Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion CLMRG assists in Lone Pine rescue

From the Ridgecrest Daily Independent:

CLMRG assists in Lone Pine rescue

By John V. Ciani

jciani@ridgecrestca.com

Members of the China Lake Mountain Rescue Group participated in a joint overnight rescue operation with Inyo Coun­ty Search and Rescue May 20-21.

Team Leader Dan Bishop said CLMRG re­sponded to a request from Inyo County to as­sist in rescuing a fallen climber on the north ridge of Lone Pine Peak near Mount Whitney. "The climber had fallen approximately 50 feet on technical terrain at the 11,600-foot el­evation. Inyo and CLMRG teams were air lift­ed via helicopter near the 12,944-foot sum­mit," he said in an e-mail.

He said the team performed multiple rap­pels in the dark in order to reach the victim around 3 a.m. The victim, Pratyush Tiwary of Pasadena, had suffered injuries to his back, had a fracture in his arm and an open frac­ture to his leg.

"The SAR team treated, stabilized and prepared him for helicopter extraction at sun­rise," Bishop said.

He said the California Highway Patrol helicopter returned the next morning with a litter and other gear.

"Tiwary was placed in the litter and hoist­ed about 30 feet to the hovering helicopter, then flown — still dangling from the hoist — to Southern Inyo Hospital in Lone Pine for
immediate treatment and subsequent transport," Bish­op said.

According to an Inyo County Sheriff 's Office press release, the sheriff 's office re­ceived a cell-phone call for help at approximately 1:30 p.m.

Tiwary was treated at Lone Pine Hospital and transferred to an advanced medical-care unit, and rescuers assisted the remaining members of his party off Lone Pine Peak.

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Nice job!

Note how long it took to get to the hospital since the call at 1:30 in the afternoon. What a ride, dangling all the way to Lone Pine.

Having witnessed and reported an accident, I know the time it takes to get assets on the seen and people to care facilities in the best of circumstances, let alone something as remote as this.

God bless the SAR volunteers and their families.

I am a SAR tech, and want to clear up the "dangling" image. I work closely with the CHP and sheriff helicopters for rescues. The subject is hoisted up in either a litter or Bauman Bag. The heli tech stands on the skid and holds the litter/bag during transist. The litter/bag is secure along side of the helicopter during flight, and is never dangling. The only period where the subject is "loose" is when being hoisted up, and that process is controled by a tag line from the ground team to prevent spinning. Saftey and comfort to subject is always first in every SAR techs mind.

The team members of CLMRG and Inyo SAR are all unpaid volunteers, who have other jobs from which they are pulled when a SAR call-out occurs. They are not full-time, ready to go in an instant rescuers, like the ones in LA. It takes time to collect information, gather assests, and plan the op.

Rappelling at 3 AM is very, very dangerous. You ought to try it some time, just for a taste of what SAR climbers have to do. Perhaps you should consider becoming a volunteer on a SAR team; ya might just learn something and do some good.

All in all, it was a very well executed operation, and everyone survived.

There's another account of it on the Sierra Wave here:

http://www.sierrawave.net/12242/pasadena-man-rescued/?fb_ref=addtoany&fb_source=home_multiline

We also reported this rescue in the SAR Operations thread:

The post is here: SAR Operations

This photo must be the hoisting process but it sure looks like an E-ticket ride to me (for those of you who can remember the old Disneyland ticket system). I'm sure he was very glad to be in good hands. One last note, the sun is getting high in the eastern horizon for a "first thing in the morning" start - another reminder of how long and difficult these rescues take. A shout out to all the SAR volunteers on this one and the other rescues big and small. You rock!