What would you do?……was Man survives 100-foot fall,

— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “adkramoo” wrote: > — In Yahoo Canyons Group, “restrac2000” wrote:

The time variable is one I think often gets overlooked, even in minor accidents, which is why items like the “ten essentials” turn out to be so important. I look at my rescue at Corona Arch outside of Moab last autumn as an example of “realistic” rescue times. I went down before noon with heat stroke and was not to the hospital until 7-8ish.

WOW! And you were in the heat all that time? Why so long? Time table?

My scenario was fairly unique and I am still trying to investigate the possibilities of unknown illnesses (ie, connection with my current predicament). I took a rest in some Junipers for shade after teaching some Canyoneering techniques to the climbing guides staffing the rappel ( I was site manager, more than a little embarrassing). I woke up vomiting which escalated to dry heaving shortly thereafter. It took about 15+ minutes to realize the severity of the situation. Took about another 15-20 minutes to lower me (I was having severe reactions to exposure to sunlight and backed away a few times to vomit) from the 300′ rappel, which the guides did a phenomenal job doing.

Once at the bottom they had me in a shady alcove to protect me. Took about 15-20 minutes to get CP & TA medical staff to me, a response time that may have either saved my life or prevented potential permanent damage. They spent a while running through vitals and assessing a potential self-recovery and walk out. It was lucky this happened to me at an adventure race because of support team actually had an IV down at the Corona Arch TH which was immediately brought up “just in case”, along with water and ice.

My body relaxed for a while but then started going into seizure like tremors and showing signs of heat stroke, versus exhaustion, some unknown time thereafter. At this point my memory gets vague. I know up till then that actually thought I might be able to recover for a while in the alcove and then hike out at dusk with some help. But my level of consciouness plunged, my body was fluctuating extreme temperature differences in different parts of my body, I wasn’t sweating anymore. What put it over the top for the staff ( I knew the nurse pretty well) was my mental state, at that point they went ahead and notified GC SAR and put me on an IV.

Over the next couple hours I gradually stabilized (ie my bouts of tremors diminished and body temperature stabilized to a safer place, but by no means normal). The SAR team and ambulance crew arrived (probably after 3 pm or later) and started delegating staff to help with litter rigging, etc. It took a long while to rig the first 3rd class downclimb for the wheeled litter. They had about 10 folks alternating between rigging and leading the litter through the various obstacles (lost a lot of time here). The route to the TH was about 1-1.5 miles, which even with a wheeled litter takes a while to safely navigate (partially b/c half was trail and the rest cross-country, plus of my constant vomiting during transport). At that point I started responding to the direct sunlight again and my situation escalated a little more, though never to the initial symptoms. By the time they strapped me into the Ambulance and headed back it was around six already, I believe. Plus the drive time along the river road back to Allen Memorial.

> Your not going to believe this….or likely approve. For the Psycho Damage, our “call the marines” time was 10AM. We got out at 10:15 AM. We chased you folks down at the rangers shortly after you notified them. Since then I have adjusted our time to call for help, if we don’t return, to 10:30 AM the morning after we are due. This gives us a little more time to extract ourselves from whatever mess we have gotten ourselves into. I will apologize again for your awful night of wondering, cramped in the hold, in the pouring rain and the time you spent poking around the flotsam that morning, looking and hoping not to find our body parts. ;-/ > R

No need for apologies, I learned much about myself from that experience and all walked away. That said I will use your line, “Your not going to believe this….or likely approve”, but given the circumstances of that event I think we left to initiate the SAR before the mentioned time, once again a vague memory so I am not sure. With the weather events, extenuating route finding circumstances, and initial scene assessment ( I think we got up early and hiked up canyon) I would have no hesitation to initiate the search the same way again, even knowing the outcomes. Without the weather, or “first-descent” like scenario, it is a different equation. After meeting with the NPS and going over maps for that area you realize how long it would take to start an initial SAR search, nonetheless actual rescue. Rescue times in that part of the Lake are beyond scary. When I calculate these things now its not about the self-rescue times, its about the moderate to severe injury times that I get worried about. This is further exacerbated by my historic tendency to explore solo (not so much anymore). There is a fine line between preparedness to self rescue and time to call SAR. I will admit I don’t know the best way to decipher that difference yet, so I err on the side of my life/extra help. Things were different when I wasn’t married.

Phillip