PJs help rescue skier off glacier

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Ruby Zarzyczny
  • 939th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
MOUNT HOOD, Ore. (AFPN) --  Exactly two weeks after participating in a joint search-and-rescue training exercise with other local rescue organizations, reservists from the 304th Rescue Squadron were back on top of Mount Hood, Ore., on May 6 for the longest-hauling, glacier-rescue mission ever accomplished on Mount Hood.

Five pararescuemen from the 304th helped rescue an injured skier.

The man was skiing with three others who were traversing the 11,200-foot mountain summit when he fell more than 300 feet through a boulder field and landed on Reid Glacier, said Sgt. Sean Collinson, incident commander for the Clackamas County sheriff rescue team. One of the skiers in the party skied back down the mountain to get help.

“Two American Medical Response reach-and-treat team members and three Portland Mountain Rescue volunteers reached the injured skier first, but needed help to get him back up the mountain slope,” Sergeant Collinson said.

“We have averaged around 60 to 90 search-and-rescue missions a year for the last five years," Sergeant Collinson said. "Not all of the volunteer rescue groups have the same resources and capabilities that the PJs at the 304th have, and we knew we could use their help with this rescue.”

At 1:15 p.m. the 304th was notified of the request for assistance. They left their base in Portland, Ore., at 2 p.m., arriving at the Timberline Lodge at 3:30 p.m. That's where the Clackamas County sheriff department was operating a command and control center, said Capt. Quintin Nelson, 304th RQS combat rescue officer.

He and Senior Master Sgt. Matt Ramp, a 304th pararescueman, staged at the lodge to give command and control directions to the PJ team involved in the rescue mission. The PJs from the 304th were on the mountain for more than five hours of the 12-hour rescue.

By 4 p.m., snow cats took three pararescuemen, Tech. Sgts. Kevin Baum and John Davis and Staff Sgt. Josiah Blanton, and seven volunteers from Portland Mountain Rescue to the 9,200-foot elevation level. There they started climbing to the injured skier.

The PJs, with more than 50 pounds of equipment on their backs, climbed about a half a mile until they reached the site of the initial rescue team's rope system. Within an hour they started moving the skier off Reid Glacier across the snow-covered mountain terrain.

“Using brute force, we were able to pull the patient up the mountain slope and gain one foot for every one foot pulled,” Sergeant Baum said. “We changed the rope system to gain a mechanical advantage. We attached the rope to the patient’s litter and went up several hundred feet to an anchor point secured by two or three snow pickets.

"At the anchor there is a pulley where the rope goes through and then back down to the patient. (There) it is attached to (another pulley) and then goes back up to the rescuers above," Sergeant Baum said. "This system decreases the actual weight of the patient being pulled up the slope, giving us a mechanical advantage of three feet gained to every one foot pulled.”

The rope system allowed the PJs to pull on the rope while walking downhill to move the patient uphill. Once the PJs were at a certain point, they would reset the rope system and walk back uphill to grab more rope and start walking back down the mountain.

They did this three to four times for each anchor point. One rescuer who was wearing a heart monitor had an estimated calorie burn of 6,100 calories, the equivalent of running two marathons.

After more than two hours of pulling and climbing, the rescuers had moved their patient approximately 3,000 feet to the point where they would begin their almost 1,000-foot descent to the Palmer Ski Lift.

While the rescuers were pulling the patient up from Reid Glacier, the weather was freezing but it was often clear and the snow was soft.

“Weather wasn’t too bad,” Sergeant Davis said. “It was snowing with intermittent white-outs. At Illumination Saddle we were above the cloud deck, but the clouds would come through Reid Glacier and obscure our sight, so we couldn’t see where the lower rescue team was sometimes.

“Because of the poor visibility, along with using a Global Positioning Satellite system, as we went down toward the glacier we put down markers in the snow to create a visual line on our way down,” he said.

Fortunately, the sun was still up while they lifted the patient. But once they had the patient at Illumination Saddle the sun had gone down and the winds had picked up. They were facing blizzard-like conditions.

With white-outs, dropping temperatures and blowing snow, the PJs still had to move the patient through almost a mile across the icy slope in the dark to the Palmer Snow Lift where the snow cat would pick them up.

On their descent, four rescuers were tied to the litter carrying the patient. One rescuer controlled the patient's movement with a rope attached to the litter while they climbed down the slope. As the litter moved forward, the one rescuer slowly let the rope out to control the patient’s movement and safety as the other rescuers traversed the patient down the mountain.

They reached the lift at 9 p.m., and a snow cat drove them to the lodge where they loaded the patient into a waiting ambulance. The patient was then transported to a Portland hospital. He was reported in good condition May 9 and recovering at the hospital.

This was Sergeant Blanton’s first mountain glacier rescue.

“Overall, the mission wasn’t a lot different than the training we do,” Sergeant Blanton said. “We’ve all done search and rescue exercises with the other rescue organizations here. We’ve practiced everything from glacier to avalanche rescue scenarios using all the (search and rescue) principles we have been taught. All of the knowledge I have gained through practice was applied during this real rescue mission.”