Search
and Rescue for Outdoor Leaders
Charley
Shimanski
Executive
Director, The American Alpine Club
Education
Director, Mountain Rescue Association
The
recent increase in participation in outdoor adventure programs
has brought with it an increased need for outdoor leaders
with skills in search and rescue (SAR) management. Although
accident rates among experiential programs are consistently
lower than the rates among other users, experiential programs
cannot eliminate accidents altogether. It is therefore critical
that such programs work to integrate rescue response into
their outdoor adventure activities.
When
it comes to search and rescue emergencies, time is of the
essence. The clock starts ticking the moment an emergency
occurs, and the longer the clock ticks, the greater the
risk to all involved. It is during this initial stage that
a pre-plan helps lay a framework for the management of the
emergency, and a resource management plan creates a structure
for the organized response.
This
program is broken into three major elements:
- Search
Theory and Response
The
two disciplines of search and rescue are as distinctly different
as their names. While the search response is still an emergency,
it is often easier than the rescue response and relies more
on management skills than on hands-on technical and medical
skills. The rescue response, on the other hand, is fully
dependent on the hands-on skills of the participants. No
amount of management skill will make up for a lack of technical/medical
skills in a rescue of an injured party.
Emergency
Response Plans
Before
any outdoor leader can develop a search and rescue plan,
he or she must address the issue of pre-plansóan essential
element of any emergency response. Much has been written
about Emergency Response Plans (ERPs) for outdoor leaders.
Listed below are a few relevant factors that should be considered
concerning search and rescue operations.
Personnel
The
human resource is the most important resource in your ERP.
Developing layers of responsibility and management helps
assure smooth implementation of any SAR response.
In any
rescue situation, you will likely find yourself with instructors
who have been trained in the emergency response. But you
will also have novice program participants who are able
to assist. How many students are in your program, and what
briefing did they get before the program started? What is
their state of mind at the time of the accident? What is
their experience level and reliability? These individuals
might prove to be a valuable resource.
Unlike
search and rescue teams, whose sole responsibility is to
provide SAR services, the experiential leader must consider
the current field activities as well. Some people in the
emergency response plan may be responsible for elements
unrelated to the search or rescue itself, but critical to
the management of the field operations and personnel involved.
The program leader must assess the planned field activities
and make any adjustments that are necessary.
Equipment
In their
pre-plan, managers must consider the location, time of year,
terrain, and possible emergencies with each outdoor program.
All programs are different, and it is important to have
the right equipment for the terrain and season. For example,
does your supply list include the equipment necessary to
improvise an evacuation litter? Are your radios capable
of communication on the frequency of the land manager or
law enforcement group?
Medical
protocol
A medical
pre-plan is also essential, including a list of medical
protocols. What is the chief medical officer authorized
to do in the field? When does a medical emergency require
notification of higher authorities? A qualified ERP addresses
these issues.
Relationship/Communication
with Local Agencies
A communication
plan is essential to any emergency response. Do your field
leaders have radio communication with the land manager or
another authority? Who are the authorities in the area where
your field activities take place? When possible, spend time
with the land manager and law enforcement officials discussing
your plan. Knowing how to contact the local search and rescue
team is important, and valuable time is lost if you have
not already established communication guidelines, including
a full list of radio frequencies and where there are radio
"dead spots" at your field locations. In addition,
knowing the local SAR resources will help you understand
their abilities and their limitations. This will help you
with your decision-making in the field when an emergency
does occur.
Using
"Runners" for Communication
In the
absence of field radios or mobile phones, your Emergency
Response Plan must make provisions for runners to communicate
any emergencies to the local authorities. Your ERP should
include a checklist of what information those runners should
have when they leave the accident site.
When
runners are utilized, they should:
- Always
travel in groups of 2 or more
- Take
a clearly marked map
- If
the accident is off-trail, flag the route from the location
to the trail they utilize
- Have
the "10 essentials" to avoid complicating the
situation
10
Essentials for Outdoor Adventures
1.
Topographic map and magnetic compass
2.
Flashlight (with extra batteries and bulb)
3.
Extra clothing (including mittens, hat, jacket, and rain
gear)
4.
Sunglasses
5.
Extra food and water
6.
Waterproof matches in waterproof container
7.
Candle/fire starter
8.
Pocket knife
9.
First aid kit
10.
Space blanket or two large heavy-duty trash bags (for shelter)
Search
Theory and Response
To the
outdoor leader, preparing for and managing the search response
is much different than preparing for and managing the rescue
response. The one thing the two have in common, however,
is the need for an established and well-documented pre-plan.
Experiential
Programsí Need for a Pre-Plan
"A
number of lost student incidents have been unnecessarily
aggravated because students did not know what to do when
separated from the patrol or instructor."
To understand
effective search, we must understand behavior of lost persons.
You must modify your program briefing to include a discussion
on "what to do if you get lost." If your pre-plan
establishes an expected behavior for any group member who
becomes lost, you have just increased your search effectiveness
a hundred-fold over SAR teams who are searching for a lost
person who had no such briefing. "Stay put" is
about the only lesson you need to give your program participants.
Unless there is imminent threat of life or limb, any lost
person is better off if they do not move. This will keep
the search area small.
Common
Lost-Person Strategies for Getting "Unlost"
So your
student KNOWS he or she is lostóand that the rest of the
group will initiate a search fairly quickly. You have already
instructed your participant to stay put. So they will stay
put, right? Donít count on it. Most participants will also
come equipped with an ego, and that ego may tell them to
rescue themselves. For this reason, it is helpful to understand
lost-person behavior.
A summary
of studies on the behavior of lost persons includes:
- If
a lost person finds a trail, they might get on it and
run like hell, convinced they are on their way back to
the last point, when in fact they might be running away
from it.
- Rarely
will a lost person reverse direction on a trail.
- Many
people ignore trails and follow own logicótraveling in
a straight line. They figure they will come to a road
or highway not expecting the cliff or impassable river
that ultimately confronts them.
- Some
lost people will climb/hike to the top of the closest
hill to get a better view, only to find that the trees
atop that hill obstruct any view.
- The
majority of lost people will travel downhill and/or downstream.
- Those
who travel downstream will likely end up in a swamp or
impassable confluence long before they reach civilization.
Other
noteworthy behaviors include:
- Many
lost people will travel at night even without a flashlight.
- Most
lost persons will stay on a trail if they are not absolutely
sure of the right direction.
- Lost
people will rarely move around randomly; they usually
move with conviction and hope that they are heading in
the right direction.
Participants
in outdoor programs may behave differently when lost. In
particular, they are probably better equipped than most,
presumably with 10 essentials or some survival equipment.
Mental/Emotional
Aspects of the Lost Person
If the
subject is a course participant, consider the mental and
emotional state of that participant. If there is a chance
the subject is despondent, your search strategy should change
accordingly. Despondent subjects react with a different
kind of lost behavior, largely because they are a different
kind of "lost." A search for a despondent and/or
suicidal subject must be considered an emergency , ALWAYS.
They generally do not answer searchers calls, may try to
hide, and often die from exposure, since they do not have
the natural tendency to protect themselves from the elements.
Suicidal subjects usually do not travel far, but almost
always to a scenic location where they can sit and meditate.
If yours
is a youth program, keep in mind that 50% of adolescents
seriously consider suicide before adulthood. Females are
more likely to threaten suicide, but males are more likely
to succeed.
How
should a search for a despondent subject be handled differently?
In particular, searchers should:
- Not
underestimate the emergent nature of the search
- Increase
the saturation of the searchers, and rely less on audible
search
- Expect
that the subject might not travel as far as a typical
lost subject
- Consider
whether the subject headed towards a checkpoint or resupply
point
- Be
prepared to offer emotional support to the subject when
the subject is located; this is a critical time for support
and understanding
When
a despondent subject is missing, outdoor leaders should
immediately contact the program leader, who should further
contact the family.
The
First Few Hours of a Search Operation
"Urgent
response to a lost person incident reduces the size of the
search area."
ó
Managing the Lost Person Incident by National Association
of Search and Rescue
Your
outdoor programís carefully developed pre-plan should include
emergency resource lists and call-out procedures. While
some programs suggest that leaders should not notify authorities
until they have conducted their own search for a specified
period, others suggest immediate notification of authorities.
The
Mountain Rescue Association, representing thousands of rescue
mountaineers nationwide, does not charge for its services.
Since SAR professionals are generally volunteers, and in
many cases know their response areas quite well, it is prudent
to call them as soon as any SAR response is activated.
Little
is lost when calling for help. A search area expands exponentially
with each hour a person is lost. Call for helpóeven if you
end up not needing it.
Search
Methodology
A participant
is overdue. You have assembled your participants and are
ready to respond. What is next? The first (and often neglected)
step in any search is to gather as much information as possible
before sending other participants into the field:
- Who
is missing, and since when? What is his/her experience
level?
- Where
was the last seen point?
- What
did they have with them? Food/clothing?
- What
was their emotional state of mind?
- What
type of footwear/what is the sole pattern? Is there a
sample
footprint
available?
Once
you are ready to initiate a search, assembling your staff
and students means assessing their condition, abilities,
and resources. What other resources do you have? Are other
programs in the vicinity that you can call on?
Some
basic search techniques will help:
- All
search teams must be at least 2 people.
- When
possible, use staff as the team leaders; at the same time,
let the students play active roles. This is a tremendous
learning (and growing) opportunity for your students.
- If
your program is near a road, have someone search the roads
by vehicle, driving slowly and honking their horn 3 times
periodically.
Hints
for basic search techniques:
- Start
documenting early; the person in charge of documentation
should clearly mark search assignments and departure times
on a map.
- Designate
the search areas with the highest probability and send
searchers there immediately.
- Communication
between search teams is essential. Be certain that each
field team has a radio.
- Start
a "hasty search" early on. Have people run the
trails and streams, etc., carrying a whistle and periodically
stopping to blow it 3 times.
- Periodically,
request check-in with each team (including their location).
- The
base camp might be a good location to practice attraction
techniques: build a smoky fire, make noise, honk car horns,
etc.
- Communication
between search teams is essential. Be certain that each
field team has a radio.
- When
search teams return from an assignment, ask them how successful
they felt they were in their effortsósome may surprise
you with, "not very, the brush was very dense."
- As
soon as possible, a "scent article" should be
collected for search dogs. Take a plastic bag and invert
it over your hand. Using the bag like a glove, pick up
articles such as socks, underwear, and hat; then invert
the bag over the items, so your hand never comes in contact
with the articles.
- Leave
notes at trailheads or other exit points telling the lost
party what to do if they get there.
"So,
What are we looking for, anyway?"
The
truth is that professional searchers are looking more for
clues than for victims. There are always more clues than
there are victims, and once clues are found, the size of
the search area is significantly reduced. To make the job
of searchers easier, lost parties can leave clues such as
clear footprints, arrows drawn with sticks, notes attached
to trees or anything they can think of to signal rescuers.
Searchers should be taught to search for clues and hope
they trip over the victim in the process.
Rescue
Response
Rescues
require specific skills without which a bad situation can
become worse. There are a number of elements related to
rescues that outdoor educators should consider when undertaking
rescue operations.
Level
of Emergency
First
and foremost is the need to evaluate the level of the emergency.
What is the nature of the injuries? If life threatening,
what is the level of medical care available?
Take
a moment to carefully evaluate the situation. Is a helicopter
proposed for the rescue? If so, is it necessary? Has the
rescue leader truly considered the danger of airborne rescue
operations? Many rescue accidents occur because of haste
in the rescue effort.
A common
belief among backcountry rescue professionals is that the
subject is usually stableódead or alive. Still, in the case
of experiential programs, potential rescuers are often at
the scene immediately, not a 911 call away. For this reason,
acting with great urgency is important.
Type
of Emergency
Before
you can determine the appropriate rescue response, you have
to look at the type of emergency. The evacuation options
are dependent on the nature of the terrain, injuries, weather,
and the equipment and supplies available.
If the
subject is ambulatory or semi-ambulatory, evacuation might
be as simple as a horseback ride or even an assisted walkout.
But in the more difficult situations, evacuation might only
be possible by use of a rescue litter. And if the terrain
is real nasty, a technical rescue system may be required
to lower the litter to more benign terrain.
Technical
Rescue Systems
Any
experiential program that participates in activities in
mountainous terrain may encounter emergencies that require
a technical evacuation of a stranded or injured climber.
This means lowering a litter with one or more litter-bearers
to the patient, loading the patient carefully, and continuing
the lowering to the ground.
Rescuers
must understand and have experience with technical rescue
anchors and systems, since they are vastly different than
climbing anchors and systems. Obviously, all participants
must understand the physical components of any rescue system
to be used. Familiarity with equipment and technique is
essential, as is an understanding of the appropriateness
of the equipment to be used. Actual rescue operations should
not be the time for participants to learn rescue equipment
and techniques.
The
term "technical rescue" means more than rescues
that take place in technical terrain. Technical rescue systems
are often necessary on relatively easy 5th-class terrain,
simply because the subject is not ambulatory and needs to
be transported by a litter with numerous attendants.
While
vertical rescue operations are exhausting to the litter
attendants, low- to moderate-angle technical rescues can
be even more exhausting. In the vertical situation, the
subject, rescuers, and equipment are generally fully weighted
on the anchors above. In the low- to moderate-angle evacuation,
this weight is often transferred to the arms and legs of
litter attendants. In this situation, rescuers must have
the upper- and lower-body strength to sustain long evacuations.
Rescuers with experience are often prepared for the physical
requirements of such operations; adrenaline-laden novices,
on the other hand, may be unprepared.
Do
You REALLY want to do this?
While
most climbers understand the theory of "shock-loading"
systems, they understand it only as regards the weight of
a single climber. Technical rescue loads involve forces
well beyond those encountered in climbing. Rescue loads
are magnitudes greater as forces increase with the weight
of the victim, any attending rescuers, and the rescue system
itself. Shock-loading such systems can be disastrous.
Trail
Carry
The
more frequent rescue will be a simple trail carry of an
injured subject in a litter. A trail carry usually involves
4 to 6 litter-bearers that walk on each side of the litter
and carry it down an established trail. Although it sounds
simple, a trail carry can be a challenge because most trails
are not wide enough for three people to walk side by side,
yet a litter and attendants are as wide as 3 people.
Some
simple precautions for a trail carry include:
- Litter
bearers should monitor the subject constantly (nausea
and vomiting are not uncommon), since the patient is tied
down flat on his/her back and suffering through what can
be a bumpy ride.
- Eye
and head protection must be provided to the patient.
- Secure
the patient inside the litter using tie-downs so that
difficult terrain can be negotiated without separating
the patient and litter.
- Pad
the litter before putting the patient in; include a pad
underneath the knees.
If you
have more than enough litter-bearers for the trail carry,
you can help them work-in periodic breaks without stopping
the litter. This is accomplished as follows:
- As
the litter is carried down the trail, a replacement pair
of litter-bearers approaches the litter from the rear.
- The
replacements grab the litter firmly, then tap the shoulder
of the litter bearer in front of them indicating they
can take the load.
- That
litter-bearer moves forward 1 position, then taps the
shoulder of the bearer in front of him/her.
- When
the front litter-bearers are tapped on the shoulder, they
leave the litter and advance down the trail to the location
where they can then prepare to become the next replacement
group.
Using
YOUR OWN Resources for the Rescue
Certainly
any small adventure program can carry out a successful rescue
by improvising with their own existing equipment. A "slip-
knot" rope litter or a litter fashioned from skis and
poles are effective and easy-to-assemble litters. Wisely,
some adventure programs include into their coursework the
building and use of these types of litters, giving the participants
a valuable lesson in the importance of emergency preparedness
in any adventure.
With
no more than slight modifications to your equipment list,
you may be able to include the equipment required to fashion
a homemade litter. Still, keep in mind that while a homemade
litter might be ideal for trail carries of non-ambulatory
patients, only hard litters (such as a Stokes litter) should
be used for technical evacuations or for the seriously injured.
No patient with suspected spinal injury should travel in
an improvised litter.
What
to do with Your Resources
Whenever
possible, get your students involved in the rescue. They
can assist by:
- Creating
shelter, if necessary, for the subject and/or rescuers.
- Caring
for and monitoring the patient, including medical condition.
- Providing
food and drink for the program participants.
- Providing
emotional support to the subject and the other participants.
Use
of Helicopters in Field Rescue Operations
Med-evac
helicopters are a valuable resource that outdoor programs
can call upon to assist in evacuation. Some hospitals with
helicopter capability may choose to fly by virtue of little
more than the description by a qualified professional in
the field.
Outdoor
program managers must assure that their program considers
the following issues:
- Know
the resources available and how to request them by phone
and/or radio.
- Know
the flight times to your locations.
- The
actual communication with the hospital should be made
from the field, when possible. Field personnel can better
describe the nature of injury, weather conditions, and
proposed landing zone.
- The
local law enforcement agency should be contacted immediately
in the event of any helicopter med-evac. (In mountains,
a 911 call will often NOT give you the local agency.)
- Field
staff must have the authority to call for a helicopter
if other levels of authority cannot be reached.
- A
pre-plan should include helicopter protocol and all staff
should be trained in basic helicopter safety. (Helicopter
Safety for SAR teams was discussed in detail in Wilderness
Medical Letter, Vol. 17, Nos. 3 and 4, Summer and Fall
2000.)
Working
with Local Search and Rescue Teams
In the
United States, search and rescue generally fall under the
jurisdiction of the county sheriff or state police. In highly
populated backcountry areas, that law enforcement authority
will generally have an organized volunteer search and rescue
group. In those areas where there are many SAR missions
each year, the local team is usually a group accredited
by the Mountain Rescue Association. This means their peers
have tested them at least every 5 years in 4 key disciplines:
While
not every SAR team in the U.S. is an MRA-accredited team,
many are. For those that are not MRA-accredited, the organized
rescue team may be comprised of individuals whose experience
level ranges from beginner to advanced.
Depending
on the locality, the local sheriff may either turn the leadership
of the SAR response over to the organized SAR team entirely,
or the sheriff may take a greater role in the operation.
This is usually at the discretion of the sheriff.
Charley
Shimanski is Education Director for the Mountain Rescue
Association, a national organization of rescue mountaineers,
and Executive Director of The American Alpine Club. A 17-year
veteran of Coloradoís Alpine Rescue Team, Charley has participated
as a field member and Incident Commander for hundreds of
rescues among Coloradoís highest peaks. A frequent speaker
at Wilderness Medical Society meetings and the North American
Technical Rescue Symposium, Charley is a recognized leader
of mountain rescue training programs.
Suggested
Readings
Tim
J. Setnicka. Wilderness Search and Rescue. Boston,
Massachusetts: The Appalachian Mountain Club, 1980.
Kenneth
Hill, Editor. Managing the Lost Person Incident.
National Association for Search and Rescue: Chantilly,
Virginia, 1997.
Technical
Handbook for Professional Mountain Guides. Association
of Canadian Mountain Guides, Canmore, Alberta, Canada, and
American Mountain Guides Association: Golden, Colorado,
1999.
J. Satz.
Emergency Response Systems for Outdoor Programming., 1999
Wilderness Risk Management Conference Proceedings: The
Wilderness Risk Managers Committee, 1999.
Jay
Satz. Managing Field Evacuations. 1999 Wilderness
Risk Management Conference Proceedings: The Wilderness Risk
Managers Committee, 1999.
Tod
Schimelpfenig and Linda Lindsey. Stress and the Rescuer.
1998 Wilderness Risk Management Conference Proceedings:
The Wilderness Risk Managers Committee, 1998.
Helicopters
in Search and Rescue Operations - Basic and Intermediate
Levels. Charley Shimanski/Mountain Rescue Association:
Golden, Colorado, 2000.
Avalanche
Rescue Operations. Charley Shimanski/Mountain Rescue
Association: Golden Colorado, 2000.
Mountain
Travel and Rescue.National Ski Patrol System: Lakewood,
Colorado, 2000.
