AFTERNOON EXERCISES

The group was divided into three and three sites were used to set up different types of hauling rigs. We had a site with a large tree as the high re-direction, a site with a sideways A-frame as the redirection and a cramped site with no technical edge management tools. All sites got group members involved in helping set up the various components of the hauling rigs.

Our standard set up formed the basis of all rigs with variations to allow for the different edge management tools in use. The basic principle of the belay rope taking the shortest path to the load was maintained.

The sideways A-frame worked very well for edge management. The team operating without edge management got the job done with a couple of people positioned on the cliff edge to help clear the edge. The tree team exercise went well although it was a fiddle to prusik up the tree to get the high suspension point.

We used the SRT No Worries and Fallrite and both devices did the job. We used double 8mm prussiks for some tasks and they performed well (reversible brake etc).

Photo: A sideways A-frame in use for one of the practice sessions. Rescue line is redirected through the A-frame to improve edge management. The brake rope takes the shortest path. Sections of Larkin Frame poles were used for the A-frame (end fittings were kept in place to avoid damaging the pole ends).

NIGHT TASK

DESCRIPTION

A patient was in the bottom of Grand Canyon with an unknown injury downstream of the access abseil chains. A responding party of six was sent into the canyon with first aid gear to find and care for the patient. The patient was found to have a broken tibia.

Meanwhile a hauling rig was set up 50m downstream at a suitable site with minimal danger of loose rocks. A team was sent to the opposite side of the canyon (guided in by GPS and UHF radio) to set up a re-direction from that side. A small team was sent to a ledge system above the cliffs at the haul site to set up a high anchor for the suspended focal point. Once all teams were in place the focal point was positioned near the centre of the canyon.

The responders team with the patient then moved him to the haul site. This was tricky in the canyon due to very rough ground and a large pool of water (too deep to stand in). A slack-line tyrolean was rigged for the water crossing.

Once the patient was at the haul site he was lifted with a litter attendant to the focal point. Then the redirection team lowered the rig out (using double ropes each lowered on GriGris) until the load was landed on the walking track where the haul rig had been assembled.

Photo: Patient and litter attendant being lowered across to the path. The "far side" team can be seen on the left (using twin lowering ropes). Haul line goes up to suspended focal point and down to left to redirection and haul team. Belay line is on near right (taking shortest path). Rope at top right is to keep the focal point in the right place (by resisting haul team pull to the side).

HOW DID IT WORK?

In general most systems worked well:

Canyon responders (6 people initially) – completed their task. They did need an extra two people to move the patient through some areas and these extras were sent in via abseil.

The haul rig with redirection worked well although not exactly as planned due to limitations on the height they could get on the far side for the redirection (governed by tree positions). This meant that the focal point wasn’t exactly centred over the load on the canyon floor so the litter attendant needed to fend off for some of the lift.

 Because the haul team were pulling from the side (parallel with the canyon) the suspended focal point needed to be stabilised against that pull which took some time to arrange.

This rig was complex and took some thinking to get right.

Photo: The haul team with two belayers on the right (one each on rescue line and belay line)

Comments from the patient – the water was very cold when he was “tea bagged” in during the slack line tyrolean. We’ll need to look at more thorough packaging of a patient and a lilo should be part of our group kit for canyon rescues to keep a litter on top of the water. He thought a real patient suffering an injury might need more warm coverings, removal of the wet wetsuit and probably redressing in warm clothes to keep warm.

We followed a protocol where the patient was not tied in to the litter when over water so he wouldn’t drown if he went in (it sounded like a good idea…)

Group management seemed pretty good (please let us know if you experienced otherwise). We had a safety officer keeping an eye on most areas of the site. There was lots of downtime for those not involved directly in setting up but that’s to be expected on such a job.

Load carrying was superb – a mountain of gear was moved in and out with minimal fuss. Sorting it took a little longer…

WHAT WE LEARNED

This task did highlight some areas where better planning and more gear will improve operations:

1/         patient packaging – more dry gear (perhaps a couple of sets if a dunking is likely?). A bivvy sack would help keep patient dry. (now on group gear list)
2/         a lilo should be group kit for a wet canyon rescue. (now on group gear list)
3/         a “base” in the canyon might be necessary in some canyons to keep patients and rescuers warm.
4/         rotating teams of canyon responders in wet areas might be advisable in protracted rescues. We had a mild night on this exercise and towards the end some responders were feeling cold and stiff. On a cold night a couple of hours of inactivity might be the most a wet canyon rescuer could handle?
5/         the redirection team that came in cross country through tricky terrain (cliffs etc) commented that finding the site in total darkness would have been much harder (they were in place before total darkness fell on this exercise). We’d need to factor more time in for such a team in any operation in total darkness.

IF THIS WAS A REAL RESCUE?

Feedback we’ve had so far was that this was a worthwhile training exercise. However in a real rescue we’d be adopting a simpler set up in the interests of a quick recovery. A re-direction might be used if it could be done efficiently. But more than likely we’d position a pulley a short way up a tree (backing up and bracing the tree is necessary) and we’d haul up the side of the canyon with the litter attendant fending off. The belay rope would take the shortest path to the patient (as always).

While setting up the hauling rig we’d send someone down on a rope to check for dangerous loose rock (before bringing the patient under the haul site).

COMMS TRIAL

HF Radio
HF was used successfully for comms between the haul team site (on the track above the patient) back to the cars. It was also used from the car park to make a Radtel phone call to an outside number in Sydney (via the Newcastle Radtel phone interconnect base).

Successful transmissions were made on 3Meg and 5 Meg (the NVIS website was advising 4Meg as ideal that night)

UHF radio
Our 5 watt UHF radios worked surprisingly well in the canyon. They were mainly used on low power (1 watt mostly) and at times could be used from the canyon floor to the car park (very surprising). The conclusion here is that with some carefully placed UHF relay teams on ridges UHF will be a very effective method of comms in many canyon search or rescue applications. UHF is much quicker and more convenient than the HF.

Our protocol of putting UHF comms through a rescue coordinator went very well.

We had some UHF batteries go flat during the night but this was more a function of the ageing radios than anything else. Most radios coped with the night’s work on just one battery.

SUMMARY OF COMMS
Because UHF worked so well (particularly if relays are placed) it makes HF look less attractive for use by active field teams (due to the longer set up time for HF and the extra weight). HF could still be useful for teams camping overnight (for base or Radtel comms) and for some regions where UHF might not be as effective (eg widely dispersed teams where UHF relays might not cover the whole search area).