Photos: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=218948005/a=38054161/t_=38054161
Sunday 3/23:
Happy Easter! I woke up way too early for my tastes (Jen and I were out late the previous night) and headed over to the Rocky Mountain Rescue practice. Slated for today was Midwall Medical practice. Essentially, performing basic medical skills and loading a patient into a litter while hanging from ropes. I had done some litter work previously, but had never really done a lot of vertical work; so I was looking forward to it. I was definitely wishing I had more sleep to start the day though.
Jen dropped me off at RMR Headquarters, and we prepped for the practice. Loaded up the gear, and went up to the Crown Rock area. I was pretty familiar with this area, as this is where I usually teach my rappel practices. We broke into two groups, and did practice scenarios of rescues. It was always midwall, and had different patient conditions. From a conscious and agitated person with a broken leg; to an unconscious person. People would rotate jobs in the scenarios.
The first scenario, I migrated to and from several positions. Helped sort out the ropes for the litter, and was a second backup on the brakes for a bit. Then went over to the edge to help the litter team over; and finally was down at the bottom to help the team land.
The second scenario, I was minding the ropes. There are a lot of lines in these scenarios, and many times they will cross. This isn't a big issue if the lines are static; i.e. they are tied up top and aren't going to move. This isn't the case with the litter lines, as those will move as the litter is lowered down the wall. It's essential that those lines remain clear of the other lines, so they don't saw into the other lines when the litter is weighted and moving. In the picture called 20080323D1-82 Rope Management.JPG, you can see some of the rope complexities. You can also see a plastic white strip which is protecting a moving rope which runs over a static line. With the exception of one loose line (which is the back side of the line I'm anchored on; there are no other ropes touching each other. (The photo angle is a little deceptive...)
In the third scenario, I got to be the patient. It's good to get that perspective. You normally get to see what's going on; but I was placed into a C-Collar (neck brace) pretty quickly, and that doesn't really let you look around much from that point on.
We did a fourth scenario where I again was managing the ropes along the edge. I would have liked to have done a different task; but it was still good to be out and helping. This year, RMR is going for the re-accreditation, so the true RMR members needed the practice more. (I'm still what is called a prospective member; which is basically a person in training.) Still picked up a lot of info though, as well as was able to be more active this time and went down a bit on the wall to add rope protection midwall. I am looking forward to doing different positions later.
Overall, it was a great day. It started out pretty chilly with snow covering the ground (from a snowstorm yesterday), to nice, sunny and warm in the afternoon with all of the snow melted away. Very fun, with very competent folks. Hope I never need to; but would be glad to call these guys in an emergency...
Hope you enjoy the pics!
A.J.
Photos: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=218948005/a=38054161/t_=38054161
Group Room (multiple albums): http://ajoutdoors.snapfish.com/snapfish