the packed snow makes an incredibly solid anchor, and when tests have been done on these anchors in good snow conditions, the aluminum clip-in points on the stakes fail before the snow shows any sign of movement.
Our instructor says often when he does this course in his hometown in Colorado, he'll be the first to reach the working area, where he'll rig an anchor before anyone else arrives, and then go on about the class. Once the students have done some rigging of their own, he'll ask two of them to "grab that sling coming out of the snow and bring it to him." The two invariably will try to pull it out unsuccessfully, and then step up their efforts until it's everything both of them can do, and the sling stays anchored. He'll then tell them to dig it out of the snow, revealing that the anchor that has resisted their every effort to pull is simply a snickers bar tied to the sling and packed into the snow!
Farther down the slope, the last roped lower takes place and the attendants are having a bit of a struggle pulling the litter through the snow at this lower angle. After this point, we changed into a giant eight-person rope team surrounding the patient in the litter, a system which can carry a litter in perfect safety across the most delicate glacier terrain.
Our evenings in the cabin are spent reviewing the day's material, and then more often than not breaking out the dice for a game or two of "ten thousand" which generated a lot of good old fashioned fun!
Back on the glacier again, this time as a massive team of all twelve of us in a line, we head up onto the solid blue ice of the glacier itself. This is slow going, as the first step onto the glacier is a steep one, and each of us has to climb it independently while the others in turn maintain a safe belay. Here's a look back down the valley from my spot waiting for my turn to climb.
Once again at this point I took my turn as the victim, which allowed me to keep the camera out and clicking while everyone else worked on rescuing me.
With a good distance of easy terrain ahead of us, I am strapped in between four rescuers who simply walk me down the glacier, while others rig anchors and lowering systems ahead and clean them up behind as we make our way slowly to safety.
The glacier ice is solid and a beautiful blue just an inch or so under the light coating of snow on the surface, which means our anchors for this stretch are ice screws: solid shafts of aluminum screwed straight into the ice, with a hanger on top to attach to. Here two team members rig the next anchor in line as my attendants take me closer.
An interesting thing about glacier travel is that even though the surface is snowy and looks exactly like ordinary ground, just underneath is smooth and clear ice. Just a few moments after this photo, the gentleman on the left shifted his position slightly, and the teeth of his crampons popped out of the ice. Even on this gentle of a slope, with nothing sharp biting into the ice he took off on an unstoppable downhill run, desperately trying to use his ice axe to stop himself with no effect on the hard surface of the glacier. Fortunately for everyone involved, his fall terminated in a pile of snow, and only left him feeling sore in one shoulder. We were all quite relieved, and walked away thoroughly considering that even in a position of apparent safety, things can still go dramatically wrong. :dunno
Rescuers above my litter pause during the proceedings.
As the team wraps up the drill, the last of us make the rappel down the steep base of the glacier ice. This is my last shot from the set, so I hope you've all enjoyed this bit of a glimpse into the proceedings of rescues in steep terrain! I walked away from this course with enormously improved knowledge of rigging systems and the foundations behind them, and if you're at all interested in learning this stuff, I can definitely recommend the guys at Rigging for Rescue to teach it!
John Borland
www.morffed.com
www.morffed.com
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