When to call SAR?

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Beekman
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When to call SAR?

Post by Beekman »

I have a couple of friends that have attempted a 14er with me on two previous attempts and been turned back both times, once for weather and once for some of the kids in our group getting altitude sickness. So we made a plan to get their first 14er under their belt (my 8th of the season and 17th overall). We lowered the bar to the fan favorite, Mt. Bierstadt. We left home at 4:15 in the morning and were on the trail before 6:00a.m., a great start, the hike up was slow and steady but we made it to the top before 9a.m. We enjoyed the growing crowd on the summit and views, ate some food and relaxed. Then as expected you could see the clouds starting to from and we decided to start our decent.

We were making good time down then I heard one of my friends call out for me from up the trail, I turned to see my friends wife about 20 feet off the trail rolling on the ground holding her leg in agony. I hurried back up the mountain and asked her if it was her knee of ankle, she said it was her ankle and she felt it snap as it rolled, it was already swollen to double it's normal size. We were still about 2 miles from the parking lot, I had some nylon tie downs, a tarp and walking sticks back in the truck, but nothing with me that I could easily fashion a stretcher out of.

We helped her get back to the trail and she was able to put a little weight on her foot so we started off as a human crutch assisting her walking down the trail. Then a lady with walking sticks passed by and gave us her sticks, she was able to use these as crutches and walk on her own. It was very slow moving down the trail, so we got caught in the hail and lightning, but we have full rain suits and hats so the weather didn't bother us. It took about three hours to cover the last two miles but we made it back to the truck.

After we arrived in town she headed to urgent care with her husband, it ended up being a bad sprained ankle. The Doctor seemed to think she should have called SAR and not attempted to walk out on it. What do you think we should have done?

Call SAR?
Let her get out on her own?
Return to the truck and make a stretcher?
Last edited by Beekman on Tue Aug 12, 2014 3:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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BenfromtheEast
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Re: When to call SAR?

Post by BenfromtheEast »

I'm no expert, but it sounds like you made a good call. The caveat would be if your self rescue failed and you ended up needing SAR help, everyone would have wished you made the call a couple hours earlier.

Hopefully she didn't damage her ankle further walking out on it. That would be my other consideration.

Moving someone on a stretcher is really slow and requires a lot of people.
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HikerGuy
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Re: When to call SAR?

Post by HikerGuy »

Given the facts as stated, I would select none of those options. I think you did exactly the right thing. Immediately assisted with a self rescue, stayed with injured party and helped her back to the trailhead. Well done.
Last edited by HikerGuy on Tue Aug 12, 2014 3:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Jon Frohlich
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Re: When to call SAR?

Post by Jon Frohlich »

I don't think it's always an easy answer. If the incident you described happened somewhere remote and much farther from a car then certainly calling SAR would be the only realistic option. In your case you were close enough to attempt a self rescue in a reasonable amount of time without a huge risk to the rescuers. It sounds like you made a right decision for this situation to me but calling SAR would have been fine too. I lean most of the time towards calling SAR but there have definitely been incidents over the years where the party could have self rescued instead. You can read my own trip report of my injury in April on Mount Flora to know that I had the same debate that day about whether I should have called SAR or not.

I think this is a good example of why it's good for people to have some basic first aid training so they can do a quick evaluation of the situation and make a more informed decision.
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polar
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Re: When to call SAR?

Post by polar »

I think that if you can self rescue safety and within a reasonable amount of time, then you should not call for SAR. The doctor may not know anything about wilderness rescue. They may think of SAR as an ambulance, just a phone call away. They may not realize how resource intensive it can be. Since you were able to help the injured walk out, then in my opinion you did the right thing. You could have splint the ankle to support and immobilize it. You probably have enough gear to make one, small packs (especially with a flexible frame sheet), extra clothes, etc. When I’m hiking with a larger group, I take a first aid kit with a SAM-splint, which is super handy for situations like this. But again, I think your response in this situation was correct and adequate.
"Getting to the bottom, OPTIONAL. Getting to the top, MANDATORY!" - The Wisest Trail Sign
Beekman
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Re: When to call SAR?

Post by Beekman »

Thank you guys so much for the feedback, I have basic CPR training and have read back country first aid manuals and thought I did the right thing, but if we really should have called SAR I would feel terrible.

We might have tried a little more to carry her out, but anyone that has actually tried to carry someone a good distance knows it is much more difficult then it sounds. I did give her a piggy back ride for a couple hundred yards but I only felt like that was a good option on the flat parts of the trail, since they were covered in hail and water we didn't want to have two injured.
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ameristrat
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Re: When to call SAR?

Post by ameristrat »

You did the right thing. SAR would have started by trying to help you guys self-evacuate. Only if they believed more harm would be done by that movement would they carry the patient out. For a bad sprain in a pretty accessible area I doubt that would be the case.

A helicopter would be a last resort if that is what you're asking.

You made the right call. It would be different for a head, neck, vital injury, but for a fairly basic ankle sprain/break, to attempt self-rescue is a good call unless it worsens the situation.
You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know. - Rene Daumal
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Re: When to call SAR?

Post by MountainHiker »

You had a judgement call to make and you made a reasonable choice. If her pain would have increased, there would have been a point where she would have announced you were calling SAR. Also calling and waiting for SAR would have meant sitting on the mountain in the storm. It's one thing to stay warm while descending. It's quite another to stay warm sitting in an exposed location waiting a couple hours for help to arrive. SAR is not instant. They have to mobilize and get to the trailhead and then up the trail. Even if this were a more serious injury, a helicopter might not have been an option because of the storm.
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