Climber Dies

  • Thread starter RIVERRAT
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  • #3
I thought about that myself. It is one thing that stuck out in my mind.
 
Obviously it was a body recovery? damn...sad news, was he wearing a helmet? things like this make you think....
 
no matter how much aerial rescue is practiced....one should plan on no way of rescue.

RIP.....
 
First question in my mind Cary.... was he wearing a helmet ... Second was .... The fire department have any high angle rescue training? 2.5 hours.. damn :(
 
I have very close friend that is a Firefighter/ Paramedic. I have asked several times how this type of thing is handled and what kind of training they go through. The response is the same every year,"We are trained to handle all types of rescue including 'tree type' injuries." To which my reply is,"Please explan your course of action." Essentially if they cannot get to you with a Ladder truck you will die of your injuries. I have asked to help in some training of knot tying,SRT and Aerial Rescue but have been told that I am not "Qualified" to train. BS!! If I want to help save my, my crew, or some other companies crew they should at least listen to what I have to say. After that they can continue their education anyway they like. Too few people understand the risks we face everyday. I say education is the only way we can save our own asses.

It is terrible to read or hear about a fellow climber that has been injured or died on a job. My sympathies to his family and let's hope we can get some education to these good folks who are there or supposed to be there to save us if need be.
 
Our company safety guy, Sid Wolfe is from Colorado, and knew this guy.

He said that the ground guy had too many wraps on it and didn't let er' run. He was wearing a hard hat. I'm not sure how the piece hit him. :(
 
Ground guys will frig you up every time. My biggest fear climbing was making sure the ground guys didn't put me in danger. And aerial rescue? Forget it! They were more likely to feed the end of my lifeline into the chipper and drag me down out of the tree. I miss climbing about like I miss riding a motorcycle, it was fun but I'm unlikely to ever do it again (except for this Friday, my first climbing gig in a year).
 
Times like that a Wraptor could prove totally invaluable. With it, two or more rescuers could get to the victim in minutes. Having practiced aerial rescue several times (years ago), I know first hand that two rescuers would be much better than one, assuming the tree is strong enough to support the added weight.
 
I'm guessing Jeff is right, I'm betting rigging might have been done from his Tip, I know I have done it from time to time, you can think it is strong enough but you never really know...
 
Husabud said:
...have been told that I am not "Qualified" to train.
Click to expand...

Maybe you can put him in touch with a professional training organization, regardless of your ability to train them.




A good, prepared thing to do (me included!) is to have contact information for other experienced tree climbers in the area, in the event of an emergency.
 
We were trying to come up with an ascender that could ascend descend and be rated for 2 people. Its a tough nut to crack. We could easily do it with a Wraptor like hub to grip the rope and it would work fine for 2 people but it wouldn't have the 10 X safety factor of 6200lbs required as the hub pinches through the rope at 4200. We came up with a way to ascend and retained about 90% of the ropes strength but very surprisingly to me we encountered problems with descending. When I read about incidents like this it makes me want to revisit that project as such a device would be priceless to a rescue crew. Problem is NFPA won't allow firefighters to use motorized ascent devices, it would also cost a fortune to get all of the certs which would be required....

Prayers to the family...
 
In our small town, we don't always let NFPA dictate what we an and can not do. :/:
Was that my outside voice? I thought I was using my inside voice. :/:

CDF might.. but MCFD .........


MVFD is rather interested as well..
 
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  • #22
inbredJed said:
Our company safety guy, Sid Wolfe is from Colorado, and knew this guy.

He said that the ground guy had too many wraps on it and didn't let er' run. He was wearing a hard hat. I'm not sure how the piece hit him. :(
Click to expand...
This parallels to some degree what Im finding out.
 
Paul, you might recall I ran a hard push in support of one of the US Park Service climber/instructors who trained under me...she was really thinking the SAR/vert. rope rescue personnel at her Park (North Cascades NP) could put a Wraptor to use. It seems that they were just too hide-bound to see the possibilities. Both she and I were bummed, still are.
 
Thanks B for the pushing. IMO for rescue use the unit needs to be easily switched from ascent to descent so there is less fooling around transitioning gear whilst the victim bleeds out. The Wraptor IMO fits the needs of arborists and has proven to be a very reliable product, just not ideally suited to rescue workers IMO. Maybe at the next GTG I should bring out the prototype of the ResqueWraptor and let you guys maul it over......
 
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