7- 9 GCSAR
Knots, like it or knot
Bego, Frank, Brad
7- 25 All
GCSAR Picnic
RexBob et. al.
8- 13 GCSAR
Map and Compass
Frank
8-22 GCSAR
Helicopter Operations and Jet A
Madness
Steve White
9- 10 GCSAR
Rock Rescue
9- 26 GCSAR
Mock something
11- 12 GCSAR
CPR
11- 26 GCSAR
CPR
12- 10 GCSAR
Winter Rescue
Eric Trenbeath
Incident Tally by Month
200220012000199919981997[85]
1996-
J-0
J-0
J-2
J-1
J-0
J-4
F-3
F-2
F-4
F-1
F-1
F-6
M- 9
M- 5
M- 9
M-15
M- 5
M-10
A- 8
A-11
A-13
A- 4
A-18
A- 8
M- 10
M- 8
M- 14
M- 11
M- 15
M- 16
J-12[42]
J- 6 [32]
J- 7 [49]
J- 8 [40]
J- 3 [42]
J- 9 [53]
J- 5
J- 6
J- 3
J- 6
J-10
J- 4
A-7
A-3
A-2
A-9
A-2
A-6
[54]
S-2
S-9
S-9
S-4
S-5
O- 2
O- 7
O-13
O- 9
O- 9
[45]
[70]
[77]
[67]
[77]
N-5
N-0
N-7
N-3
N-8
D-1
D-0
D-2
D-1
D-0
[51]
[70]
[86]
[71]
J-4 F-5 M- 2 A-12 M- 14 J- 7 [44] J- 5 A-5 S-5 O- 6 [65] N-9 D-4 [78]
average: [43]
02- 43 7- 2- 02 Overdue biker
Over before it started.
Comments: Over before it started.
Responders: Bego, Lee
SRBT
4th of July Parade and Fireworks
Awesome parade and fireworks.
The Fire Club won the tug of war against the Sheriff's Office. Accusations hurled, threats
made......
02- 44 7- 10- 02 Busted Up Canoeist Colorado River
A bunch o guys left Hittle bottom in canoes and kyaks. One feller decided to jump from a
cliff into water he couldn't see in to. Said he hit bottom when he went underwater. Broke his leg
and knee.
The call came in as a mile to mile and a half below Hittle Bottom. Rex sent Frank into John
Hauer's guest house down near the river. Frank was alerted to their location cuz the subject
screamed big when his pals pulled him up almost out of the water.
We responded with the Wave Runners and big boat but soon learned that a Stokes and Wheel
were the items of choice cuz the subject was a short distance from the road.
Comments: On private property STAY ON THE ROADS, period, no exceptions.
Responders: Rex, Frank, Bego, Nancy, Sam, Lee, Jim G, Dave, Barb, Jeremy, 3 Alpha, Dawson,
1 T 11
02- 45 7- 17- 02 Dry and Lost Bikers Hunter- Pritchett area
Three French brothers from Quebec suffered a bit in the hot desert. They biked in from the
top of Blue Hill and got confused at the 4 way road intersection near Pritchett Arch. They turned
left on to the Hunter Canyon Spur road which goes for a bit and then turns to a nice trail. This
trail stays on the same bench (almost) for a bit, then goes down into Cane Creek Canyon in the
side canyon with the spring next to the road. No problem.
Part way out that trail, in view of the road below, Benoit and Marc become too dehydrated to
continue. (Another 15 minutes would have taken them down to the spring). Leaving his
brothers there, Jean retraced the route back to the 4 way intersection then proceeded out the
Pritchett Canyon Trail. He got to the Workforce Services building pretty dang wasted. He
watered up while Louis interviewed him. TBerry was there too.
Louis 1 T 10 suggested three teams. 502 and ATVs were to go in from the top. The Ranger
and ATVs and an EMT were to go in the bottom. And hikers were to go up from Cane Creek on
that very trail.
Brad, in from La Sal, was ahead of us all and provided a necessary communication link
between the hikers and the SO. Nancy also became a communication relay. Cool.
Not to long into it all, the hikers found the lads, watered em up and hiked them out. Much
radio time was spent talking to the Pritchett Canyon team "in the blind" cuz one cannot transmit
OUT of that canyon with 5 watts but you can hear most stuff coming in.
Comments: Searches and Rescues down in the deepest part of Behind the Rock is rough going,
hard to keep communication lines going, somewhat dangerous and a long way out there. It's
several hours or more at best.
Responders: Matt, Sam, Nancy, Bego, TBerry, Dave, Barb, Levi, Jim D, Lee, Jeremy, Jim G,
Aug. Louis 1 T 10 put it together.
02- 46 7- 25- 02 Rim Rocked Arches Natural Park
Karen 222 invited us out to help with someone stuck in the Firey Furnace.
We responded to the shed and got 10- 22d.
Comments: Rats. Almost a trip to the ol Firey Furnace.
Responders: Rex, Bego, others (no paperwork)
02- 47
7- 30- 02 Dry bikers on Porcupine Single Track
Four guys from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, a land very different from here. They got out on
Porcupine Rim trail and ran low on water. One guy made it out to summon help. The other 3
cell phoned to summon help. Elvis left Dave and Dean high up on the single track and made it
out by himself.
We responded to the trailhead on Hwy 128. Water was hiked up to the last 2 stragglers who
were quite dehydrated and tired.
Comments:
Responders: Rex, Frank, Sam, Nancy, Bego, Jim D, Jeremy, Dick, Jennie
02- 48 8- 9- 02 Heart Attack SRBT
Cell phone again. From 1 mile out, before the Abyss. A 51 yr old guy had a mild heart
attack.
Former GCSAR member Bob Morgan, now an EMT-I, took an AED and out we went.
All was well enuff to Ranger him to the ambulance.
Comments: Nitro. Good stuff.
Responders: Dick, Sam, Bego, Shaun
02- 49 8- 10- 02 Rollover on Moab Rim Trail
... call came in thru San Juan County... GCSAR and EMS were paged out... SAR members
accessed the area on ATV's and one individual who hiked to the top... no overturned vehicle was
located... 3rd party hiker reported seeing a vehicle on it's side but no one around...
1 T 3 unravels the story at the bottom:
... a short time later two vehicles were contacted as they drove down the Rim Trail... The Chevy
Suburban had body damage on its left side... The person driving denied any knowledge of a
rollover but did say the Suburban had rolled earlier in the day on another trail... After more
questioning, a passenger in the Suburban admitted that he was driving and that the vehicle had
rolled...
...sobriety tests showed he was intoxicated
Comments: A medical call on the Moab Rim Trail is perhaps the most dangerous thing we do.
Responders: Sam, Bego, Steve, Jim
02- 50 8- 17- 02 Agency Assist Archie's Natural Park Carry out
Incident Command at Arches National Park requested assistance from GCSAR to help
manpower the carry-out of of a stroke subject from near Landscape Arch.
Comments:
Responders: Lee, Dave, Barbara
02- 51 8- 17- 02 Search for elderly man at Fisher Towers
Just before the Arches request (see above) there was a possible search developing. Just after
the Arches request the search turned real. We then sent just 3 to Arches and everyone else
headed for Fisher Towers.
13 B 62 was sent up the trail for a hasty search. Shortly later, Jim Davis spotted this guy
under a tree next to the dirt road not far from Hwy 128. He had stripped down to his boxers. He
told his wife he did not think he would have survived much longer.
The subject had gotten lost, run out of water, wandered down a drainage and then turned the
wrong way when he reached the dirt road.
Comments:
Responders: Frank, Matt, Nancy, Dick, Sam, Jim D, Jeff, Bego
02- 52 8- 17- 02 Busted Biker SRBT
Just as we put things away in the SAR Shed from the previous two incidents, the pager went
off again. Biker down on the SRBT 1.5 miles out.
The son rode out to report Dad had wrecked his collar bone. Other bikers told him he was 1.5
miles from the start. After questioning, he said there were sandy areas around and a jeep trail.
That would put him 2 to 2.5 miles out. That's a big difference to us as mile 1 and mile 2 have
very different approaches in our rescue vehicles.
Just as we motored off from the parking lot, the subject appeared, having hiked out by
himself. Sure enuff on the collar bone. He refused an ambulance ride and his son drove him to
the hospital.
Comments: Another case where the subject is reported to be in a certain place at call out but by
the time we arrive the subject has moved and we don't know it yet.
Responders: Sam, Nancy, Bego, Jeff, Dave, Barbara, Jim, Lee, Dick
02- 53 8- 18- 02 Three kids need big help Steelbender
Somehow or other, three kids.... this is the short version.........
We got the page at 8:45 pm and it was rather nebulous at first. How many? How hurt?
Where....?
Is this a search, a rescue, both or what?
GCSAR and EMS responded out to Ken's Lake staging area where 1T3 was stationed.
Soonly, equipment and personnel poured over Flat Pass and up the creek to the Steel bender
Trail. Here we had a Communications Post with a 40 watt radio that would get out to the SO
repeaters and the GCSAR simplex channel to run the rescue in the canyon.
At 9 pm we learned that a young girl had fallen 80 feet off a cliff on to her back so EMS
asked us to get CareFlight from Grand Junction in the air. 1T3 coordinated the Helo LZ and
gave the pilot coordinates. We learned that 2 boys were missing. Nancy and Shalla hurried
ahead.
Across the creek and up a few hundred feet was the scene. The first people in to the accident
site discovered, to their horror, a crumpled up little girl mostly unresponsive until O's were
delivered. Where were the two boys, 6 and 9? They were soon discovered 50 feet above,
stranded on a ledge they had slithered down to.
We kept in contact with the boys and assured them we'd be up soon. Our immediate attention
went to treating, packaging and transporting the girl. We had to belay the litter down some
inclined slickrock to the road where she was put on the Ranger for the ride out to the helicopter.
10:25 pm.
As soon as the Ranger left we started hiking around and up to the top of the cliff above the
boys. A belay rope was anchored to a big Pinon Tree and a rescuer lowered to the boys. As the
rescuer approached, the little one looked up and, in a very small voice, said, "I want my Mom."
No doubt.
They were two very brave little guys. We put a harness on each one and raised them up to the
top of the cliff. Then we all hiked down to the vehicles and disappeared into the night. The last
thing I heard from the boys was, "Thank You." Awesome. Back to the shed at midnight.
Comments: Splendid effort by all.
There are possibly some gaps or missing pieces to the story. What was the actual time of the
accident? Then, how long until the 911 call. The older boy had a watch on and said they'd been
on the ledge for 7 hours. He said that at 11 pm. The page came just before 9 pm. Hmmm.
What were the movements and times of the female adult who was (theoretically) watching the
kids? The boy's Dad had driven up into the canyon before we arrived and did what??
Something hinkey going on here.
Responders: Frank (OIC), Bego (Ops), Matt, Nancy and Shalla, Sam, Jeff, TBerry, Dave, Levi,
Jim D, Jeremy, Dick, Jim G, Jennie, Aug
Thanks to 1 Louis 10 and 1 Steve 3.
All rise------Presentation of the Colors, The National Anthem, the Pledge, a 21 gun salute and other party
favors presents---------->
HELICOPTER TRAINING
by
STEVE WHITE 1 T 9
[Steve has been with the Sheriff's Office 11 years, is a detective, participated on the Grand
County Short Haul Team and has much long line work, mostly in film. Served in the Air Unit at
the 2002 Olympics where it was "be prepared for anything, any time of day, in any type of helo."
A good shot. Benches 400. Awesome wife, cute kids, promising career, etc.]
A few pieces from his presentation follow:
There are 3 Rules of Helicopters:
1) Safety, safety, safety.
2) What the pilot says, goes.
3) Steve gets the front seat. [The audience went wild]
Upstate, along that infamous Wasatch Front, the helicopter companies and state agencies say we
have an excellent reputation [for helicopter operations].
Landing Zones: size, surfaces, obstructions, power lines, things that blow around, flight path,
etc.
Appoint an LZ Manager, establish communication with the helicopter, figure out wind
indicators, etc.
Establish jobs before the helo lands, no chaos. Few people NEED to go close.
Crowd control means people looking outwardly too.
Anyone IN the zone can say STOP or give the Abort signal.
If you don't like what you are seeing at any point, stop the show and fix it.
How to approach the type of helo you are dealing with. It varies, but never go behind the doors.
Night Ops: Lighting the LZ from behind, small strobe lights, no flashlights, wear glow sticks,
etc.
Hot Loads: have ONE gear loader, everyone watches doors and seat belts, no high loads, etc.
Long Lining: Never turn your back to the load on the cable. Wham bonk if you do.
Load weights will depend on helo, pilot, wind, air temp, altitude, fuel load, etc.
PPE: Ear and eye protection, helmet, some intuitive notions about helos help make you safer.
Then we went outside to build an LZ in the parking lot, even with blinking strobes from the EMS
kit.
[My apologies to 1 T 4 for braggin' 9 up so big. Sorry.]
02- 54 8- 26- 02 Motorcycle Rider Broken Leg Fins y Cosas
We responded with a full battalion of soldiers and weapons. We followed the RP in to the
battleground. We emerged victorious.
Comments: Different kind of write-up, huh.
Responders: Rex, Bego, Dave, Jim D, Lee, Jennie, Aug
The National Search and Rescue Organization (NASAR) and dbS Productions are pleased to
announce a new partnership to bring you more extensive and timely Search and Rescue related
information via SARNEWS.Com. SARNEWS.Com is now an official e-newsletter of NASAR
(published by dbS Productions) distributed for free to NASAR members and other interested
subscribers. Delivered via e-mail bi-weekly.Latest Articles in USCG SAR Newsletter
The latest on-line issue of the US Coast Guard's SAR newsletter has articles on the continuing
function of 121.5 ELT alerts and on the SAR Controller of the year award.
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-o/g-opr/newsletter/SarWatch7.doc
Research in Rendezvous Search Theory
A Collaborative Linkage Grant is bringing together researchers from five countries to study
Rendezvous Search Theory. Search Theory is a well-established research area in the field of
Operations Research/Applied Mathematics. Rendezvous Search is a new branch of search theory
introduced by one of the grantees, Prof. S. Alpern (UK), in 1995. Potential applications for
rendezvous search are varied, but one is in search-and-rescue operations, and the question of
what type of instruction to give to ships' captains, or to hikers, explorers or children, for
example, who may later become lost or separated. The objective of this grant is to combine the
various skills of the investigators to attack new problems, and thus extend the applicability of the
theory. Tunisia, Israel, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom are involved in this
Mediterranean Dialogue/Transatlantic collaboration.
http://www.nato.int/science/e/newsletter/020306.htm
Child Abduction News and Information
A child abduction that lead to a massive three-day search and rescue effort in 1997 may finally
be solved. With another tragic abduction and search just occurring in California search and
rescue teams may be interested in the following resources:
The Washington State Attorney General's Office Missing Children Homicide Report
http://www.wa.gov/ago/homicide_report/sum_facts.html
When Your Child is Missing: A Family Survival Guide. 1998,
http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/missing/pubs.html#w
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5625-2002Jun30.html
Lynn Von Koch, Cadet Commander for the Red Rock Composite Squadron
Commander Lynn Von Koch has been busy since she joined the Civil Air Patrol in early
2000. The following list of her accomplishments is a tribute to a young lady who exemplifies the
values of the CAP.
March 2000: Proposed organization of a cadet program in Moab as a part of the existing Red
Rock Squadron. April 2000: Joined CAP as one of the first two Red Rock cadets. July
2000: Completed a basic encampment at Hill Air Force Base. Composed several popular
jodies. June 2001: Attended the Summer Seminar at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis,
Maryland. June 2001: Attended Air Force Pararescue Orientation Training operated from
Kirkland Air Force Base in New Mexico and was named "Best Mountaineer" - one of only 3
awards that were given. She was invited to return in 2002 for advanced pararescue training.
July 2001: Attended Hawk Mountain Ranger School in Pennsylvania. Tested out of the first 2
years of Ranger training and completed the 3rd year "Team Commander" program. Named
honor cadet for Tango Flight and was invited to return in 2002 as staff assistant to the Senior
Member Tango (3rd year) flight commander. July 2001: As Grand County High School
student body president, attended the Utah National Guard Freedom Academy at Camp Williams
for new student government officers. Jan 2002: Passed review board for the Mitchell Award
(named after Brig Gen Billy Mitchell, aviation pioneer).
02-375 - Grand Teton NP (WY) - Rescue
David James, 44, and Richard Whipple were climbing the North Face of the Grand Teton on the
evening of July 15th. Whipple led a pitch in the Guano Chimney and was belaying as James
followed when falling rocks hit James, knocking him unconscious for about five minutes.
Whipple lowered him to a ledge and requested help via cell phone. Two park rangers were flown
in by helicopter short haul to a ledge 100 feet below the two just before dark as a thunderstorm
approached. Rangers reached them during the storm and spent the night with the climbers in a
small cave. In the morning, another rockfall twice caused rescuers to change plans, but the
helicopter pilot and a ranger spotter were eventually able to short-haul the four from the North
Face. James was found to have an inter-cranial bleed in addition to facial fractures and
lacerations. [Bill Holda, Acting CR, GRTE]
[Editor's note: I've been there and short hauling off the North Face would be totally risky.]
02-406 - Yosemite NP (CA) - Technical Rescue [George Paiva, PR/IC, YOSE]
On Saturday, August 10th, Tuolumne rangers received a report of two climbers stranded near the
top of Fairview Dome. At 11 a.m. Christian Norman, 28, of Culver City, and Chris Caines, 45, of
Santa Monica, California, began climbing the ten pitch "Regular Route". At about 7 p.m.,
they reached a prominent ledge at pitch seven. The two were unable to progress beyond this
point because of fatigue and dehydration. They were neither clothed nor equipped to be on the
face overnight near 10,000 feet in the 30 degree temperatures, so began yelling for help. A friend
heard
their cries and reported the situation to rangers. At approximately 9:30 p.m., a technical rescue
team of rangers and YOSAR members hiked to the top of the dome. Spotlights and a loud
speaker were used to locate and communicate with the climbers. Rescuers were lowered 350 feet
to them. They were provided with warm clothes and water and assisted in ascending fixed lines.
The climbers and rescuers all arrived safely on top by 4 a.m., then hiked off the dome.
[Editor's note: Been here too. They were appallingly slow. Look who wrote this one up.]
A Dozen Biological Inventions
In the beginning: Life on this particular planet got itself going at least 3.8 billion years ago as
recorded in the oldest rocks found. These prokaryotic (no nucleus) single cell jobbers evolved
out of organic molecules produced non-biologically in an environment having no free oxygen.
Their diet: other organic molecules. In complexity, this is the "emergent" part of selforganization in "complex adaptive systems," whereby life itself seems to arise out of nowhere.
"Order for free" does not need Darwin or any other external force; it evolves toward attractors,
enhances its own fitness landscape internally and science and religion don't care for it. What part
free will? I digress a bit
About a half a billion years later anaerobic photosynthesis happened along. Single cell bacteria
learned to feed themselves (autotrophism) by manufacturing glucose for metabolic energy. Like
hunting and gathering to farming.
Another half a billion years pass by and, while the sediments were accumulating that would later
become the schist of Westwater and Grand Canyons, the blue-green algae patented aerobic
photosynthesis with oxygen as a waste produce. Talk about pollution. Egads. This free oxygen
was at first a corrosive pandemic poison to other organic material. Imagine what the EPA and
SUWA would have said about this stuff. So, life had to either develop a tolerance for this evil
oxygen or live in oxygen-free niches. At this point we had a carbon dioxide, nitrogen, methane,
ammonia atmosphere, water vapor was being outgassed, the ocean basins were filling and the
earth day was about 9 hours cuz the moon was a bunch closer.
Oxygen: Greek- oxys = acid and gennan = generate. First described in the 1770s, this very
abundant element changed the face of the earth. Dissolved in the early oceans, it converted
ferrous iron in solution to ferric iron making possible the Red Beds so important in iron ore and
rod rock scenery. Once this went to completion, oxygen began to accumulate in the atmosphere
and the ozone layer formed, protecting the huddled masses below from uV radiation. At the
same time, atmospheric CO2 was being dissolved in the oceans to form carbonic acid to eat
away at the silicates (quartz, etc) to form the carbonates (limestones, etc), handy in concrete,
azurite and malachite.
As the Schist Mountains were being eroded flat from Himalayan proportions, the eukaryotic cell
(having a nucleus) appeared with a membrane around the nucleus containing genetic material
and special structures for special functions within the cell.
Another half billion years pass and, somewhere, somehow, in the back seat after the prom, "they"
figured out how to reproduce sexually, at a rate far higher than 1.8 kids per family. And this,
thru genetic recombination and emergence, accelerated the rate of evolution enormously.
So, here we are with 3/4 of the Earth's history gone by and we're still at the single-cell level but
we have oxygen, DNA and sex. Uh-oh. Earth day is 17 hours cuz tidal forces are making
everything slow down and move apart and we must preserve angular momentum.
The key to multi-cellness first required that cells invent two amino acids so that the "sticky"
proteins of collogen in animals and extensin in plants could unite cells to build larger structures.
This engineering marvel fueled the Cambrian macro fossil explosion of 600 million years ago
following a simple organic growth pattern: initially, an exponential growth of new stuff,
followed by a plateau in numbers as the fitness landscapes were filled up (Gould's punctuated
equilibrium). Once again, the environment determined the outcome. We seem to have forgotten
this.
Now the stage was set for life to hop (rather, slither and slime and gasp) right up out of the sea
onto the land. Ker-plunk. Vascular plants made it 400 million years ago in the Silurian times
with the invention of lignan which solved various support problems. For the Devonian invasion
of land by animals, the amphibians packed around an accessory lung for direct breathing and the
backbone was assembled (vertebrates). Eisley says, "...a stealthy advance made in suffocation,
terror and chemical discomfort." Jimmy Morrison says, "... in mute nostril agony." By
Carboniferous times (eastern coal beds) land based organisms and environments diversified
together. During Wingate, Kayenta and Navajo times mammals, then birds, were invented, the
Dinosaurs ("terrible lizard") ran amok. More importantly, flowering plants produced nectars and
pollens and -above all- fruits and seeds (Pine nuts) which concentrated food energy to previously
unknown degrees.
Things exist by goelogical consent, subject to change withour notice. After a meteor offed the
dinosaurs, the mammals could grow up and among them were some tree-dwelling primates.
Effective adaptation to the tree life produced stereoscopic vision and prehensile (grasping) hands
for arboreal travel and , later, TV remotes and beer. With the decline of the forest habitat in
Africa about 10 million years ago, these "orag-utans" (forest people) came down out of the trees.
On the ground, we became bipedal before we got bigger brains so our hands could invent tools.
(The order of events here is up for much discussion). We could run around and mate more
easily. We could carry food and babies in our now free arms. Some of those tools had mighty
sharp points.
The latest invention caused quite a stir in the larger picture: cognitive intelligence. That what
WE call it anyway. The brain. Thinking ahead. Reflecting. Concepts and folk lore.
And then was invented the biggest false advertising campaign of them all: Homo sapiens.
Wise Man. Get it?
What we got then was fire, clothing, weapons that could kill, mutual assured destruction,
whiskey, the indoles, greed, sloth, arrogance, politics, religion (mine not yours), philanthropy,
search and rescue, mountain bikes......... attitudes, helicopters and stuff.
Weird, huh.
[ Most of this was stolen from an article in Astronomy magazine years ago ].