Real Life Aerial Rescue; Have you or haven't you???

Have You???

  • Yes

    Votes: 11 26.2%

  • No

    Votes: 31 73.8%
  • Total voters
    42
I was on-site when a guy cut his hand open, no that close to cutting his thumb off, but not that far away.

The lift had two buckets, so the guy up there flew him down to the ground. The company had a first aid kit but no training. I bandaged his thumb enough to get him to the hospital.

He got to keep it.
 
I had to go up and get a guy down once who had cut his hand with a chainsaw. It wasn't that bad really, he just freaked out on us. Asplundh had us practice rescue quarterly I think it was. I just untied his friction hitch and the ground guys lowered him down. I had started carrying my chainsaw up with me a couple of years prior, and I appreciated it when going up after him without the added weight. I was thinking it would have made a difference in rescue time had it been more serious.
 
Once in a practice aerial rescue, I was thoroughly scolded for untying the victim's friction hitch. I explained that it was in lieu of cutting the rope where they required us to tie a figure 8 as a marker between the D rings and friction hitch (for an emergency rescue, cut the victim's rope here to release him). After that I never again tied the figure 8 in my rope and explained why every time I was questioned about it. Screw them and their stupid, contradictory rules.
 
We were told to cut between the F-8 knot and the tautline hitch, the F-8 being added security against the loose end of the rope slipping back through the bowline. My problem was that if the climber were crotched through a tight union, the tautline might hang in it and prohibit the lowering process, hence I would never cut the rope in the first place. I can't see that it would save more than a few seconds over untying, and the risk of cutting the wrong one (or both) is high in an adrenaline-fueled situation. I personally think it's a good idea to lanyard yourself to the victim as an extra security.
 
Hmm........Rescued a fallen climber(My father) but he was on the ground I just had to secure the roped lead hanging over him and provide asistance on the ground while waiting for the EMTs
 
I rescued a Recreational climber once, she froze 35' and couldn't be talked into doing anything. The person felt embarassed once on the ground and saw where they were frozen, heights always seems higher when your at them.
 
I answered "No" but quabinclimber made me remember one where I did, in a way, rescue a girl at about 30-40 feet up a rock face. I was a counselor/trainer on a survival course in the early 70's. We were teaching a week of basic rock-climbing/rappelling to a girl's group (high school juniors and seniors that did 3 weeks of Outward Bound-like survival training). One of the ladies with long hair did not secure said hair as instructed...about 1/2 way down a 60 foot free-fall rappel her hair got wrapped into the carabiner (we used a biner wrap then, figure 8's didn't exist). Two of us rappelled down to figure out what to do. I finally decided the only way to get her free was to cut her hair. i had a pretty big Case knife..as I opened the blade to cut the hair she screamed, "There's no way you are cutting my hair!!" and proceeded to yank her head so hard away from the biner that it tore her hair free...which was fine with me. The belay person made sure she didn't free fall from there.

In my Case (oops) just showing a knife kind of made the "rescue" happen.
 
I've orchestrated or participated in dozens of aerial resue excercises in my instructor role with the USFS, but happily never have had to perform one for real. I hope to keep it that way 'til I give up the job.

Since I'm kept pretty well informed of such doings through my technical advisor role, I am pretty comfortable saying my organization has has very few incidences requiring a for-real aerial rescue...I know personally of only three in the last 20 years. Might be another one or two ran under my radar, but I don't think it's particularly likely.

I have on two occasions had to assist a climbing student that got the height associated heebie jeebies and sort of went into panic/freeze mode. Neither a case of aerial rescue, more like aerial psychological counseling :). Both times they were able to continue climbing...one on up and to ultimately receive certification, the other down, for ever to remain on the ground :).
 
Burnham said:
the height associated heebie jeebies :).
Click to expand...

hahaha...that is a great term!! During one of our winter training sessions a young fellow wore rubber knee high mud boots to a rock climbing weekend trip to Mt. Yonah in N. GA. It was cold and mostly wet but there was a little ice. He got about 30 feet up and was having trouble slipping a lot (imagine that!) and got "height associated heebie jeebies". He got so scared his legs were jumping up and down like a pogo stick on the ledge he was paralyzed on...the funny part was he was so scared he was shouting, "Help, my legs are paranoid, I can't move them!!"

Those days were pretty fun. :D
 
Never had to do it. I got called by a fire company to get a guy out of the top of a sycamore last year. He base jumped off a huge train bridge several hundred feet up and his chute got caught in a tree on the way down. it was an illegal jump. I was made aware that while emergency personnel were on that side of the county waiting on the ground below him, a 6 year old child at a walmart stopped breathing and nearly dies waiting for EMT's to race to him. I gave the rescue request a monents thought and said no.

Screw him. It was an illegal jump, he knew it, and tied up emergency personnel with his self centered decision and almost cost a child its life. i wasnt going up a tree for his ass. Nope, let the vultures have him. A line clearance climber eventually went and got him down. The state police brutalized that man over what he did.
 
Interesting situation.

Around here the public wrestles with the rescue efforts for those that deliberately go out of bounds to ski or board and get in to trouble. Personally I say bill them, every cent. So far, it doesnt happen that way too often, I have only heard of a couple instances where the folks have had a bill of any portion of it sent to them.
 
Never in real life, but I gave a demonstration on how to get "rescue Joe" down in a hurry.
 
I would have gone, hard to blame the guy for the kids deal imo. Of course I would make money in the process
 
Way I figure it, I would probably be more about rescuing myself rather than being rescued. It just seems when the second climber enters the equation, more often than not it becomes more of a recovery than a rescue. :dontknow: Just my perspective. But what do I know.
 
I did several, "Rescues" of unwilling climbers for Pacific Lumber Co. with Greg and Jerry B. Only one was a real rescue. The girl jumped and I caught her as she pulled her hands out of her lock box. I don't think she was tryiing to kill herself, but prolly would have been a 150 foot ground fall. She ended up going down in cuffs.

I watched one at a CAA climbing skills workshop in 2002 or 2003. It was in the bay area and a youngster, I think it was a friend or cousin of Jarron Aborgena separated his shoulder in a tree set up for a work climb. Greg (Klimbinfool) set a rope from the ground with a throw line and someone went up and helped the kid down. He was a pitcher and had a problem with that shoulder and apparrently had separeted it a few times prior, first time in a tree though I think
 
sotc said:
I would have gone, hard to blame the guy for the kids deal imo. Of course I would make money in the process
Click to expand...

Come on Willie. The guy was breaking the law willingly. Im not getting out of a paying tree on a customers property to go get him down. No way. Why? so I can look like a hero? Theres a thousand line clearance noys in the area, let one of them get their rocks off.
 
I guess I would look at it like an emergency job. If I have to leave a jobsite, then it needs to pay for the inconvenience. If he was climbing the tree to be a peeping tom or break into a place, screw him. BASE jumping? Thats about as bad as rolling through a stop sign IMO
 
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