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Glacier Rescue SAR weekend
July 2008
Skagway , AK
posted by joshuatheNomad
This weekend was awesome. The SVFD paid for a SAR group to fly by helicopter to an icefall area of the Denver Glacier! We overnighted just south of a system of crevasses and icefall area to go through two days of rescue training. Saturday when we arrived at 12:50, we unloaded the helicopters, set up camp and dispersed group gear in heavily overcast skies and mid 40 temps-in July! After camp was secured, we established two ice climbing routes were one group [including me] spent just over two hours working on front pointing [vertical ice climbing technique]. Whilst climbing, a second group spent the same two+ hours learning French-pointing [less than vertical travel], snow probing, crevasse and moulin identification and general glacial travel. After the two hours we had a short rendezvous then switched roles. Shortly after setting out to work on non-vertical travel, my team captain was radioed by the other team-our first incident. A 'Team B' member, while belaying, was pulled into a small water-filled crevasse when they caught their falling climber. With the water temp around 36 degrees, hypothermia would be swift, they had to stay in long enough though to get the climber to the ground-a minute or two! Since we weren't far away, I was elected to go back and take care of the now soaked SAR member. By the time we covered the ~450 metres to camp, they were very quickly losing motor function from the waist down and mental awareness was very low. Immediately, we removed all of the wet clothes and since my extra warm layers were at hand I re-dressed them with dry layers and put my puff down jacket and windstopper hat .. wrapping them in a few sleeping bags. Once that was done, I set about heating water and pulled out some chocolate. Whilst the water was heating, the now hypothermic 'swimmer' was given a good dose of chocolate and made to move about so much as possible. Hot water and more chocolate continued for two more hours while the rest of the team was busy training. I maintained constant contact with our SAR captain, and gave regular updates on conditions. Once the whole team returned to camp, we traded out for other people to give care to and monitor our now recovering friend...to be finished 7/15....were we left off...Once recovery was apparent, we relaxed just a little. Our SAR captain took time to locate a couple moulins while we were prepping dinner. After dinner and cleanup, we had a lesson in snow probing and a great example as to why we don't walk across snow. Under what appeared to be just an innocent patch of snow on the glacier was a rather cavernous moulin. Curiosity piqued, we grabbed ropes and gear and headed into the glacier! To abseil into the hole, we set a belay line and working/lower line that was easily converted to a Z-Drag raising system. I was lowered in first to clear any remaining snow and ice that could pose as a danger to the rest of the team. All the while, back in camp our 'hypothermic' was still being monitored. We worked ropes until midnight with lowering and raising all of the team members into and out of the moulin, great times. After break down of the evening I volunteered to be monitor/body heat through the night. So, to keep our still recovering member warm, I slept with my sleeping bag open over their's and left them in my puff down jacket. It all worked out well; morning saw great recovery, spitting rain and 38 degree temps! It must have been below freezing over night but we slept warm at any rate. Before flying off the glacier by chopper at 15:30 we spent the day practicing live weight partner rescues using an ice axe and two ice screws as anchors. Great fun! Glacier camping is an amazing experience.
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