Busy SAR week Pine Creek area rescue 4/30

[trackrunner]

cross posting. First posted in Zion forum by Tim in Hurricane cross posted by Tom to canyons group. cross post here. Not sure if it's one of the climbs in the area or canyoneers at the last rap.

Bo thanks for all you do. Know you wanted to have fun with the family this weekend. Hope you get to soon if your helping on this one too.

This one is ongoing, and thankfully not fatal (yet).

6 or 8 climbers, only ONE "experienced" were rappelling near Pine Creek, when
one (not the "experienced" one) of them slipped & has been suspended & hanging
upside-down since between 6 & 7PM (NPS was notified around 7PM).

As usual, the NPS has done a great job quickly activating their Incident
Command System & assembling general SAR & technical SAR resources, staffing
their Emergency Ops Center & staging rescuers inside the tunnel, at one of the
ventillation windows where they're not carrying out a vertical incident rescue.

Tunnel is shut-down to two-way traffic & all oversized vehicles but one-way
traffic is running.

Up until the past week, I'd been wondering exactly why the NPS Zion NP charges
such a relatively high entrance fee, but now I'm thinking it's necessary just to
pay for their Search & Rescue operations.


Tim in Hurricane

[Scott Card]

What in the world is going on out there? People People People.... If they are staging from the tunnel, my guess is that it is canyoneers at the last rap in Pine Creek.

[Iceaxe]

ONE "experienced"

Without knowing the details.... I'm thinking experianced in this case means "rapped once or twice before".

[sarahlizzy]

Without knowing the details.... I'm thinking experianced in this case means "rapped once or twice before".

Can't speak generally, but a lot of people taught to rap/abseil as climbers here in the UK seem to have some very odd ideas about how to do it.

Maybe this is someone inverting when wearing their pack and not being able to release a prusik?

[ratagonia]

Can't speak generally, but a lot of people taught to rap/abseil as climbers here in the UK seem to have some very odd ideas about how to do it.

Maybe this is someone inverting when wearing their pack and not being able to release a prusik?

Rappelling with prusiks is very rare over here. Futher rumor has it the ropes were tangled and he got stuck in the tangle, then inverted.

Tom

[sarahlizzy]

Rappelling with prusiks is very rare over here. Futher rumor has it the ropes were tangled and he got stuck in the tangle, then inverted.

I don't understand why so many people seem to like using them here, to be honest, other than, "that's the way I was taught" and "this autobloc thing sounds different and therefore scary".

[oldno7]

Any update on details??

[oldno7]

No updates???

[ratagonia]

No updates???

With great patience comes great possibility.

T

[Iceaxe]

[nonot]

[Iceaxe]

Zion National Park (UT)
Climber Rescued From Pine Creek Canyon
NPS Morning Report
May 5, 2010

Park dispatch received a report of a climber in distress in Pine Creek Canyon just before 7 p.m. on April 30th. The caller said that a member of his canyoneering party had lost control during the final 100 feet of a rappel and was hanging upside down and unable to right himself. Rangers immediately recognized that this was a life threatening situation. A hasty team responded to a gallery window in the Zion-Mt. Carmel tunnel, where two rangers were lowered to the climber. The rangers were able to get him right side up and connect him to the rescue system. Personnel in the tunnel window then raised all three to a safe location. From initial report to completion of the rescue took just 56 minutes. The fast response is credited with saving the man’s life. Only one person in the party of eight finished the last rappel; due to darkness and the inexperience of the climbers, it was determined that raising all party members to the tunnel window was the appropriate course of action. One lane of traffic was closed in the tunnel for rescue vehicles. A large haul team was required to raise the seven members of climbing party and their two rescuers through five raising evolutions. Nineteen park personnel participated in the operation. The IC was ranger Andrew Fitzgerald. [Submitted by Cindy Purcell, Chief Ranger]

http://home.nps.gov/applications/morningreport/

[Don]

56 minutes. Wow.

[trackrunner]

upside down. wondering if he was wearing a heavy pack, heavy lopsided person, or something else.

[Alex]

56 minutes! Wow! Hats off to dudes and dudettes out there in S&R

[Cirrus2000]

Gotta try that upside down rapping some time - sounds kind of cool.

Kudos to the SAR team on such a quick response!

[Iceaxe]

56 minutes from when the NPS was notified.... I'm guessing the dude was hanging upside down much longer....

The group probably spent a large amount of time trying to correct the problem themselves.... and than someone had to notify the NPS there was a problem.... I'm assuming the guy who had made it down first ended up running for help??? So notifying SAR probably took a while....

But yeah.... sounds like once SAR was on the job they did first class work.

[trackrunner]

another thing that helped is they train & rescue at that location a lot. the haul setup for this location probaly is muscle memory to most SAR members.

[Iceaxe]

another thing that helped is they train & rescue at that location a lot.

Yeah... something like 3 Pine Creek rescues already in 2010.... not a great display of skill by the community so far this year when descending the kiddie canyons...

[oldno7]

The simple things that beginners overlook, or simply don't know. On a free hanging rappel hang your pack off the "front" of your harness, avoids abdominal fatigue and reduces the chances of flipping over backwards.(more important in flowing water)
A simple releasable system here(needed for beginners) would have had them at the bit and spur around 8:00pm laughing about the easily corrected mis fortune.