An interesting aside: At the Arrow rescue, the poor fire dept. guys had to ascent the talus trail at Arrow. Darkness was coming, and lighting was needed, and so - up the came, in their street shoes.

That's a pretty "impressive" aproach trail, by Gunks standards, and though most of the climbers were hat, sweaty and a little winded upon getting to the cliff base, those guys were cracking jokes(with some serious undertones) about not having to go to the gym for a day, and such. One or two said something like "I'm NEVER going rock climbing!"

Later, I heard one on the radio to base, describing the wilderness rescue. "(paraphrasing totally) Mannnn! We are way up high. Climbed up 50 feet to get to the cliff and the injured person is another hundred feet up the wall."

It sounded as if this was as back-country a rescue as they had encountered for a while....

I couldn't help but draw an image, hearing him talk about it on the raido, of what many climbers would consider a remote rescue.....

Dawn, what Dill said.

Redundant lowering (or raising as the case may be) lines to the litter or to a rescue plate. Then redundant and slack tie ins from the patient's harness to an appropriate point or points in the system. What points are appropriate varies depending on the system. We would rig so that even a failure of multiple components of the litter wouldn't result in a total system failure. The object is to keep it as simple as possible but still fully redundant. All of this is best done in class.

Regarding "victims", we tried to use the term "patient". The idea being if the patient overhears reference to themselves in the course of the rescue, regarding oneself as a patient is more positive and optimistic than regarding oneself as a victim. If someone is really hurt, they will need all of the direct, and indirect, emotional support they can get.

I really wish SOLO could teach HAR I and II again. I'd go just to refresh.

Edited to add, regarding assuming no rescue is coming, at the Gunks, if you have talked to the Mohonk Mountain House and/or the Mohonk Preserve visitor center, it's pretty safe to bet that rescue is indeed coming. But any competent leader can get a good start on a technical rescue by building two fully independent bomb proof anchors for the rangers to work with if they so choose. If the rescue is off the GT, as rescues at the Gunks often are, anchors ten feet or so above the ledge make it a little easier to manipulate the litter over the edge of the ledge.

If anyone gets the chance to hang out with Arthur out in SpoKANE... Get him to tell you some of the other stories about his summer out there!

Good stuff!

Indeed there is always plenty of couch space and beer in the fridge for visitors to the Inland Northwest!

What are you doing talking on the net? Get your ass in the car and get up to Squamish!!!

Gotta enjoy my coffee and wait for my gf to finish up her job in Portland, only a few hours to go. My psyche meter is peaking!

-Arthur

Hey Mike, do you use Windows or OS X for photo editing? I am trying to find a good (inexpensive) panorama sticher for OS X if you have any suggestions.

The Gunks Emergency Phone numbers are permanently on display in the gunks.com FAQ: here

Good points about building a couple anchors ahead of the real rescue team. Doesn't take a long time to build but saves everyone some effort and headache.
Thankfully, most rescues at the gunks are a simple lower off the highest piece still in place or scoop the poor soul off the deck and into a litter. I've never needed a rescue, because I'm a chicken leader who rarely falls, but want to say how impressed I am with how people pitch in to help when one occurs. Thanks in advance if it ever becomes my ass in need, although I would crawl out myself if remotely possible!