COPYRIGHT NOTICE: This document is copyrighted 1997 by Chris Weddle. Permission is granted to read it either on-line or off-line provided that no part of the text is printed out. To read off-line permission is granted to download the file "teammmbr.txt" and save it on a hard drive or floppy disk, provided that only the one copy is made and that the purpose of downloading is for the user's own personal curiousity or education. For permission to qoute, reproduce, make commercial or any other use of the text contact me by e-mail at: "cvw@juno.com". For additional information visit my Web Site at "http://www.frii.com/~cvw". ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TEAM MEMBERING Skills for the individual by Chris Weddle DISCLAIMER SEARCH & RESCUE IS A HIGH RISK VENTURE BEST LEFT TO EXPERIENCED AND COMPETENT PERSONNEL. READING THIS BOOK DOES NOT QUALIFY YOU TO PERFORM ANY SEARCH, RESCUE, WILDERNESS OR RECREATIONAL ACTIVITY. THIS BOOK IS A TOOL TO AID YOU IN OBTAINING EXPERIENCE, IT IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR EXPERIENCE. YOU RISK SERIOUS INJURY AND POSSIBLE DEATH TO YOURSELF AND OTHERS BY YOUR FAILURE TO OBTAIN PERSONAL INSTRUCTION AND GUIDANCE FROM RECOGNIZED AUTHORITIES IN THESE FIELDS. FORWARD 1 CHAPTER 1: BEFORE YOU RESPOND 3 ATTITUDE 3 DANGEROUS RATIONALIZATIONS 5 SKILLS AND FITNESS 7 THE POWER OF IMAGINATION 7 A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ROMERO CANYON 8 EQUIPMENT 15 GETTING IT ALL READY TO GO 15 CHAPTER 2: AS YOU RESPOND 19 SAFE AND SANE DRIVING 19 PLANNING AHEAD 19 CHAPTER 3: RENDEZVOUS 21 SIGN IN 21 FINE TUNING 21 OPERATIONS LEADER 22 CHAPTER 4: COMMUNICATIONS 25 THE ART OF LISTENING 25 BEING LISTENED TO 26 TYPES OF COMMUNICATIONS 26 SOME NOTES ON COMMUNICATIONS HARDWARE 27 AMATEUR RADIO: TECHNICIAN CLASS LICENSE 28 TEAM RADIO 29 NON-TEAM RADIO 29 TEAM RADIO OPERATOR 29 CHAPTER 5: TEAM DYNAMICS 33 LEADERSHIP AND CONSENSUS 33 THE SELF MANAGED TEAM 33 GETTING ALONG WITH OTHERS 34 DECISIVENESS 34 PERSONAL AND TEAM SAFETY: RISK MANAGEMENT 35 SENSITIVITIES 36 CHAPTER 6: SEARCH 37 CLUE AWARENESS 37 CLUE PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION 37 SOME EXAMPLES 38 SEARCH TECHNIQUES 40 A CASE IN POINT: THE THOMPSON FAMILY SEARCH 42 CHAPTER 7: RESCUE PRACTICES 45 PERSPECTIVE 45 RESCUE PLAN 45 TAKING RESPONSIBILITY 46 RISK MANAGEMENT 46 RIVER RESCUE 46 CHAPTER 8: "THE LEGALITIES" 51 THE LAW 51 WHY A VOLUNTEER TEAM? 51 WHO WE ARE 52 WHO WE WORK FOR 52 INTERAGENCY RELATIONS 53 CHAPTER 9: YOUR PERSONAL COMMITMENT 54 THE BASICS 54 BEYOND THE BASICS 55 "VICTIM LOYALTY" vs ERRANT FORMS OF BEHAVIOR 55 WRITING OFF THE VICTIM 57 STRESS 59 INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM 59 ONE DEFINITION OF STRESS 59 MANY POTENTIAL SOURCES 59 POST INCIDENT STRESS 60 COPING WITH STRESS 60 CRITICAL INCIDENT DEBRIEFING 61 ADDENDUM 64 THE RESCUE OF CHRIS 66 SOME THOUGHTS ON LAND NAVIGATION 70 THE GREAT PIG CHARGE OF 1989 or; 74 "The Knagge Trail Massacree" FORWARD 1 FORWARD Why this book? Much has been done on managing Search & Rescue operations. There are numerous volumes explaining search techniques, sign-cutting, first aid, rock climbing, and other topics. With all this, there's very little on the intricacies of being a member of a Search & Rescue team. What we are talking about here is experience. Reading books can't replace time in the field, but books can help us to acquire basic skills. On that thought, why couldn't there be some way of giving new volunteers a head start on becoming experienced Team Members? That is the goal and the purpose of this book. To help both new and used Search & Rescue volunteers to function more as members of a team, to provide a head start on experience. To be even more precise, this book is intended to help you become a more effective Team Member by examining various aspects of Search & Rescue work from a volunteer's perspective. What is in this book. This book is a collection of opinions and observations on various aspects of Search & Rescue. It is based on my experience in Search & Rescue beginning in April of 1983, and on considerably more time as a backpacker and occasional mountaineer. Additionally, its based upon conversations with close friends whose Search & Rescue experience is equal to or greater than my own. Much of what's in here amounts to my personal Search & Rescue philosophy. Other things are in the way of do's, don'ts, and suggestions. What is not in this book. I'm not going to teach you to tie knots, pick handholds, or argue whose rope bounces best. Specific detail on hardware or tactics has been well covered by all sorts of people. I'll leave such topics to higher authority. How to use this book. What I have tried to do is illustrate the goals a Team Member should aspire to, along with some of the difficulties encountered along the way. Your job is to find your own perspectives and rules to live by. Don't just read the words, think about their application. The concepts I will relate are those which work for me and my friends. Consider what your position might be on the various topics. 1 TEAM MEMBERING 2 The goal is to get you thinking about the finer details of Search & Rescue from the human interaction point of view. How do we all work together? What are the difficulties involved? What are the more common stumbling blocks encountered? What do you need to be thinking about before, on the way to, during, and after a Search & Rescue operation? Why do some operations go smoothly, and others not so smoothly? These are the kinds of questions explored within. The answers are, again, my opinions. Think about what is said, and why. Find your own answers, or improve upon mine if you like. If all this book does is start you thinking a little more indepthly, than it will have succeeded. 2 CHAPTER 1: BEFORE YOU RESPOND 3 CHAPTER 1: BEFORE YOU RESPOND ATTITUDE The single most important piece of equipment any of us can own is located high atop our shoulders. Being prepared in your own mind is critical to succeeding as a Search & Rescue volunteer. So let's consider why you are involved in this work. No reason is more or less valid than another. Among those I've commonly encountered are: a). Desire to help others. As basic and sincere a reason as there can be. Few can ignore the urge to help those in need. b). Love of wilderness. A benefit of Search & Rescue work is the chance to spend time in beautiful wilderness places. The catch is that this is often in the dark. Numerous are the times someone has asked me "have you ever hiked the ABC Trail?". The puzzled expression they make when I answer "Yes, four times this year, but I've never actually seen it", is absolutely priceless. c). A desire for Adventure. Similar to b)., another benefit of Search & Rescue work is the rare opportunity to be a part of something truly exciting. d). A sense of obligation to society or other wilderness travelers. I hear this one from time to time. Personally, I find it difficult to ignore the plight of other wilderness travelers in trouble. I have certain skills and abilities. I am willing to help, and I am able to help. Do I have an obligation to help? I believe I am at least obligated to try. e). Prestige & Ego. Being 100% honest with ourselves can be tricky. There are things we will never admit publicly, and will even deny to our own thoughts. Being on a Search & Rescue Team is a prestige generating situation. I have had a number of experiences where persons, knowing only of my Search & Rescue involvement, sought me out as a guide. I've been offered money to lead climbing and caving trips simply because I'm in Search & Rescue. While I can climb, and enjoy an occasional cave trip, my skill level is modest in both areas. It was solely the Rescuer Image which led these people to me. Is there anything wrong with enjoying this image? I don't think so. I believe virtually everyone in Search & Rescue work does get an ego boost from the prestige their affiliation brings them. Certainly being involved in actual Search & Rescue operations is an ego kicker. So few people ever have the opportunity to save a life, 3 TEAM MEMBERING 4 to take "HEROIC ACTION". Even if it's through a team process. f). Personal Glorification. This one gets to me. Could there be a poorer reason than this to involve oneself in Search & Rescue work? I'm not talking about those who take reasonable pleasure from the prestige and recognition of Search & Rescue. Rather it's the person who's singular drive and goal is one of self-image. The danger here is that the interests of the victim and the team must play second fiddle to the need of this person to impress the rest of us with his or her all- encompassing skill and superiority. Fortunately these grand-stander's are few and far between. g). Fun. Good friends, camaraderie, adventure. Search & Rescue appeals to a basic need in us all to find something besides working for a living to do with our time. Running around the wild and woolly places sure beats working! h). Other reasons. These you fill in for yourself. Some or all of what I've mentioned may apply, if only to varying degrees. Assessing personal drives, and the validity of them, is often a gray area. There are people for whom I have the highest personal and professional regard whose primary drive comes from areas I consider less than altruistic. The challenge of running Search & Rescue operations, or perhaps the unique opportunity to investigate the "Classic Mystery" that is a search. The victim does not figure into the thinking of these people, except as a secondary concern. And yet, these reasons are perfectly fine. I don't fully understand them, but they serve the victim by bringing in some First Rate people. So you see, many different factors serve to bring us to Search & Rescue work. As you gain years of Search & Rescue experience your reasons may well shift and change in both type and intensity. Whatever your personal values, reasons, or goals as a Search & Rescue Volunteer, one thing is of paramount importance. Human life is at risk. The victims life, the lives of other team members, and your own life all hang in the balance of collective performance, and pure dumb luck. Regardless of what drives you, you must temper your personal concerns with the fact that a Search & Rescue Team exists for the sole benefit of victims, Individual egos must be kept in check, and at times sacrificed to the absolute necessity of the team effort. Your attitude to this work needs to be that of being part of a solution to a complex problem. If you strive always to be a positive facet of the Team's efforts, this goal is readily attainable. Your reasons for doing this work are all perfectly fine and acceptable. For in the final assessment, all that really matters is that you helped save a life, and in so doing did not 4 CHAPTER 1: BEFORE YOU RESPOND 5 hinder the efforts of others to do the same. DANGEROUS RATIONALIZATIONS Another point to watch out for is rationalizing away the need for your services. There are two routes this phenomenon can take. First is the "By the time I get there everything will be over" conundrum. I've heard words like that quite a few times, and they just don't ring true. Typically, between the page and the first teams hitting the trail a good hour goes by. Under certain circumstances this may be shortened a great deal. But in the vast majority of cases you can get there in time to contribute. Living on the wrong side of the Catalina Mountains as I did for many years, most calls were forty five minutes just to get to rendezvous. And yet I've never, that's Never with a big N, arrived after an operation had been completed. I've driven thirty miles over rough dirt roads, another twenty through city traffic, hiked two and a half miles up Bear Canyon, and still had time to set up and run a technical lower station along Seven Falls. Second is the tendency to say "Hey, somebody else will find the victim, so why go?". This ignores the fundamental point of how we do what we do. This is Team Work, plain and simple. Whoever was there when the lost or injured was found was only there because all the other assignments were being handled. Had you not been doing what you were doing, someone would have been put on your assignment and their's would have gone unattended. I've been on teams where we were "just covering the bases" because we had the people to fill in low priority areas. And yet, my team found the missing person right where he or she was never expected to be! And yes, even trainees do get to find the victim from time to time. A case in point was a search for a German tourist in Sabino Canyon. The lady had been expected to go towards Hutch's Pool, having been directed there by friends. She intended a simple day hike to eat a lunch by the water and read some poetry. She was a full day overdue. There was a very large brush fire being fought in the region of Bear Canyon and had been going on for several days. A large turnout was on hand for the call. By the time I arrived all reasonable search areas were being covered. We had teams headed to Romero Pass, Upper Sabino, Blue Line Canyon, the Phone Line Trail, Box Camp Trail, and a half dozen other places including radio-relay and blocking teams. So for the sole reason of being thorough; myself, Loma Griffith and a trainee on his first callout were sent to the Prison Camp to hike in to Sycamore Saddle and serve as a blocking team. The plan being to only go these few short miles and then back to the cars. Search teams sent into the Sabino area found a variety of clues. 5 TEAM MEMBERING 6 These included a book in German and some minor articles of clothing. Tracks associated with the clues went towards Low Sycamore Saddle and Bear Canyon. By the time we reached Sycamore Creek these various discoveries had been made. This changed the picture of things considerably and put our jolly group in the hot seat. Our area was now prime search territory because: 1. The victim was nowhere to be found where all the searchers were searching and 2. The clues found pointed the search away from where everybody were very properly sent. We were where we were because there was no place left to send us! The trainee and I went to Low Sycamore Saddle while Loma went up the spur trail that crosses Sycamore Creek and climbs to Bear Canyon Trail. We found no track matching the description at Low Sycamore Saddle and headed over to meet Loma where the spur trail and ours would meet. We were still north of the fire. Heading down Bear Canyon Trail you cross through a high hanging valley. We searched this valley and made some small off trail excursions. Again nothing was found. The trail leaves the valley and drops off the side slope of a rocky escarpment towards a creek crossing. The trail parallels the creek a ways before crossing, and Loma and I thought it wise to check up stream. The thinking being that the victim might have been traveling off-trail and connected with the stream. So the trainee was sent to sit at the trail crossing and watch it, going no more than a hundred feet from it. We gave him a spare handie talkie to keep in touch with. Loma and I checked a good distance upstream but found nothing. As we worked our way back to the crossing and our obedient trainee he called us on the radio to say he saw somebody up high on the slope. So we hurried on down to where he was at and found that he wasn't at there. Neither was he anywhere in site. So over the radio we asked where he was and he said he was about a tenth of a mile downstream on the trail in the burn area and that he could see the victim and she was naked trying to hide from us! About a quarter mile past his tenth we saw him high up slope. This area had burned through only a short while ago and was very smoky with plenty of small fires still going. The victim was very dehydrated, covered in soot and quite amused by our peculiar American sensibilities over nudity. She declined to explain her being in this situation, but the best guess is that she sought to commune with nature and got lost from where ever she left her clothes. We never found them. The victim was exhausted and we considered a helicopter evacuation, but landing spots were in short supply and DPS Air Rescue had other calls pending. We got the woman dressed in various odd pieces of clothing, gave her plenty of water and helped her down onto the trail. As luck would have it the Posse was headed up Bear Canyon and arrived on the trail with a nice calm horse for her to ride. She rode out to the road with the three of us behind. 6 CHAPTER 1: BEFORE YOU RESPOND 7 SKILLS AND FITNESS Every tool has a best application, and limits to be considered. Ropes and 'biners, helmets and first aid kits. What can they be used for? What is beyond their limits? People are the ultimate tools of Search & Rescue. We categorize people with such measurements as: "She's the best climber we got", or "He's an exceptional search dog handler". Those who would manage and direct these people-tools need to know how best to use them. This is no easy task. It's made far worse when the person in question can't say what his limits or abilities are to a potential assignment. So knowing one's limits and abilities becomes a necessity. Discovering them is done through an honest and factual self appraisal of your past experiences. What have you done? How well did you do it? What obstacles did you overcome? What defeated you? What pleased you totally? Consider individually your many different interests. If you climb, are you comfortable and skilled enough to take on just single pitch, low angle faces? Or have you gotten bored with Yosemite, and hope for a spot on the next expedition to Iceland? Apply this same procedure to your basic backpacker type skills. Navigation in good and bad weather, tent pitching in a storm, starting a fire. All are important. Of equal importance is your level of physical fitness and physical ability, Plenty of people can travel from point A to point B. Some are faster or slower than others. Some can carry absurdly heavy loads, or only self preservation loads. Some can endure extremes of cold, and thin atmosphere. Others rally to intense desert heat as if temperatures below 110 degrees would chill their blood. I am no expert on developing the ultimate level of fitness. Nor do I corner the market on determining individual skill levels. But it seems reasonable to me that the more you do of this stuff, the more you will learn of your limits and abilities. So too will you improve on these abilities, and push further away your limits. Use your recreational opportunities to study and advance your Search & Rescue qualifications. Make a point of spending some of your recreational time with your Search & Rescue friends. Hiking the trails, climbing the rocks, slithering through the caves. You will learn more about yourself, you will learn to function more as a Team Member, and you will improve the victims situation immensely. THE POWER OF IMAGINATION Children play games of "flight and fancy". Play acting is an 7 TEAM MEMBERING 8 integral part of a child's development. Through the power of imagination a child can travel the world, defeat monsters and enjoy exhilarating experiences. All in the comfort and safety of playgrounds and backyards. This childhood ability does not vanish with your first paycheck. All adults daydream from time to time. This is usually a positive act as daydreaming can serve as a means of preparing for the realities of the adult world. This, in essence, is what the child was doing. Aircraft pilots and police officers are both put through detailed simulations of crisis and emergencies. These exercises train the individual to react to stressful situations without panic or indecision. Why not do the same thing for Search & Rescue volunteers? Call it Daydreaming, Play-Acting, or Crisis Simulation, all these activities force individuals to ask themselves what they would do if something went wrong. What I have done for years is to dissect and study in my thoughts my actions in various situations. Even in those that went perfectly well, I seek out what might have gone wrong, then devise a response to it. I'll take this a step further. My habit has long been to create in my minds eye a problem to be solved. Then I place myself in different places within the problem, and theorize my way out of it. I seek out the nuances that determine whether or not my solutions are sound. Often I find ways of improvising, or even multiple solutions. It can be difficult to be perfectly honest with yourself in such an exercise. When I have really done well I have discovered areas where my skills were either lacking or better than I had expected. Here's a story, and a little exercise, that I think helps to illustrate what I'm getting at: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ROMERO CANYON Sooner or later everyone asks themselves a question that goes something like this: "What would I have done if I'd been there?" Or it may go something like this: "Well, I'd of done that much differently if I'd been there!" These are "What If" games. I have often played the first version, and occasionally indulged in the second. Playing these games in the context of examining your Search & Rescue abilities can be very revealing, and even improve upon your capabilities. The following relates a sequence of events that tested certain 8 CHAPTER 1: BEFORE YOU RESPOND 9 previously untried Search & Rescue skills. Dealing with multiple problems, unanswered questions, uncooperative witnesses, poor communications, overly helpful outside resources, and some really dumb victims. At the time of this incident I was a member of Cochise County Search & Rescue, my application to SARA not yet approved. As a member of CCSAR, I was authorized to use certain CCSO radio frequencies. I was not authorized to use Pima County SO frequencies. I started my recreational hike on the Romero Canyon Trail shortly before sunrise. Heading out in the cool predawn air, the trail crosses the Sutherland Wash, climbs into the foothills and heads for Montrose Canyon. The parking lot behind me was empty save for my own vehicle. The trail ahead should be equally deserted. The sun came up just as I began the ascent out of Montrose to the low ridge that leads into Romero Canyon. Reaching the ridge, I stopped a little while to enjoy the view and listen to the water running in both canyons below me. Then I continued along the trail as it drops into the first stream crossing of Romero and heads on up the canyon. By noon I had gone past the second and third stream crossings, the switch backs, and was a little above Romero Spring. I turned around at noon and headed back down. The canyon seemed empty of people. I had not seen anyone since I started out. All manner of bird song, and a great many wildflowers along the stream made it a most pleasant morning. I stopped many times along the way just to enjoy the view. As the day went by the cool morning was left behind as another pleasant memory. Heat replaced it, as even in the early spring these canyons can get quite warm. Around 14:30, I reached the expanse of rock between the first and second stream crossings. I'd been putting off lunch, and decided to stop here to eat and listen to the water tumble down over polished stone. After a while I packed up and continued down towards the first stream crossing where Romero Trail drops off the ridge after climbing over from Montrose Canyon. Approaching the crossing I began to hear the first voices of the day. People were up and downstream of it splashing in the pools. I stopped briefly in the shade of the crossing and rested my pack on a boulder. I was contemplating the idea of going down the trailess portion of Romero when the adventure began. As you read this consider first the comments in italics at the beginning of each paragraph. Then read on. "What would you do if you met somebody in trouble? Perhaps a pooped out hiker, or someone with an injury? Do you run for help, radio for help, or find a low key way of dealing with the prob- lem? What are the most important points to worry about?" 9 TEAM MEMBERING 10 A fellow, call him Hiker 1, came stumbling down from the ridge. He crossed out onto to the expanse of rock that is the stream crossing, stopped, and leaned on a hot sun baked boulder. He held a large staff, and looked utterly miserable. His feet were clad in tattered sneakers, and he wore only cut-off jeans and a pink tank-top tee shirt. His face was a bright red, and he looked ready to keel over. No hat, no water, no food, no brains. "This turkey needs water", I astutely observed, and walked over to offer him some. He spoke first: "Have you seen two teenage boys?" he asked. I told him I had come down from the spring, and had seen no one. I offered the water, which he refused. So I pointed to my very large pack under the shady trees: "That damn things got twenty pounds of water in it, I'd sure appreciate your helping me lighten it up some" I said. He took the water. It was hot out on that expanse of rock, so I suggested we sit in the shade, but he did not want to. So I asked him about the boys. They were his son, age 17, and his sons friend, age 16. They had offered to help out dad on his first hike after two months bed rest following an operation. They were carrying a cooler and day packs with food and water. Hiker 1's operation was on his inner ears, which control balance. He remarked that he was finding his sense of balance considerably poorer than expected. He said he was terribly worried about the boys, afraid that they may have gotten lost or been injured. They had been impatient with Hiker 1's slow pace. So they charged ahead, promising to wait at the first stream crossing. "Then the problem grows just a little bit. How far do you go in your initial reaction to the added problem? Call for help? Keep it low key? Wish the sucker good luck, and go the other way? Who is the victim here, and who is at the greatest risk?" At this time I introduced myself, and told him I was with Search & Rescue. I offered to help find the boys. This was an excuse to stay close to Hiker 1. I expected the boys would turn up soon enough, as they had probably been attracted to one of the Bikini Testing Sites in the pools visible off the ridge that separates Romero and Montrose. I asked him the standard stuff I'd recently been taught to ask about missing hikers. I learned that these boys were very experienced hikers who were quite fond of Romero Canyon. They were both accomplished cross country runners, and had no health problems. My concern was for Hiker 1. He was doing very poorly, both physically and in his near panic over the boys safety. Nothing I said would allay his fears. To keep him occupied, we started out the trail, stopping several times before reaching the ridge. Along the way we passed other hikers, including a guy with a small baby in his arms. I asked him about the two boys. He had not seen them. He asked me to tell his wife that he would wait for her at the stream crossing, and said that she might be a good distance behind. I said I would tell her. 10 CHAPTER 1: BEFORE YOU RESPOND 11 We stopped both for Hiker 1 to rest, and for me to shout for the boys. He could not remember what they had on their feet, so tracking was no help. As we walked I asked him about what he did for a living, and other small talk. This to get his mind off his panic. To a small extent it worked. It may have even succeeded, had it not been for Hiker 2. "Now the problem changes again, it grows just a little bit more. The same questions arise. Who is the most in need? What, if any, changes must be made in your evaluation of what you should do? Control becomes more challenging. How do you keep control?" We were on the ridge and doing better when we encountered Hiker 2. She was sitting on a rock, looking perfectly cheerful. I asked about the boys. She said she hadn't seen them. She then said, in tones so musical and relaxed, "Got a band-aid?" She nodded at her bare feet. Sometimes, I amaze myself with my blindness. Her right foot looked awful. The rock under her foot was splattered red; wet and red. Hiker 1 instantly reverted to his preferred state of near panic. Trying to keep my problems contained in one small area, I told him I might need his help. I nodded to the girls bloody foot. He nodded reluctant acceptance, but did not act convinced. Again I introduced myself and said I was with Search & Rescue. I dug out my First Aid Kit, and went to work on the foot. She was the perfect victim, the opposite of Hiker 1. She volunteered all possible information. She was utterly cheerful and relaxed. She said she, her husband, and their baby were out for a hike. They discovered she had forgotten her boots, and had only sandals in the truck. So her husband offered his old leather high top boots he used for laying concrete. No socks, very big boots, lots of concrete dust. Her feet blistered quickly. So she figured it was the boots, and removed them to walk barefoot. Despite the cactus and sharp rocks tearing up her feet she walked a good distance. I told her of my chat with her husband. "Imagination is a wonderful thing, but can we imagine a few more twists and turns? How can things get more annoying than they already are? As tension or complexity rises there may be a tend- ency to over react. What additional change would be enough to warrant calling for outside help? How do you summon this help? What resources do you need, and what have you overlooked?" Hiker 2's foot was almost clean and ready for bandaging when Hiker 1 decided near panic was not sufficient. He announced he was going to hike down into the lower section of Romero below the ridge, and search for the boys. This is very rough and vertical terrain. I warned him that he was in no condition to go off trail into such stuff. He would not listen. I told him again, exaggerating my level of experience, that the greatest probability was that his kids were back in the parking lot and he would soon be tumbling down the canyon wall breaking bones as he went. He would not be swayed. 11 TEAM MEMBERING 12 Realizing I could no longer keep this situation under control, I radioed for help. No one answered on Rescue frequency, as was expected with Pusch Ridge looming to the south. There was a low spot in the canyon wall to the north. I could see well into Pinal County. So I used a national police assist frequency, Interagency, calling to any unit. A Pinal County deputy answered, and relayed my request for a Pima County deputy to respond to the park. Once the feet were cleaned and bandaged I realized the injuries were not all that bad. Hiker 2 felt certain she could walk, if only she had boots. So out from my pack came extra socks to make the boots fit. Back to the standard worry: Who is the victim? Who is most in need? What's changed? What have you forgotten? THE BABY! I'd forgotten to ask Hiker 2 about her baby! I asked when the baby had last had fluids. She said several hours at least, back in the parking lot. This scared me, as babies don't do very well in the heat. The baby looked alright when Hiker 1 and I passed daddy earlier, and this tempered my concern somewhat. Enter Hiker 3. Hiker 3 arrived as I was finishing the bandaging and as I was assessing the baby's situation. If I could remember his name, I would tell it to you. He was a member of the Southern Arizona Hiking Club, and helped tremendously. I asked him to fetch back Hiker 2's husband and baby. He said he remembered the man from seeing the three of them earlier in the parking lot. Hiker 2 had a baby bottle with a small amount of formula in it. She topped this off with water from my pack, and gave this to Hiker 3. He said he would take care of the problem, and would not leave the canyon without the three of them. Off he went to catch daddy. "As matters progress, how will control and authority over the situation fluctuate? Who is in charge? When do you release or surrender authority to someone else? Is it a defacto sort of a passing of the baton, or does somebody say "I'm in charge now"? What, under the latest change in the problem, is an appropriate course of action from this point?" Enter a PCSO traffic officer. The deputy called me on the radio. I advised him I was working several problems. I stated the nature of these problems, and requested two things. I requested someone to watch the trail head for the boys and Hiker 1. I also asked for the Search & Rescue Duty Officer to be advised. This was done. The deputy asked me if I'd like a helicopter to come out and look for the boys. I said that I lacked the authority to request a chopper, but didn't believe any additional response would be needed. 12 CHAPTER 1: BEFORE YOU RESPOND 13 The feet bandaged, we worked on getting the boots to fit. The socks did the trick. I instructed Hiker 2 to wait in the shade of a nearby tree. I told her not to leave this spot without her husband. I advised her to take her foot to a doctor to get it checked properly. I told her that no matter what else might happen, she was not to walk out on the foot if it became painful or if she suspected unseen injury. I promised to return soon if she, her husband, and the baby did not show up at the trail head. "Now the cat is out of the bag. It's no longer a nice neat little problem. All sorts of folks want to come and play! What will they think of or decide to do that hadn't occurred to you? Will these be good or bad moves? How do you react to the addition of unseen decision makers in "YOUR RESCUE"?" While all this was going on, unbeknownst to me, arrangements were being made for an Air Strike on Romero Canyon. This to locate the boys. The deputy called to inform me that the Search & Rescue Duty Officer had requested a helicopter respond to the park. There's something about helicopters that brings out a feeling of: "WE'RE REALLY GOING OVERBOARD WITH THIS ONE PEOPLE !!". What we had was a hiker that needed water, and a brain. We had another hiker who needed shoes and a brain. We had a hiker's husband who needed a better sense of parental responsibility; or maybe he just needed a brain. We had two teenage boys who were being irresponsible, which is what teenage boys are supposed to be doing: Acting brainless. Wanting to prevent the needless escalation of these problems into a full scale invasion of Romero Canyon, I chased after Hiker 1. True to form, his tracks led off trail. But every time his tracks showed where he tried to slide over some small drop, I found the marks of someone frantically scrambling back up. He just could not negotiate the terrain. Eventually his tracks led back onto the trail. Outstanding! I set to jogging down the trail after him. Every time I passed a hiker I asked if they had seen the guy in the pink tank top. Several had. Each confirming report encouraged me to run faster. A hiker said the feller was about 100 yards ahead. I asked if he was alone. The response was that he was standing there yelling at two teenagers. ALRIGHT!!! I radioed to the deputy that the boys were likely found already. He said the chopper would launch anyway. GR...... I wanted desperately to stop the Flight of the Great Helicopter Armada. So at a full run I charged down the trail. Soon I saw Hiker 1 going around a bend. I yelled for him to stop, but he disappeared from sight. I charged around the bend and damn near trampled him, he had stopped in the shade. Well, maybe he learned something. He had met up with the boys shortly after leaving me and Hiker 2. They walked up on the ridge just as he was passing by. They had 13 TEAM MEMBERING 14 been down at the pools in lower Romero, conducting a study of female wilderness bathing attire. Both were fine, and were ahead on the trail. Calling the deputy, I told him the Air Cavalry was not needed. He said he would listen to the radio a while, just to be sure. I was cooked. Running down steep rocky trail is just not my style, especially in the hot summer sun. My favorite hiking speed is 50% Meandering Power, not Warp 9! I continued out at a snails pace (10% Meandering Power) to cool off. By the time I reached the road Hiker 2, husband, baby and Hiker 3 were just coming up behind me. Hiker 2 returned my socks. I let her keep the bandaids. "Is this the end of it all? What is yet to be done once all the victims and all the rescuers have reached safe havens? When does the rescue end, and whatever comes next begin?" Sorry, no great cinematic ending to this tale. But some things were learned. Mistakes were made, don't doubt that for a moment. Hindsight, being such a crystalline thing, showed me a number of errors that could have been embarrassing. Chief among these is the baby. Even though I was comfortable with my actions when they were taken, caution should have sent me in the babies direction after finishing with Hiker 2. Hiker 1 was of an age where he owned his own mistakes. The baby was innocent in the matter and therefore far less expendable. Also the helicopter was not that bad a choice for checking up on the others. Another good idea would have seen one of the park rangers hiking up. Most importantly I came away from this misadventure with the knowledge that I could handle a multitude of troubles without losing my ability to think. Today, I realize the reason it went so well is because all general elements of the days events had been considered before they happened by playing the "What If" game after prior operations in Cochise County. I reacted calmly and efficiently because I had already experienced the emergency in my minds eye. All the comments and questions asked of you I have asked of myself. The Romero Canyon business happened as described. But it was prior mental exercise that provided the calm and the cool headedness. And it was mental exercise that evaluated the whole thing in the days afterward, and in so evaluating advanced the ability to handle more complex problems later in my Search & Rescue service. All this talk about the power of imagination requires some qualifying remarks, and a caution or two. There is no need for you to be the best the Team's got. As long as you're aware of what you can and cannot do. Be honest about yourself, and you have no reason as a rescuer or searcher to be bothered by your unsuitability for a given task. If you personally would like to take on a challenge that has been beyond you in the past, it's your right to try. But do so on your own time, and with the help 14 CHAPTER 1: BEFORE YOU RESPOND 15 and guidance of those who have already demonstrated their skills as being up to par. To lose sight of your limits is to risk an ultimate price. Again I harp on the theme of LIFE AND DEATH. You and I have no right to risk our lives or anyone else's by accepting a task that is beyond us, be it to the point of exhaustion, injury, or death. EQUIPMENT As a starting point consider what any good backpacker carries: FOOD - WATER - SHELTER. This is where your personal gear begins. But then we Search & Rescue types must consider the job, and the victim. Your ability to travel 20 miles a day on 2 Hershey's Kiss's and a Coke Classic will impress many, until you happen upon a victim in need of serious attention. As an effective Team Member you must traverse wilderness, know where you are, treat injuries, find clues, signal helicopters, etc. All this requires maps, compasses, altimeters, extra food, extra water, first aid kits, stoves, tents, bivy sacks, space blankets, binoculars, smoke canisters, whistles, saws, signal mirrors....... GET THE PICTURE? Naturally you are not expected to carry or even own all this stuff at any one time. An extreme is toting every conceivable artifact ever dreamed of in a backpack. This leaves one with something akin to Godzilla on your back. It's the rare individual who can move effectively for very long underneath such a beast. What you or I carry as a Team Member must be tailored around our limits and abilities, as well as the Team's assignment. Discuss with your Team the needs of a specific call out. In time you will learn how best to tune your gear to the job you accepted. Some will have special equipment considerations. These again reflect the individuality of each of us. Our amateur radio enthusiasts typically carry extra radios and batteries into the field. Those with advanced medical training may be carrying supplies appropriate to their training. Rock climbers have been seen toting all sorts of cowbells into the woods. Oh, and those rumers of my carrying a cast iron, compartmented frying pan in my pack are greatly exaggerated. It's cast aluminum. GETTING IT ALL READY TO GO Getting ready for a call-out begins long before the pager detonates in your ear at Oh-Dark-Thirty. If you are someone who is able and desirous of leaving work to respond, then arrangements must be made with your employer. One fellow I worked for demanded a copy of my schedule at least a week before each Search & Rescue operation. Try as I might, I 15 TEAM MEMBERING 16 never quite got this guy to the point of understanding that Search & Rescue calls were not scheduled in advance. Eventually, an understanding was reached. But when I first used his guidelines in responding to a call, he furiously chewed me out and threatened to fire me. Another outfit I worked for espoused its obligation to the community. We worked out careful guidelines governing my activities. These rules took into account the realities of rescues and searches. If I responded the evening before I would go to work, I first called the night shift technician to get an idea if my not showing up in the morning would cause severe difficulties. While this employer accepted some difficulties, I tried to dump less trouble on them than was considered acceptable. This arrangement enabled me to skip out on nearly 100 work days over the course of a few short years and to be among the highest responders in the group. In more recent years I went back to college to advance my PAID career. Knowing of my tendency to dash off on Search & Rescue calls at a moments noticed, I set up rules to keep me in class and off the trail. This allowed me to be among our lowest responders for over three years. Situations and personal needs change, and you must change with them. Another important area is home and family. Your pets, husbands, wives, children, they all require attention. Make arrangements in advance for the care of what you leave behind. A couple days in the mountains sets you up for dead house plants, and your puppy dog seized by Animal Control for lack of food and water. Find someone who can take over these mundane duties with a only brief phone call as a warning. On the family front it's important for those who care about you to understand why you are in this work. Discuss with them their concerns as well as your own. Seek an accommodation between your families concern for your safety, your desire to do this work, and as many other factors as the intricacies of your life require. Involve husbands, wives, kids, dogs etc in Search & Rescue functions. They need to know who the other people are. This helps keep their minds at some level less than panic when you leave at Oh-Dark-Thirty. Your husband - wife - girlfriend - boyfriend - "significant other" (etc) will commonly worry about you tremendously when you go out - especially on flood rescues. "Will s/he come back." Search & Rescue personnel need to stay tuned to these concerns. If you are away for awhile, have someone phone home and let them know what's happening! Once you have all these goals met you can think about the logistics of your response to a call-out. One extreme of this is to always drive your four-wheeler, with all the gear you could 16 CHAPTER 1: BEFORE YOU RESPOND 17 ever need in it, every place you go. Another is to have everything packed and ready at all times sitting in a closet by the door closest to where your car is parked. One danger of toting everything about with you at all times is that most insurance policies won't cover items not permanently attached to the vehicle unless they are only occasionally in the vehicle. My homeowners policy will pay to $8000 if the contents of my truck are stolen or destroyed. But if the same contents are there all the time, the limit is $250. This actually wound being tested after a burglar cleaned out my truck a few years ago. However you prepare your equipment, it must reflect the degree to which you have accepted the intrusion of Search & Rescue into your life. The arrangements you make with friends and family are also to be tuned to this degree of acceptable involvement. Your gear must always be more ready, more willing, and more able to respond than you are. This will greatly speed your response. Not to mention making that response more likely. 17 TEAM MEMBERING 18 this page unintentionally but quite brilliantly left unblank 18 CHAPTER 2: AS YOU RESPOND 19 CHAPTER 2: AS YOU RESPOND SAFE AND SANE DRIVING Scientists have proven that adrenal glands respond faithfully to the appearance of an orange shirt and MRA patch. This response is akin to opening a floodgate holding back the Sea of Excitement. While mostly it's newer Search & Rescue people that are affected, even older hands are known to occasionally suffer. If you're not careful, your natural desire to get there can overrule caution. Few of us have been trained to drive "CODE". Nor are any of us in anyway authorized to exceed speed limits, or run red lights. Yet more than a few Search & Rescue people will, at some point in their careers, take absurd risks with the safety of themselves and other motorists while responding to a call. Learning to control the natural adrenaline rush of an emergency call is more than difficult. Keep in mind that the few minutes or seconds you save will have little effect on the victim. Hours have typically passed between the victim falling down, and someone hiking out to report it. There are rare exceptions, but our victims tend to be stable when we find them. I'm not telling you the victim is not going to die without help, most will. Rather I'm saying that the immediacy of that death has been relieved greatly by the passage of the GOLDEN HOUR following injury. Even in the rare case where the GOLDEN HOUR has not elapsed, your getting into traffic accidents, or being cited for speeding, won't help the victim. Another critical consideration for volunteers is that we serve at the whim and pleasure of higher authority. Speeders with Search & Rescue stickers all over the truck, car, etc project a bad image to other motorists. If we display ourselves as being incapable of just getting to the rendezvous point without breaking laws and endangering the public, then who could blame a County Sheriff for telling us to butt out? If you can't control your excitement, STOP THE CAR! When you are able to proceed safely and lawfully, please do. Your help is needed, out there, somewhere. PLANNING AHEAD Once you have mastered self control and safe driving habits, you can begin to use driving time effectively. Much can be done in mental preparation. For myself this involves careful listening to radios. I use the information I glean from radios to fine tune my pack, planning what to take out or put in when I land a rendezvous. The more I hear about the call, the better I can estimate my probable assignment. Numerous are the occasions where I have been able to suggest to the Operations Leader my best use for the call, all based upon the work I did while driving. The 19 TEAM MEMBERING 20 golden rule for what to do while driving to a call out? Simply: LISTEN! LISTEN! LISTEN! Even without the radio gadgetry, I can still use this time effectively to consider my present state of physical ability. Responding in the morning, after a good nights sleep, is quite different from leaving my workplace after a 12 hour shift. Other realities I still have trouble paying attention to are economic. A Search & Rescue volunteers expenses are largely tax deductible. Yet I have a hell of a time remembering gas and food receipts, among other expenses. Excitement and memory lapses are closely linked. Remember to tell someone, or leave a message, saying where you are going. Some folks (never me of course!) have been known (and whipped for it) for leaving in a hurry and forgetting about appointments, dates, meetings etc. 20 CHAPTER 3: RENDEZVOUS 21 CHAPTER 3: RENDEZVOUS Search & Rescue operations begin by bringing people together, and combining their efforts into a cohesive force. Rendezvous is where, from the individuals perspective, this all begins. SIGN IN Your first task is to sign-in. Find the person assigned to this task. State your name, radio gear, and any limitations on your time or assignment. Keep in mind that the sign-in person is never going to be able to remember everyone's name, I certainly never do. No matter how well your face is known, always state your full name. If no one is doing it yet, start the sign-in yourself. A standardized form is not required. Any convenient notepaper will work until management people arrive. Remember, your primary obligation as the first to arrive is to prepare the way for the rest of the team. I will qualify this by saying that even if ten people are already there when you get there, no one has arrived until the sign sheet has started. By default, the first to arrive is the one who first started preparing for the rest of the Team's arrival. Once your signed in, look for the BRIEFING SHEET. This will give you what is known about the situation. All this information is important, especially in a search. Copy down this info so you can take it with you into the field. If non has been started, start it yourself with the information you have. Remember, everybody is hyped so the more you can do for yourself the better. Listen and read. Don't do too much unnecessary yacking. And don't crowd the Operations Leader and do RELAX! FINE TUNING Next is your gear. As information drifts your way, you should start fine tuning your pack. Pay close attention to every scrap of information. With good information you can eliminate extraneous equipment, or add extra items that will be needed. Even if you're perfectly packed for the call, it never hurts to double check that water bottles are full, flashlights work, and that all that other stuff is actually stuffed. TEAM SELECTION Now that all is ready, spend what time you have listening to radios, studying maps, considering assignments, and finding yourself a team. At any moment, ready or not, the Operations Leader will be shouting your name with an assignment. There is nothing wrong with suggesting your own assignment, or refusing one offered to you. Don't be pushy though, you'll get along 21 TEAM MEMBERING 22 better if you show flexibility. The team you go into the field with needs to be balanced. Assigning strong, fast hikers with slow, deliberate ones is a mistake. My limits and abilities permit me to go deep into wilderness. Also I am capable of carrying considerable loads. But to request me to take some heavy load at a very high rate of speed to some far and rugged point is folly. My greatest asset in terms of physical ability is endurance, not speed. Thus if a load of tech gear is needed high up on the ridge so we can evac the deceased when the sun comes up in 6 hours, I am an entirely appropriate choice. Upon arriving where needed, I'll still have the energy to set up and operate systems, then hike back out. Knowing all this, I am careful to team up with people of similar ability. Obviously this means you must know the other team member's capabilities. One important note. From time to time someone will accept an assignment they had no business taking on. Not because they're not capable, no siree! Rather because they haven't got the time available to go where they're being sent. If you have an appointment or some other scheduled activity, don't you dare gamble on getting out in time! More than once one volunteer has had to rush another volunteer many miles across 4WD roads so they could pick up a child at day care, or something equally important. So now somebody who could be contributing to the Team Effort isn't. THINK before you say YES! As you may have noticed, this is sort of a pet peeve of mine. Arriving late for a call is another matter. You may find yourself at a rendezvous at any hour of the day or night without a radio or a clue. This is where the message cone comes in. Read it carefully. The goal is to find the base camp. Call the SARCI message number on your call sheet, an effort to keep the announcement current will be made. If all else fails try telephoning some of the radio base stations listed on the call sheet. If you arrive while the victim is being stokesed out of the field and no additional people are requested, there are some supporting things you can do. One of my favorites is people hiking in cold drinks for the team. You empty your pack, line it with several trash bags, and pour in ice with cokes and Gatorade type drinks. You will be immensely appreciated. OPERATIONS LEADER Consider the difficulties facing this person. An Ops Leader must monitor numerous radios, know who and what has been sent where and why, formulate strategy, and generally keep his/her head firmly rooted in the job despite the best efforts of us all to loosen it from its moorings. Easing the burden on this person need not be difficult. Start by thinking over your ideas and actions before hand. Don't bother an 22 CHAPTER 3: RENDEZVOUS 23 Ops Leader with some randomly occurring train of thought you haven't really developed yet. A major no no is seeking the Ops Leader's approval of the idea that you're not really needed here, but you thought you should engage in a protracted discussion just to be sure. This may not be wrong in an old, almost over call out, but it's poor form to do it early on. How do you make the Ops Leader's job easier? Show up equipped for the job, ready to do your best. Sign-in immediately and completely. Offer ideas and suggestions that you have carefully considered. Be aware that from time to time we all, quite unintentionally, contribute to the noise level. Anyone can become a pest rather than an asset if they try hard enough! Above all be a part of the solution, rather than an addition to the problem. 23 TEAM MEMBERING 24 24 CHAPTER 4: COMMUNICATIONS 25 CHAPTER 4: COMMUNICATIONS THE ART OF LISTENING There is far more to effective communications than pressing the talk switch on a radio, and making some sounds. Before you are ready to talk into a radio, You must be willing and able to listen to one. The key word there is "WILLING". Consider first that most all you want to know will at some time or another be discussed by better informed people. On the radio that is. Scanners, pagers, voice operated tape recorders, and 2- way radios all serve as a system for collecting information as it happens to drift by. At my best, I have been able to have sign-in and briefing sheets all ready and waiting at a likely rendezvous point. All before the team and sometimes the Deputy have been alerted. Whether you listen all the time, when in your car, or only after your pager alerts you, disciplining yourself to being a listener is the fist step to being more than fully informed. Think of your mouth as being "RADIO REMOTE CONTROLLED". When sounds come from the radio's speaker: ! YOUR VOICE STOPS ! ! YOUR EARS OPEN UP ! This is especially true when riding in some other volunteer's vehicle. The radio is on for a reason, please pay close attention to it. If it makes noise you shut your mouth and listen. Many are those who are discouraged from listening because of all the noise and unrelated traffic they hear. But if you do stick it out, you will find that eventually your hearing becomes attuned to these peculiarities. I no longer seem to hear references to things like stolen cars and burglaries. But when a deputy is sent to Marshall Gulch to check for an overdue hiker's car, I perk up. I am by no means exceptional in this. Quite a few people have amazed me with their ability to hear a conversation where I find only noise. Spend time listening, develop and practice on a regular schedule. You'll be amazed by the benefits of a finely trained ear. Listening is the start, comprehension is the rest of the race. As data comes to your ear piece by piece, you must assemble it into a picture of what's going on. Think of it as spying. A play by play account of what has transpired so far should not be necessary to someone who has paid attention to all the tidbits that were already provided. Careful attention to radio can eliminate much repetitive discussion at rendezvous. You can show up already briefed, and with a good idea of how you might best benefit the operation. This needs of course to be tempered with the caution that 25 TEAM MEMBERING 26 incorrect information is as easily transmitted as is any other kind. BEING LISTENED TO What few people ever seem to realize is that, no matter how much talking they may do, they have no guarantee of being listened to. In Search & Rescue work, this is partly because leaders can't afford the time to pay close attention to endless questions and chatter. To many people pepper their radio transmissions with qualifying statements of why they are seeking information. Worse are those who demand to know absolutely every minor detail, no matter that their knowing it will have no effect on the outcome of the operation. Another infuriation that will keep people from paying attention to you is the "RUN ON NOT THOUGHT OUT YET NOT QUITE SURE WHAT I WANT TO SAY YET NEVER ENDING WORD SPEWING NIT WIT WITH A RADIO TALKING WISH THE BATTERIES WOULD RUN OUT OR THE VICTIM SHOW UP SO WE COULD SHUT THIS GUY UP! radio transmission. The act of transmitting on a radio can either aid or harm the victims plight. Everything you transmit must be weighed for its effect on the final outcome of the operation. Learning what's important and what's not will take time. Being aware of this from the start, you will arrive more quickly at your own level of understanding of the problem. TYPES OF COMMUNICATIONS Many factors serve to determine if a radio transmission is helping or hindering a Search & Rescue effort. Learning this takes time. Let's give you a start on it by defining a few key types. NECESSARY: These are communications absolutely essential to the successful completion of the operation. Necessary communications include team assignments, requests for tech gear, or perhaps victim descriptions. Without these communications the operation would never go anywhere. USEFUL: This type of communication is a help to the operation. It need not be a critical transmission, but it does add to the smooth flow of things. Assuring a team that where they are hoping to build a helispot one already exists is a useful transmission. Or as you leave for the call out you broadcast that you are 10-8 in route. This is useful in that the Operations Leader may want to assign you a task by radio, rather than waiting for you to arrive at rendezvous. USELESS: Any transmission that fails to accomplish its goal. Even well thought out, carefully delivered, critical information can be utterly useless if the receiving party does not bother to 26 CHAPTER 4: COMMUNICATIONS 27 listen and accept it. Take note: Listening is an art to be practiced at all points of the communications process! SOME NOTES ON COMMUNICATIONS HARDWARE Consider what all these devices have in common. Scanners, voice pagers, display pagers, telephone answering machines, telephones, and two-way radios. All are a means of transferring information. Remember what you need to communicate is INFORMATION, not a conversation. VOICE PAGERS: When paging someone, state facts in a simple connective string, such as: RENDEZVOUS TV AND CAT HIGHWAY REF 12 YR OLD FALL VICTIM AT WINDY POINT. Voice messages should be left with information from the specific to the general. Keep repeating this string of data until the pager times out. A cardinal rule of pager warfare is ALWAYS PAGE TWICE! Remember that pagers are not foolproof. Often the first page is not completely heard. Too often the pager goes off while I am driving with the radio full blast. It takes awhile to realize it's the pager and a while longer to get it off my belt and up to my ear. I'll say it again: Page Twice! An interesting use of a personal pager is in the field. A number of times in my experience teams have been able to conserve two- way radio battery power by turning them off, and relying on the pager to alert them. This is especially useful when a team is bedding down for the night. This provided the pager is first given a test page to assure it's working in a remote location. Remember though, don't rely 100% that the paged person got the message. Set up a specific check in schedule, just to be safe. DISPLAY PAGERS: These are interesting in that all you can give them is data. A common use is to give a phone number to be called, along with a code specifying degree of urgency. Another method that has worked well is to give the radio frequency you want the called party to come up on. Example: 155*220*10*18. This would tell the receiver to come up on rescue frequency, 155.220 MHz, and that it's an emergency, 10-18. These codes must be worked out in advance with the pager's owner. But with a little imagination and preplanning, much can be communicated. TELEPHONE ANSWERING MACHINES: When leaving a message for someone, the pager guidelines apply. You do have more time however, so a few more connective words are acceptable. Still, don't lose track of the need to communicate DATA. Still, keep things as brief as possible. If it's your answering machine that's getting the call, you can expect only hangups should your announcement run over 15 or 20 seconds. As a rule I hangup on an answering machine the instant it throws music at me, I hear a childs voice, or Groucho Marx. TELEPHONES: When calling someone on the phone to give or receive 27 TEAM MEMBERING 28 information, please just do it! Don't waste time in side discussions or useless chatter. Be factual, and to the point. You both have other important matters to attend to. TWO-WAY RADIOS: All the above suggestions about trying to communicate the maximum amount of data in the most efficient manner possible apply even more importantly to two-way radio. All communications devices are designed to work best when provided with normal speaking volume, and clear enunciation of words. Interestingly, this is exactly what your ears need as well. Frequently we are faced with the terror of the RADIO WHISPERER, also known as the RADIO MUMBLER. For some reason many people talk into radios as if it was all a grave secret, like an enemy or maybe the news media is listening. What happens is that the person at the other end finds it difficult to understand you, or perhaps to hear you at all. Don't waste valuable radio battery power. Speak in a clear, concise, normal tone of voice. This applies with equal fervor to the other end of the spectrum, those persons known far and wide as RADIO SCREAMERS. Using ones imagination to solve DATA TRANSPORT problems, while at the same time not causing other problems, is the essence of effective communications. For example, consider what I like to refer to as the RADIO RICOCHET GAME. When you can't reach someone directly, think up alternate routes. Paging one Ham with a message for another has worked well in the past. Another valued trait is to back up your messages. When I have to page someone, I also try to leave a more detailed message on the persons answering machine, many people have both these days. Unless, of course, the machine throws music at me. Musical answering machines (and those with celebrity voices) are a good indicator that you have a long listen to do before talking is permitted. Hangup on these! Complain to the other party later about their machine! AMATEUR RADIO: TECHNICIAN CLASS LICENSE GO GET ONE OF THESE THINGS NOW! Definitely something you should consider. First of all, it's become tremendously easier to get a license. Passing a 55 word multiple choice test is all that's needed. No more Morse Code nonsense. Once who have a license, a vast communications network is opened up to you. Most Search & Rescue planning and management operations are carried out on amateur radio, either exclusive of or in addition to the regular team frequencies. Additionally, you gain the very real advantage of being able to make telephone calls from almost any remote location. Those with amateur radio capability are extremely popular during call outs. Even if you can't respond to the scene you will and 28 CHAPTER 4: COMMUNICATIONS 29 can be utilized at home as a relay, information gatherer, etc. In fact, volunteers with a simple handie talkie have served as the only base station radio available to an operation. Before amateur radio this task required a large and expensive installation in a volunteers home, complete with roof mounted antenna. Nowadays a few batteries and a pound of radio will work wonders from the comfort of your favorite chair! Amazing toys these toys! TEAM RADIO The importance of radio can't be understated. To best illustrate this importance, I'll start the discussion on the exact opposite of Team Radio. NON-TEAM RADIO I refer to the inevitable and seemingly inescapable attack of the Non-Team radio. These are radios not carried by the assigned team radio operator, but wind up turned on anyway. Often the offending party gives a reason like they need to hear what's going on, or some similar excuse. The trouble arises that few people who have a radio seem capable of not talking to it. When more than one radio talks from a team, confusion swiftly follows. Base Camp loses continuity with the Team's actions. Who's in charge? Has the team split up? What's going on out there! Worst of all is the effect of the Team Leader losing control. For some unknown reason, the mere presence of a radio leads observers to believe that the holder knows what he/she is talking about. This corrupts the team leaders authority, with the end result being a loss of effectiveness of the team. More bad news arrives in the form of all the radios on a team coming up with dead batteries in rapid succession. The radio you may carry is an invaluable resource. It's damn poor teamwork to use up two or more of them at the same time. Why use two batteries for one set of instructions? I don't care whether it's a personal or team owned radio. If there are multiple amateur radios on a team, decide who gets to save their batteries. Use one at a time, that's the law! TEAM RADIO OPERATOR Now we're back to the topic of Team Radio. If assigned this task, take it seriously. It's your primary function on the team. You must control all team radio traffic and conserve precious battery power. It's not necessary for your team to be able to hear your radio. If they can, you are probably using up power too rapidly with excessive volume. Maintain a volume level sufficient for you to hear everything. Give your team periodic updates on what you hear. Your job is to send all ideas and suggestions your team feels are of value and to keep your team informed on what else is 29 TEAM MEMBERING 30 going on. But only you decide when to transmit, and more importantly, when not to. Be factual in your transmissions, and very conservative with words. Think out what you are going to say before you say it. Remember that base camp can only act on what you tell them. Let's look at the communications problem resulting from your team finding an injured victim. You must make certain no family or friends can hear your transmission. You must inform base camp of the find, that there are injuries, the location, the extent of injury, and what resources you will need to effect rescue. All this must be carefully composed to avoid confusion, and to conserve radio battery life. Here's a Just The Facts example: SAMPLE RADIO COMMUNICATIONS TECHNIQUE TEAM RADIO : Base camp, Team 1. BASE CAMP : Team 1, Base. TEAM RADIO : 10-17 Code 10? BASE CAMP : Negative TEAM RADIO : 310-India, 1/4 mile below Apache Spr., on trail. (BREAK) Ankle fracture, Sunburn, Dehydration, Request.. (BREAK) Stokes, extra water, and Ranger 38 for Evac from Apache Spr. L.Z. BASE CAMP : 10-4 Team 1, can you split your team to brush L.Z.? TEAM RADIO : 10-4, In progress. BASE CAMP : 10-4. As you can see, the entire exchange has been reduced to strictly that essential data that gets the job done. Your ability to communicate in this fashion will improve over time. Being aware of the goal should help you get there sooner. By the way, you may notice a tendency towards "pregnant pauses" between two ends of a radio exchange. This is for two reasons. First is that it never hurts to think about what you will say before the act. Composition is everything. Second is the need to allow others to break in with urgent or emergency traffic. This is important. Always provide opportunities for unknown problems to get out over the radio. How else are we going to find out about them? A serious concern is conversations that just won't go away. If you can't get something settled after four or five minutes (some would argue a much shorter time period) there is something seriously wrong. In this business brevity, combined with the 30 CHAPTER 4: COMMUNICATIONS 31 willingness to make decisions and take responsibility, is cherished above all other treasures. The only possible exception is radio relays. Sometimes radio relay duties can fill up the airwaves like nothing else ever could. This commonly occurs when geographical limitations force the bulk of radio traffic through one relay point. Amateur radio has much diminished the frequency of this problem, but do try to be aware of it if you find yourself doing radio relay duty. Look for alternative frequencies to shift some traffic off to. Keep the frequency in use by field teams as quiet as humanly possible. Remember, if the field team's batteries all conk out, the game's over! 31 TEAM MEMBERING 32 this page unintentionally left blank 32 CHAPTER 5: TEAM DYNAMICS 33 CHAPTER 5: TEAM DYNAMICS How we work together, and how well, is a great curiosity to me. For want of a better name, I call this area of study Team Dynamics. LEADERSHIP AND CONSENSUS Observers of SARA operations often comment on the apparent lack of anyone being in charge. The surprise comes from the fact that everything still gets done, and very well at that. At other times I have heard it said that everyone appears to be in charge yet, despite this, things still go well. THE SELF MANAGED TEAM Over the years SARA's team management structure has developed around twin concepts. First is that people are encouraged and expected to be Self Starters. A good rescuer does not wait for someone to say Do This, but rather seeks out what needs doing and follows through with it. This greatly simplifies the work of managers and leaders, for each person strives to manage or lead his/herself to the greatest possible degree of Team Effectiveness. That last sentence is a critical one, for it separates us from a mob of well intended individuals. We each seek to contribute to the Team's attainment of the goal. But in so doing we keep a careful watch that our individual efforts are in keeping with the Team's Efforts and the Team's Success. No individual ever saved anybody in this business. The Team made it possible for the Rescuer to be there when needed. The Team provides the resources and support so that the Rescuer can do all those death defying stunts we all expect of ourselves! To understand the second half of this, consider that SARA does not give tests to rate people as Team Leaders, Search Managers, or Technical Rope Systems Czars. People grow into these positions and take on responsibilities that they seek after. We do at times designate who is in charge of say, a haul or belay. This is important for safe technical operations. What has evolved over the years is that SARA's teams typically lead themselves through a process of dynamic, and rather ad hoc, consensus building. How this works is not complicated. What a team decides to do is reached through shared opinions and active discussion. I'm not saying you should take an hour to debate the advisability of going left or right. But a few moments spent in discussion commonly lead to actions superior to what any one individual would have thought of. As Team Members, each of us needs to think about everything our team sees or does. Then, understanding that we all have a responsibility to the Team's decision making 33 TEAM MEMBERING 34 process, we offer our thoughts to the rest of the team. It's not that we don't assign people as Team Leaders, we do. Rather it's that our Team Leaders act more as a Master of Ceremonies, a Facilitator if you will, for the Team's actions. The Team's actions and decisions are based on the Team being a collective force, not a led group of people. It is only when the members of a team fail to work as such a unit that the designated Team Leader must take firmer control. A good leader will do this by trying to initiate the consensus process. A team that acts as a bunch of Free Agents is no team at all. The Team Leader needs the personal strength to take responsibility for the Team's actions, and to serve as the guide or example of what those actions must be. Another facet of the skilled leader is an ability to recognize changing priorities and conditions. The leader of a search team may be perfect for the job. But what happens when the team finds a victim in a technical rescue dilemma, and our present team leader is utterly unqualified to handle such a situation? Team Leaders and Team Members alike must be aware that events can as easily throw one out of a position of leadership, as they can thrust one into such a position. This business isn't about ego's, it's about success in saving lives. GETTING ALONG WITH OTHERS Personalities demand flexibilities. While we try to match people to each other on a team, it should not be necessary for us to do so. At least not beyond the obvious need to match people for physical ability and skill level. There is danger in a strong willed person taking over a team simply because s/he can. There is equal danger in the quiet and reserved type not speaking up when something appears wrong, or important. Whatever your personality, you must control your tendency to be only a leader or follower. Do not permit your personal quirks to come between you and your responsibility to the team and victim. You owe it to the victim to be an active participant in your Team's actions. You are equally obligated to encourage the active participation of your team mates. DECISIVENESS In all things, there must be a balance. We teeter-toter between extremes, endeavoring not to fall too far one way or the other. If you are too cautious, nothing gets done. Nothing getting done can kill somebody. If you are too rash, the wrong thing gets done. This too can kill somebody. I have often heard it said that in an emergency, any action is better than no action. This, I fear, assumes a great deal. 34 CHAPTER 5: TEAM DYNAMICS 35 Let's say you come upon a flooded road crossing. There before you is some local yachtsman clinging to the roof of his amphibious, four-wheel drive, submersible `66 Mustang. Lots of onlookers doing absolutely nothing. Do you: a). Jump in the water and drown yourself? b). Send someone to call 911 for help? c). Get throw bottles and PFD's out of your car, and try to get a PFD to the victim? d). Present your PFD's to the Fire Dept. people arriving with a ladder truck, and suggest they wear them? e). Something else? Decisiveness must never be defined as any action taken quickly. It MUST BE defined as the right action taken as quickly as possible. We learn to be decisive by first being intimately aware of our own abilities and non-abilities, then we add in team resources. With experience, and by observing the more experienced, you can learn to quickly boil down what the problem is, what is available to throw at it, and what the best balanced response might be. PERSONAL AND TEAM SAFETY: RISK MANAGEMENT For me, this is always my first priority. I look upon safety as being the most critical concern in any successful Search & Rescue venture. Save the victim but kill a rescuer? Not an equitable trade in my eyes. Safety problems come in a myriad of forms. The searcher who goes out in winter wearing cotton jeans. The searcher in desert heat with but a quart of water. The team that fails to check its knots, or back up its anchors. All are increasing the risk for everyone else. Safety in technical rope systems requires us to take what the uninitiated often see as excessive precautions. Three anchors where one would handle the load. Two belay lines where no reasonable individual could expect one to fail. There can be no greater tragedy in this work than the death of a volunteer. This possibility lurks constantly in the shadows of fatigue, complacency, and the failure to control events. Consider this as an exercise in perspective: In theory the day will come when a live victim will be found in a situation so outrageous, that even our finest people would be certain to die attempting a rescue. I cannot imagine circumstances to fit this scenario. But I realize the day may come when we will have to let a victim die, rather than allow the sure and certain death of a 35 TEAM MEMBERING 36 volunteer. Management types see Risk Management as the application of the fewest possible, least damageable resources to solve a Search & Rescue problem. For the individual Team Member, I define it a bit more personally. We each manage the risks we face by our actions to them. Our mistakes add to the dangers. Our collective expertise in different areas serves to control the dangers we face as individuals. Take it to heart that no matter how well we do our jobs, these dangers are real. They will not dissolve at the appearance of an orange shirt. These dangers can not be eliminated, and the consequences of not sufficiently controlling them are everlastingly unpleasant. SENSITIVITIES This is your ability to think ahead, coupled with your experience. People are sensitive to different things. Our better Base Radio Operators often display the uncanny ability to have some important task already in progress when the request comes over the radio to begin the task. Others pick up on the pending needs of a team in the field. A particularly skilled person in the field often is able to make suggestions back to Base Camp. This from their perceptions of how things are going, and what is likely to come up next. Thus sensitivities are the awareness we show to the commonality of dozens of searches and rescues. Certain things always happen in every operation. Problems arise both in Base Camp and in the field that are specific to the location and activity. As experience is gained, these sensitivities begin to manifest themselves in places and situations that are new to you. By virtue of experience and forward thinking many are able to interpolate between similar past events. In simpler(?) words: To forecast the needs of the call through intelligent and informed imagining. My preference is that people not wait until they have 100 call outs to brag about before trying to think ahead a few steps. We all face some adversity in our everyday lives. We all have some perception of how we handle crisis and surprises. Try and mix these remembered experiences with your wilderness and Search & Rescue background. Perhaps this will give you a head start on developing your own sensitivities. 36 CHAPTER 6: SEARCH 37 CHAPTER 6: SEARCH CLUE AWARENESS In your time as a Search & Rescue volunteer you will encounter many references to clues. Some people will be referred to as "Clue Aware", "Clue Finders", or "Clue Destroyers". A difficulty arises in that there is no uniform way by which Clue Awareness is taught in our area. This chapter will try to help you develop an appreciation for this most important of Search skills. Whether in a natural or human made location, all that you can hear, see, smell, touch or perceive through experience adds up to a picture. Some are things that fit in the picture. Other things are disturbances to the harmony of the pictures many elements. It is these disturbances that are clues. Simply by virtue of being alive, every living thing creates clues. A hiker leaves tens of thousands of clues strewn about everywhere he/she goes. We start with the obvious: Tracks and Litter. They are important, but there is more. Every living thing has a peculiar scent all its own. This scent is in the form of millions of microscopic particles. The human sense of smell is too poor to detect these particles. Rather than lose the value of these millions of clues, we bring in the Search Dog. Scent is important, but there is more. Subtle are the clues generated by a persons actions, thoughts, and physical state. As a person tires, their feet splay out further from each other. A fresh and energetic hiker will leave track with the toes pointing almost fully forward and parallel. So tracks with the toes splayed out likely indicate someone who is becoming physically fatigued. Fatigue is also a thing of the mind. What happens as a person wears down mentally is that they deviate from their normal routine or behavior. This deviation can be detected in the clues they leave behind. The backpacker who is described as very conscientious about leaving only footprints behind may leave some litter. The hypothermic individual ignores personal safety by discarding the very things that could prevent death. The suicidal type often leaves behind personal articles or clothing, all very neatly placed. So it is human idiosyncrasies and behavior that are both the producers of clues, as well as the clues themselves. You need not be an authority on human behavior to detect clues. You need only an open mind, and a willingness to endure hours of seemingly fruitless effort. 37 TEAM MEMBERING 38 CLUE PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION The delicate nature of clues is equal to their criticalness to a successful search. Merely by being in the same area as the victim, we destroy the victims clues. We do this by covering them up with our own. Tracks and scent are especially delicate. Scent can be rendered useless by the exhaust fumes of cars. These fumes desensitize a dogs nose. Thus simply driving your car up and down a road a few times may destroy any chance of the victims passage being detected by search dogs. Tracks are patterns left in dirt or other surfaces by feet or by anything else that contacts the ground. Searchers feet and tires leave tracks just as surely. All too often, these "Searcher Clues" are deposited on top of the victims. SOME EXAMPLES 1). CLUE DETECTION. A search was once initiated by a hiker who reported encountering a fellow who seemed ill-equipped. The hiker spoke briefly to this fellow and learned that he intended to go to Mt. Kimball. This at a late hour, with cool temperatures and rugged miles ahead. The reportee continued out to his car. Upon getting there he noted that only one other car was in the parking lot. This was Saturday evening. A snow storm came in that night, leaving a good foot of snow in the higher elevations. The first hiker was sufficiently concerned to check the parking lot in the morning. There he found one car. He called the Sheriff's Office and a search effort was launched immediately based on this information. The lack of a missing persons report could easily be explained by the fact that the weekend was only half gone. The victim was reportedly dressed in a tee-shirt, shorts, and sneakers. A group of very concerned volunteers proceeded into the snow of Finger Rock Canyon. Our reportee hadn't thought to jot down the license number of the car he saw on Saturday. But we were all comfortable with his certainty that the car he saw was the one in the lot, myself included. A check of the vehicle's registration led to a residence in the city. An officer went to the address and, finding no one at home, interviewed the neighbors. A neighbor was found who knew the car's owner to be a hiker, and that the person planned a hike that weekend. An examination of the car was made by both deputies and volunteers. This was done through the car's windows, as the doors were locked. Little was visible. Some fast food litter, and some greasy tools resting on a newspaper on the floor. The possibility that the car did not run, and that the hiker was off somewhere getting assistance arose due to these greasy tools. Time later showed this theory to be incorrect. What solved this search mystery were the newspaper and, coincidentally, the owner of the car turning up a short time later. 38 CHAPTER 6: SEARCH 39 The newspaper really bugged me. Several times I looked at the paper through the window, trying to figure out why it didn't quite feel right. Finally it came to me: The newspaper was too thick to be a weekly or Saturday edition, at least for Tucson. I had read the previous weeks papers, and was certain that they were much thinner than this one. The paper was folded with the bottom side of one page visible. A volunteer was found who had Sunday morning's paper in his car. Leafing through it we quickly came to the page that was visible through the window. Based on the obvious fact that someone hiking since Saturday could not have the next Sunday morning's paper in their car, I argued that the search should be canceled. We scaled down a little and were about to recall all personnel completely when the team furthest out in the field encountered the car's owner. His hiking party had gone out that morning. They were powerful hikers, and were returning from Mt. Kimball. No other hikers were encountered. 2). CLUE PROTECTION: The most fun I've had with a Point Last Seen was in protecting one. While driving to work one morning SARA was paged to search for two hikers overdue from a trip in Catalina State Park. As I was just approaching the park, I pulled in to wait for everyone else. I got a description of the subjects vehicle off the radio, and went to look for it. It was found parked in a sandy area next to the trail head for Romero Canyon. It was 6 AM on a Saturday morning in the early summer, which meant that several gazillion hikers would soon be trampling through the very spot where the car was parked. I parked my truck on the pavement behind the car, and went on a little climbing trip. The area around the car was bordered by trees, old telephone poles laid out to prevent cars driving up the trail, and an over developed pickup truck with massive tires and half the shock absorbers in Arizona. What I did was surround the car with a barrier of flagging tape by climbing through the trees, along the phone poles, and over the truck. These monkey shines allowed me to fully cordon off the area from hiker damage without ever setting foot on the ground around the car. Easily the most socially redeeming bit of climbing I've ever done. It almost worked too. Right after completing this a deputy arrived in a big Blazer with overhead light bar and Sheriff's markings. His truck being a much more impressive sight, we replaced mine with his. So as the deputy and I are standing there studying a map on the hood of his very obvious police vehicle, a hiker runs up and jumps over the flagging, trips, and falls rolling across all those beautiful tracks! Grrr....... Another example of clue detection and collection also occurred in the state park. A 48 year old fellow was overdue on the Romero Canyon-Sutherland Trail Loop. Actually, he was right on time. But he had allowed only 10 hours to complete a two day hike, and he was poorly equipped for the season. 39 TEAM MEMBERING 40 I was asked to locate and document a track at the campsite the hiker and his wife shared in the park. They were camped in an RV. So I stretched flagging tape from the drivers side front bumper several feet out to a bush. Then around the bush and parallel to the side of the truck all the way down to the exhaust pipe. The reason? Very simple. Most RVs have service hookups down the drivers side, as well as cargo storage hatches. Sure enough the hiker had left numerous distinct tracks in the sand along the drivers side of the RV! But it got even better. The couple took many pictures traveling about. In one location they encountered mountain lion tracks in light snow. To get a size comparison the husband walked alongside the tracks and the wife photographed them. She loaned us the photograph of his tracks and, along with measurements taken in the sand, we were able to precisely identify his tracks on the trail! Clues, like most lessons in Search & Rescue, are little things. It's can be difficult to take much satisfaction from finding something like a button, or an orange peel. These things are so much smaller than victims. The problem is that the single most ignorant act of new volunteers is that they go out looking for victims, rather than looking for clues. Breaking this habit is essential to being a Clue Aware Searcher. Find the evidence of the victims presence, and you closing in on the victim! Any fool can trip over a body. 40 CHAPTER 6: SEARCH 41 SEARCH TECHNIQUES There is no one "Best Method" to use in searching. A combination of techniques is typically used when conducting a wilderness search. These include Sign Cutting, Interviewing, and Attraction. All this while hiking a prescribed course chosen as likely to block, confine, intercept, or overtake a missing hiker. The degree to which separate techniques are used will depend on the Team's specific instructions, and pooled resources. Your search efforts begin as soon as you start into the field. SIGN CUTTING: This is the detection of disturbances created by the passage of a human being through a wilderness area or other terrain. While hiking be on constant watch for tracks, pieces of tracks, or for any debris as you might imagine a human generating. When you see a sandy area ahead, move off the trail so as to protect the "Track Trap". Pay attention to litter. If the brand new candy wrapper or cigarette pack matches what the victim was said to be carrying, you've got a clue! Clues we have found in the past include: Full and partial tracks, candy and food wrappers, footwear, books, clothing, backpacking gear, cigarette butts, canteens, and other personal articles. Not counting the victim, our most valuable clue is the tracks left by the victims footwear. Sadly, it's often very difficult to determine the exact pattern. All we usually get is make, model, size, and color of shoe. None of this is helpful. Shoe sizes vary tremendously, and have only a passing connection to track size. Take my feet for instance. They require anything from a size 7.5 to a 9, depending on the brand. So what we must do is pay close attention to the general type of tracks we see. Take note of location, age, direction of travel, type of sole, and if any leave the trail. Should a detailed track description become available later, than your written or even mental notes of tracks encountered may prove quite valuable. ATTRACTION: This is simply the attempt to enlist the victims help. We advertise our presence, and invite the victim to do likewise. Attraction involves anything you can think of to get the victims attention. Yelling names, flashing lights and mirrors, blowing whistles, and careful listening and watching. Remember that if you are successful in attracting the victims attention, the victim must in turn attract you. So after yelling, be quiet and listen a while. Have the radio operator stand off a little ways. Try placing people on adjacent overlooks to catch sounds from different directions. Coordinate your attraction efforts with other teams, least you wind up attracting another team. It's very entertaining to discover that two teams "found" each other, but it's not very productive. A technique that has worked well for me in the past is to split my team, the halves moving the same route, but a 1/4 mile apart. The method serves two purposes. The halves of the team can appraise how well their compatriots efforts are traveling. Also the Team's collective hearing ability is spread over a larger area 41 TEAM MEMBERING 42 to catch more sound. The down side of this method is the need for the Team's two halves to communicate with each other. If this cannot easily be done without crowding up the radio, then the team can't split. (Ham radio anyone?) INTERVIEWING: The people you meet on the trail can provide valuable information, and effectively multiply the number of searchers by alerting the hiking public. The difficulty arises that everyone has an innate yearning both to help, and to be involved. Untrained, undisciplined people often try to make what they remember about the hikers they've seen fit the description of who's missing. This is a very natural tendency and is without malice. When encountering other hikers, introduce yourself, and ask for a few moments of their time. Example: "Hi, I'm Clyde Rescuer with Search & Rescue, we're looking for an overdue hiker. Can I ask you a few questions on where you've hiked and what you've seen?". Give the hiker a highly simplified description of who you are looking for. The idea is to let the interviewee tell the interviewer what the interviewer already knows about the victim. Be very careful not to ask questions that suggest their own answers. Ask about where they have hiked and camped. Get rough descriptions of anyone they noticed. Ask about campfires seen or smelled, or voices heard. Try to do all this without taking notes, some people are put off by it. Write down critical parts later. If the hiker(s) don't seem to have any useful information, then work in a more complete description of the victim. Ask them to call the Sheriff's Office if they remember anything later, no mater how trivial. Assure them the victim is in no difficulty with the law, our only interest is to make certain the person is alright. A CASE IN POINT: THE THOMPSON FAMILY SEARCH My favorite example of a search where all techniques fell nicely together is also my first search as a SARA member, this is entirely coincidental. We were nearing the end of a long days work practicing a variety of self rescue and fixed rope techniques. Having come through the lesser training stations, I was on my way back up the hardest one when Jim Gilbreath looked down from the top and yelled: "Get your ass up here! You're going hiking!" For getting a trainees attention, I know of no better method then to get the adrenaline pumping. The ascent was some 200 feet, mostly overhung, using Gibbs ascenders on Goldline. Bouncing and spinning in the gusty wind and being called for my first search was an unbeatable combination. The problem was a family group, a father and two young daughters. They were several days overdue traveling from Marshall Gulch to Catalina State Park. The were said to be very well equipped. 42 CHAPTER 6: SEARCH 43 Tent, sleeping bags, plenty of food, numerous maps, and other gear suggested that they should be able to take care of themselves. All three had the same bright red windbreaker. We had a rough, though usable track description (a rare delight). And of course we had their names. Their back country experience was limited, so we expected them to be lost. The greatest mystery at the time was how anybody could wander around such heavily traveled trails for three days without asking directions. This factor caused no small degree of concern, as it suggested that our missing subjects might be either too dumb to ask for directions, or in serious difficulty. I was on the first team sent out from the mountain top. This five man group was poorly matched. Three of the group were fast strong hikers who could easily be pictured running the entire 15 miles and 6000 feet down the mountain. This, in essence, was our Team's assignment. To cover the route quickly, doing only a minimum of attraction, interviewing or sign cutting. The thinking was that we would find them somewhere along the trail, as is very common in these searches. The other two team members were not up to this high speed travel. My feet are flat, real FLAT, and cause me considerable pain at times. The hours spent ascending ropes all day had my feet well tenderized. Bob Birkett claimed to be too old to chase all these young fellers down the mountain. Having later learned that Bob is no light weight in the woods, I suspect the reality is that he took pity on me and my aching feet. So off we went up the Marshall Gulch Trail. The plan being to cross The Wilderness of Rocks, then along the Lemmon Ridge Trail and Romero Pass Trails down to Catalina State Park. The team started quickly, but split into two parts within the first 1/4 mile. The three fast hikers became Team 1. Bob and I became Team 2. Team 1 did its assigned job well. Team 2 followed comfortably behind. Team 2 quite naturally fell into a mode of operation more akin to my physical level of performance. We did more intense interviewing and sign cutting, simply because we had the time. By the time Team 1 was nearly to Lemmon Ridge, Team 2 was hardly a third through the Wilderness of Rocks. Even so both teams came to the same conclusion. Nothing had been found to suggest that our victims had gotten very far into the Wilderness of Rocks. Both teams interviewed hikers who were certain they had not encountered anyone fitting the victims description, however vaguely. Of much importance were the couple who had been lounging about, on folding lounge chairs no less, at a major point on the trail since before the victims entered the woods. Bob suggested the victims were probably off trail, perhaps to the south of us. We discussed this and decided to try more intense attraction efforts. We left the trail and went in search of 43 TEAM MEMBERING 44 overlooks to shout down into the many convoluted canyons and drainages. We took turns shouting and listening. About the third location we tried, we got a response. This is where it gets really neat. The response we got wasn't the "Here we are!" kind. Rather it was a "There they are!" shout. The confusion was quickly resolved when we back tracked about a 1/4 mile to find two hikers we had interviewed earlier, standing high on a rock. The victims had heard our shouts from nearly two miles across the canyons, but we had not been able to hear them. The hikers were relaying for the victims! While the victims could not shout loud enough to be clearly understood, they looked right to be who we were looking for. They were reported to all be wearing red nylon wind breakers. Two red jackets were clearly visible. The third person appeared to be in a tee shirt. A third team which had come up from Sabino Canyon was found to be in a good place to divert. So while Bob went off cross country to link up with the victims, I started a signal fire for all to guide on. Several more hours passed before all had met up, and we were actually certain we had the right people. Everything about this search pleases me. Granted, the initial team assignments were poorly made. But the teams quickly adapted to this. All the teams together utilized a full spectrum of techniques and individual abilities to solve the problem. The combination of fast and slow teams both doing tracking and interviewing told us where the victims weren't. Interviewing and attraction then served both to attract the victims attention, and to enlist the aid of the public. (For another angle on the Thompson Family Search, see "The Rescue of Chris") Since this first encounter with Search, I have seen a wide variety of problems and approaches. The fast, trail running team is frequently successful. So too does the slower, more methodical team have numerous finds to be proud of. The key in all these successful searches has been the variety of resources and techniques brought to bear, and the willingness and ability of individuals to adapt. 44 CHAPTER 7: RESCUE PRACTICES 45 CHAPTER 7: RESCUE PRACTICES PERSPECTIVE As has often been said, rescues are just transportation problems. The victim is in the wrong place. Rescuers must figure out how to get the victim to the right place. We know where the victim is. How do we get the victim from there to safety? Do you go up or down? Do you travel a ways and then go up or down? Do you wheel the victim out of the mountains in a stokes? Do you work all night cutting a new trail through a mile of dense brush and then wheel the victim out this shortcut in the morning? Maybe a short carry to a helicopter? Or maybe the victim could ride out on horseback? RESCUE PLAN The above talks more to the management end of rescues than to the individual's efforts. But it helps to at least understand the thinking behind the rescue plan that will eventually be employed. All sorts of things come into the design of a rescue plan. The relative urgency of getting the victim out. Is he or she going to die soon or do you have some time to work? Is it easier to haul up hill to a highway or wheel the stokes downstream to a helispot? Are there sufficient volunteers for an extended carryout? Or do the people that responded to the page have the skills to effect a very technical evacuation? What is the weather going to do? What problems have we forgotten? That's a lot for the uninitiated to consider. So until you are one of the initiated, just be aware of the above questions while you stick to the fundamentals. The main thing you need to understand about rescues is that, in the big picture, they aren't so much organized by rescuers as they are by events. We respond to the call, and discover that our options are generally very limited. We don't have the time to study, plan, and make detailed assignments of who goes where to do what with this or that equipment. The immediate and dynamic character of a rescue situation normally precludes the making of finely detailed plans. We must each respond with creativity and we must all be self-starters. Rescues are sort of like brain storming sessions, but with `biners and dirt rather than coffee and donuts. As problems arise those on scene must do a quick analysis and come up with a workable rescue plan. It doesn't have to be the niftiest plan since the invention of the rope, it just has to work and provide positive control of risks. So the most experienced will toss a few quick ideas back and forth, and some particular answer will present itself. As the plan unfolds, problems and improvements will make themselves known. When they do we may ignore the little problems and press on. Or we might reject the latest idea as pretty good, but too late to act on. Occasionally it may 45 TEAM MEMBERING 46 necessary to drastically alter or even abandon a plan. For the typical Team Member, all this means being ready to pitch in just about anywhere. You arrive at say, SARA 1, and somebody hands you something and says to deliver it yonder. You deliver the stuff to yonder and now you're free to do something else. So you look around and you see that this location is being set up for a haul system. Well, all haul systems need anchors for the haul, reset, and belay lines. So too do all haul systems need pulleys laid out and brush cleared for a haul area. So you pick some part of this haul system that needs setting up and you set it up. If you're on your toes, you'll not be stepping on others. That means you ask the people who got there first what needs doing. No need for long winded discussion, just find out enough about the plan to make your own invaluable contribution. TAKING RESPONSIBILITY Have you noticed that I've been jumping back and forth in this discussion between manager and member concerns? The reason is simple. In your typical rescue everything seems to be happening at once. Both the creation and the implementation of the plan happen simultaneously, and continue to happen this way even after the victim is out of the field. Different people will be working on different parts of the rescue scene pretty much independently. There will be coordination between the separate parts, but each separate unit of the effort must complete its work as much on its own as possible. This means that once somebody blurts out "I'll go clear the helispot", that helispot becomes that persons own personal piece of the rescue plan. RISK MANAGEMENT The one thing you always are totally responsible for is the safety of yourself and your team mates. Let's put a little life into that dry statement. If you see something you don't feel too good about, like an anchor or such, then you had damned well better speak up about it! There is a long standing, if not long stated, tradition that nothing moves in a rescue until all systems have been checked by someone other than them who put it together. This means that when the haul system has been put together and checked by thems who done it, you step up and try to find out what's wrong with it. Decide that you will find something wrong, and go after it! Even if it's just a knot that needs a little massaging, you've improved the survivability of your friends and the victim. If after applying your very critical eye to someone else's work you do not find any thing wrong with it, well, that just means things are going better than expected. 46 CHAPTER 7: RESCUE PRACTICES 47 RIVER RESCUE Of the many situations that Search & Rescue volunteers may expose themselves to, River Rescue offers the greatest danger of a rescuer being killed. For this reason SARA has developed, in cooperation with other agencies, proven techniques and procedures for saving lives and preventing rescuer deaths. These concepts are well covered in the various yearly training sessions, so only a few key points will be mentioned here. SARA RIVER RESCUE PROCEDURES: The following are the essential concepts upon which successful River Rescues are planned. a). SAFETY OF SEARCH & RESCUE PERSONNEL IS #1: Safety is always something well beyond the first thing to be considered. The safety of the rescuers is absolutely paramount in all aspects of River Rescue. Never forget this! b). "REACH, THROW, ROW, GO": These are the order by which we consider our actions to secure a victim from risk, while minimizing our own. These four steps describe a process of risk escalation in the rescue of a victim. c). PFD, WETSUIT, HELMET, LIGHT: All personnel near water are to wear a PFD. Going into the water requires the rest. d). UPSTREAM WATCH: Well up stream of the rescue site personnel should be carefully monitoring the water level and reporting all changes to the Operations Leader. The idea is a simple one, don't be surprised by upstream rains! Remember that flash flooding is commonly caused by distant and unseen rain. e). DOWNSTREAM BACKUP TEAMS: Sudden surges of water or any of a myriad number of other problems can send a victim or rescuer zooming downstream very unexpectedly. For this reason teams are sent downstream to standby with throw bottles. f). WATER TEAM EXPERIENCE: The less experience you have in River Rescue the less responsibility you should seek or accept. This is an area of the rescue business to work your into slowly. Rescuer safety and the likelihood of success are very tightly linked to experience in River Rescue. g). TWO PERSON WATER TEAM: Never go into the water by yourself! Just as important is to have more than one water team available at the rescue site with at least one team in reserve for unexpected difficulties. SOME RIVER RESCUE RISK FACTORS: Here is a sampling of some of the things to worry about. a). UNSTABLE RIVER BOTTOM: Typical of river rescue scenarios is a semifluid bottom. Sand and water are both moving to sometimes surprising depths. Deep, running sand can be only inches from the 47 TEAM MEMBERING 48 solid footing you are standing on. Vortexes may form and drill deep holes which fill with fine loose muck. b). HIGH or LOW WATER LEVEL: Humans walk far better than they swim. Once the water rises above your center of gravity you will begin to float and have difficulty walking. Thus you are forced to swim as soon as your feet lose traction. As if this weren't insulting enough, fast moving but shallow water can whip your feet out from under and force you to swim where there is too little water too support you. c). FAST WATER: The faster the water, the greater its effect at any depth. As speed increases, the fluidity of the bottom increases. Also the ability to move in shallow water is greatly lessened. Swimming in fast water is mostly an effort to avoid obstacles, even with strong and skilled personnel. d). WEATHER: The time of year is very important when judging the likelihood of additional rainfall upstream of the rescue site. Early in the monsoon season followup rains are unlikely after the initial downpour is spent. This changes rapidly as the monsoon season advances. At other times of year the probability of followup rains are totally unpredictable. After a few years of drought the ground will be able to absorb huge amounts of rainfall before serious flooding occurs. In wetter years washes may run heavily with very little rain. e). LOCATIONS HISTORY: Natural indicators show severity and extent of past floods. The debris left from a flood hangs in the brush for a very long time. Even should brush leveled by strong water recover to an upright position, the debris caught in it would serve as an alarm of previous high water. If flood debris is hanging in the brush above the present water level, you can be sure that water will reach that high again. f). TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE OF PERSONNEL: Many have needlessly died attempting river rescues. Generally this can be attributed to a lack of awareness of both the risks involved, and the procedures for managing those risks. Make a point of attending as many River Rescue practices as possible. Pay close attention and ask plenty of questions until you have a complete understanding of the information being presented. A good habit to get into is to go back to rescue scenes a day or two after the fact. The idea is to take a second look once time has allowed you to reconsider past actions. In river rescue scenarios this has helped me to develop an awareness of the hidden dangers of low water. While high water does considerable damage, it dissipates quickly. This lends an appearance of safety. Yet I have often observed washes where sink holes and other traps were created by initial high water, but were hidden by low water during the rescue. Only the final clearing of water reveals all the dangers high water generates. One example is the old crossing of Lambert Lane and the Canyon 48 CHAPTER 7: RESCUE PRACTICES 49 del Oro in Oro Valley. Before I joined any team I helped out with a rescue at this point. The victim was sitting on the roof of his company truck, with water less than a foot up the tires. The truck was at a slight list on the downstream side of the crossing and at the very edge of the roadway. The water was several hundred feet across, and an extensive rope and raft system had been assembled to go out and get the victim. Just as the raft was about to launch the victim got tired of waiting and walked out. The water was barely covering his shoes as he walked along the very edge of the roadway on the downstream side. Later that day I stopped by to have another look. The water was down to a trickle and I walked along the road to the victim's truck. What I saw absolutely amazed me. The underside of the road had been undercut in places more than six feet back under the pavement! There were a good half dozen six to ten foot deep sink holes along the immediate downstream edge. Some of these great hollows were right below where the guy walked out. Two of the trucks tires had sunk into the pavement. None of these problems were obvious during the rescue. At that time the water was flowing flat and smooth, with no distortions of any serious degree. All this damage had been done by the initial flooding, but was hidden by the calm water existing throughout the rescue. Had the victim taken a step a little too wide and gone through the undercut pavement or into a sink hole, it is very doubtful rescuers could have reached him in time to do any good. Another case was a river rescue at Ina Road and the Santa Cruz River, before the present bridge was built. The river was flowing very fast and wide. A fellow in a full size pickup truck with cab-over camper tried to drive across in perhaps a foot of water. His truck stalled but the water didn't, it kept rising. I got there about the same time as a fire department ladder truck and crew arrived. By this time the water was near the top of the cab, with the driver on the roof of the camper. The truck was listing at an uncomfortable angle. The ladder was extended out and I gave a firefighter a PFD and belayed him out to the truck. The rescue went swiftly, although the driver was not very happy about us leaving his truck unrescued. When the water went down I went to have a look. It was rather puzzling how such a tremendous force of water could fail to sweep the truck away. But low water revealed the secret. A huge tree trunk with long thick branches was on the downstream side of the truck when it got stuck. The water pushed the truck the few feet to the tree, with one of the branches piercing the camper and impaling it. Other branches were buried in the streambed. Usually trees in washes serve to drown people swept downstream when they become entangled in the branches and roots. But this was a case where a tree saved the mans hide! 49 TEAM MEMBERING 50 this page unintentionally left blank 50 CHAPTER 8: "THE LEGALITIES" 51 CHAPTER 8: "THE LEGALITIES" THE LAW, WHO WE ARE, WHO WE WORK FOR, WHAT WE CAN AND CAN'T DO It's important to keep track of who you are in the overall legal picture. As a Search & Rescue member you're part of a unique and fortunate group. Let's review a few key points. THE LAW Arizona law assigns the duty of Search & Rescue to the County Sheriffs. This makes the Sheriff of each county the "LAWFUL AUTHORITY" of Search & Rescue operations. It's the sole right of the Sheriff to decide what, if any, response is to be made to a Search & Rescue problem. Federal law assigns Search & Rescue Authority differently on various types of federal land. The National Park Service has the legal authority to engage in Search & Rescue operations within the confines of a national park, monument or memorial. The National Park Service maintains its own Search & Rescue teams, has its own procedures to be followed, and trains its personnel on a national level. When working in an NPS operation remember that it is the National Park Service's Operations Leader who is the Lawful Authority. To provide a framework for volunteers to work in, the NPS essentially delegates some authority to the Sheriff, and the Sheriff in turn delegates some authority to us. Note the emphasis on the word "some". Other areas to pay attention to are various federal reservations. The military bases and bombing ranges are under military authority. Indian Reservations are also independent authorities. The Federal Fish and Wildlife Service has at times placed constraints upon our vehicular activities within wildlife refuges. During wildfires the federal agencies involved have certain emergency authorities available to them to restrict non- fire fighter entry into an area. There also some federal restrictions on the use of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft over federal lands. WHY A VOLUNTEER TEAM? Volunteers come into this picture for several reasons. FINANCIAL: Maintaining a professional team of deputies, always on call and dedicated to Search & Rescue work, is very expensive. The cost of salary and benefits for one deputy starts at $60,000 a year. Then add in expensive mountaineering gear and police vehicles. Multiply this by at least 30 officers, a minimum size for an effective team. The wages and benefits alone would run $1,800,000 a year. I am told that first year startup costs for such a professional team would add another two or three 51 TEAM MEMBERING 52 million. Spending such a sum would not go over well with taxpayers, at least not when the same service is available for free. PUBLIC RELATIONS: Beyond these monetary problems is the good will generated by a volunteer team in the community. A volunteer (low profile) team with a good public image shines most brightly on the Sheriff. WE LIKE WHAT WE DO & CONSIDER IT IMPORTANT: Can you imagine a volunteer group that doesn't think this way? WHO WE ARE SARA is a privately held, charitable, non-profit, totally independent corporation chartered by the state. Neither SARA nor any SARA member can be ordered to do anything by any government agency. SARA can be ordered not to do certain things. Such as not to respond to a request for help, or even to cease a specific Search & Rescue activity. Within the limits laid out by Lawful Authority, SARA is free to respond to any call, regardless of location or of who requests us, at will. Any private person may request our help. SARA has in fact responded through-out Arizona, as well as to other states and Mexico. All with the proviso that the Lawful Authority of the area we are working in either requested us, or did not order us not to respond. WHO WE WORK FOR Search & Rescue operations have at times been sidetracked by the confusion among volunteers as to who is really in charge of the operation. We are not the "Sheriff's Team". We are our own team. We make our own decisions and manage our own resources. We decide what we will do with our people, and how we will do it. We work for the victim, the victims family, and we work for ourselves. We work with the Sheriff and other agencies first and foremost because each group brings certain special abilities, authorities and resources to the aid of victims. If state law regarding Search & Rescue operations were very different, we would still seek to work with other agencies as we now do. The relationships we have work very well for us and victims. These things being said, we are not about to ignore the concerns or ideas of the Sheriff's Search & Rescue Deputies. They are experienced and well trained people who are just as committed to saving victim's lives as any volunteer is. Their law enforcement training includes extremely valuable topics not available to volunteers. They have many resources at their disposal not available to volunteers. And, of critical importance, they have the authority and responsibility of the law to carry out Search & Rescue operations. 52 CHAPTER 8: "THE LEGALITIES" 53 INTERAGENCY RELATIONS SARA's working relationship with the Sheriff is essentially that of two independent agencies cooperating for the public good. We work together as professionals, as co-conspirators in the victims best interests. What is truly a fact to be proud of is that, in many individual cases, we work together as friends. There we have some key phrases. Work as friends. Professionals. The Sheriff cannot afford to allow a team that does not maintain a professional level of performance to take part in Public Safety work. As long as we show that our hard earned reputation is based on a high level of professionalism, we needn't be concerned. But should the day come when volunteers lose sight of this, and start showing themselves unworthy of the Public Trust, then the Sheriff will be duty bound to refuse our services. Without a capable Search & Rescue team around, victim care would suffer greatly. And victims are the only legitimate reason for a Search & Rescue team to exist. The most important factor in dealing with any agency is that of presenting a professional appearance. Be tactful always, and know who is in charge of your own organization. Remember that dealing with various federal authorities is a task that the Sheriffs Search & Rescue Deputy is especially well equipped to handle. 53 TEAM MEMBERING 54 CHAPTER 9: YOUR PERSONAL COMMITMENT THE BASICS Just how serious are you about Search & Rescue? Your level of commitment will determine not only how well you perform in the field, but also how long you last in the business. FIRST THINGS FIRST: Hiking, and doing it well, is the bedrock of what it takes to become a skilled searcher and rescuer. You don't have to be Joe Cool rock climber to be a valuable Team Member. You do need to engage in a continual course of development in wilderness skills. All this takes is recreational hiking. When next you hike you can work on your weak points and hone your finer skills while enjoying the wilderness. Pretty good deal, huh? Above your fundamental wilderness skills is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with our typical areas of operation. Start by studying one each of the maps sold at the SARA meetings. The vast bulk of what we do occurs in the Catalinas. But we also enjoy excursions into the Rincon, Santa Rita, Tucson, Baboquivari, Whetstone, Dragoon, Tortolita and Chiricahua mountain ranges. We've gotten into Casa Grande with large numbers and also into climbing areas near Apache junction. MOSTLY, WE LOOK FOR PEOPLE: The majority of SAR operations begin as searches. Even rescue problems often demand that we first search for the victim. We were once in Sabino Canyon for an injured hiker. A reportee informed us that "The patient is lying at the base of the big green saguaro". In case you've never been to Sabino, there's a gazillion "big green Saguaros" in there! It was not a great help in getting the rescue going! But it worked well at kick starting a search. Of greatest importance is your learning to search in the Santa Catalina mountains. Throughout the range are specific places we go. Each of these places has its own peculiarities. For instance, there's a whole slew of places around Rose Canyon Lake where Holler Points have been predetermined for search teams to head for. Study them and plan day trips to them. I've visited all the Rose Canyon Holler Points in one day, and I was enjoying a lazy day in the trees at the time. Other prime search areas can be visited as easily. Make a point of systematically hiking every trail in the Catalinas. I've done all but perhaps ten or so miles of what there is, not counting cross country meanderings. I can tell you from first hand knowledge that wherever you go, what you will see is beautiful wilderness. So why miss it? 54 CHAPTER 9: YOUR PERSONAL COMMITMENT 55 BEYOND THE BASICS SUPPORTING YOUR TEAM: No volunteer is ever required to respond to a given call. But every volunteer is expected to respond as frequently as they are able. Defining what "able" means can get very tricky. You must find a balance between your commitment to Search & Rescue and the rest of your life. Missing a great many call outs because you're busy with other hobbies is a good signal that Search & Rescue is not where your interests lay. On the other hand becoming a stranger to family and friends because you're always off doing good deeds can be very damaging to interpersonal relationships. Neither extreme is acceptable. As you are figuring out where you want to set your own activity limits, keep these points in mind: a). Searches are emergencies just as serious as are rescues. b). We are always short handed in the early stages of an operation, and frequently throughout the operation. c). Your help was needed well before the pager beeped. Remember, the reportee often walks for a couple of hours just to call us! d). Very rarely will the needs of family members be more immediately critical than the needs of the victim. The trick is that on a cumulative basis the minor lesser priorities of family life eventually overwhelm all other concerns. We're back to that teeter-toter between extremes remark, in case you hadn't noticed. Becoming an absentee member of your own family is bad for everyone concerned. "VICTIM LOYALTY" vs ERRANT FORMS OF BEHAVIOR What do you imagine this curious phrase might mean? Do we expect victims to show the kind of loyalty to SARA that some people show towards Fords, Chevys, and Coke Classic? Not hardly. Victim Loyalty is a measure of your professionalism. It's a kind of a sideways look at just how serious you are, and where your priorities lay. I harp on this topic from time to time because I have seen a number of valuable organizations destroyed by internal friction. It's an unfortunate fact of human nature that groups of humans are synonymous with political intrigue, rumor mongering, bitching, griping and other forms of mob thought. Team Members who are loyal to victims make a serious effort to get along with one another. It's a simple thing really. If you are loyal to the victim you exercise this final and absolute measure in all your Search & Rescue decisions: Is what we are doing in the best interests of the victim? 55 TEAM MEMBERING 56 That really isn't a hard question. Consider when political maneuvering erupts into major arguments. How does shouting and screaming at each other help victims? The answer is an easy one, it doesn't. Such behavior masks real issues while setting up walls between different sub-groups in the organization. People stop talking to each other and the organization falters. Throughout your time in any Search & Rescue team keep these concepts at the ready: a). Rumor mongering is a negative activity. Contain rumors by talking to the person you would otherwise be talking about. Insist that others do the same. Ignore complaints about yourself and others that come through the grapevine. Only direct complaining is acceptable. b). No problem is so great that it cannot be talked into submission in a calm and professional manner with all those involved. c). Never, ever, under any circumstances jump to or accept a hasty opinion based only on what you heard second or third hand. Until first hand information is available all opinions are estimates and all reactions are untrustworthy. d). Without exception, all news media reports of Search & Rescue activities contain errors or miss the important points of the event. Sometimes these failings will give you the wrong impression of what happened in an operation. Reread "c).", above. e). You don't get to criticize if you weren't there. You may ask all the questions you wish of those who were there. Remember: criticism is far too dangerous a thing to engage in from the filtering perspective of hand-me-down information. f). You don't get to say "Why weren't you there!?". No volunteer has to apologize for missing a call out. You may certainly comment in good friendship that someone missed an interesting call, or that their particular talents would have been helpful. The difference is that your tone must always be that of a curious friend: Never be accusatory! g). Bitching & Griping is a negative activity that distorts issues with underlying emotions rather than overwhelming facts. I don't want to give you the wrong idea here. SARA is in pretty good shape in terms of professional behavior. I covered these points because from time to time all organizations see a little backsliding. SARA is a mature organization of over 35 years. Loyalty to victims has won out over baser human instincts. Please 56 CHAPTER 9: YOUR PERSONAL COMMITMENT 57 strive to maintain and advance this good record. WRITING OFF THE VICTIM Another concern is the very curious, and all too common, tendency to evaluate the victim's chances of survival in an overly negative light. People are at once both amazingly easy to kill, and also astonishingly durable. I'm aware of cases where a victim has fallen a ridiculously short distance, say about five feet, and died instantly. At the same time ther've been people who've sustained serious and critical injuries in the wilderness who dragged themselves for days through rough terrain and unpleasant weather to reach a road. The point of all this is that it's impossible to predict how any given individual will fare in a survival situation. At least from the limited data available to searchers. The attitude we Search & Rescue types need to maintain is that we're not in the Death Business, we're in the Life Business. We have no right to speculate the victim to death before the body is found. We are obligated to speculate, to desire, to fervently yearn and to expect the victim to be found alive and less needy than anyone had anticipated. Nor are we in the Statistics Business. All sorts of studies have been done which tell us that the odds of finding someone alive go way down after a few days. Search Operations aren't planned around a victim's probability of survival. Search Operations are planned around the victim's probable location. Search Operations are continued for as long as resources can be found to search with and for as long as the human mind can imagine places to search. If we were in the Statistics Business few searches would end well. Most would be abandoned early on when the numbers declared all efforts useless. But then those we look for would be left to fend for themselves. Statistics are a useful tool when examining probable victim locations. But their usefulness ends there. An example is a search we once did in the Catalina Mountains for two overdue horseback riders. These folks left Catalina State Park on a warm December day to do a loop of the Romero, Lemmon Ridge, Saminiego, and Sutherland trails. They were long overdue when a search began in the wee early hours. Two teams of two went up the Romero and Sutherland trails. I was on one of these teams. The search began around 01:00 under a brilliant and cloudless sky. By 03:00 a storm had arrived and it began to snow lightly. By first light it was snowing heavily and blowing with some force. By the time the two teams reached the mountain top visibility was very bad, the snow was drifting deeply, and it was bitterly cold. Both teams, and some supporting personnel who had driven to the top, retired to the Iron Door Restaurant to rest up while snow plows cleared the highway down the mountain. 57 TEAM MEMBERING 58 It was in the restaurant that the victims were written off. Among the exhausted searchers was one who flatly stated that the riders were too long overdue to have survived the storm. No one else saw fit to rebut this point, myself included. Being fairly new and easily impressed I accepted this sad and tragic ending. Big mistake. The search continued whole hog with fresh volunteers from both Tucson and Phoenix. It lasted several days. The victims were "found" when they drove into the park to pick up their vehicles and horse trailers! As it turned out the victims did indeed get lost. They missed the Sutherland Trail and wandered out of the Canyon del Oro into a ranch house near the town of Oracle. The rancher, always happy to help fellow horse folk in need, fed them steak dinners and made them comfortable in his home until transportation back to the park could be arranged. "Writing Off The Victim" is a motivational problem. If you anticipate defeat, you make it likely. Pessimistic searchers are poor searchers. Optimistic searchers always win because anticipating success renders it both more likely, and all the sweeter when it is attained. 58 CHAPTER 9: YOUR PERSONAL COMMITMENT 59 STRESS INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM Stress is a real and present enemy for those who involve themselves in the emergency services. In recent times the effects of stress upon volunteer emergency workers has received much attention. What you need to understand is that everyone feels stress to some degree, be it a major problem or a minor annoyance. So too do you need to understand that stress is a problem that cuts across all lines. The most experienced and hardened of Team Members are as susceptible to the cumulative effects of critical incidents as are the newest and greenest of Search & Rescue volunteers. Also susceptible are family and friends of Search & Rescue personnel. DEFINITION OF STRESS A state of increasing or sustained levels of emotional turmoil resulting from ones involvement in one or more emergency operations. There are three essential periods in which stress may be felt. These are preincident, incident and post incident stress. Preincident stress occurs when first notice is received alerting you to a Search & Rescue situation. This is the racing heartbeat and nervous pacing that most new volunteers experience from the time they are called to the moment they first enter the field on an assignment. Incident stress occurs during a Search & Rescue operation. A culmination of your concerns over your own performance, concern for the victims safety and the general level of tension existing throughout the team. Post incident stress is the compound resulting from time being mixed in with all other sources of stress. It is primarily what this chapter deals with. MANY POTENTIAL SOURCES The path from first notice to the week after the call out is fraught with stressful situations. Your family's reaction to your leaving the dinner table to respond. Your reaction to the limited information of the pager. Trying to get through traffic to rendezvous. Getting onto a team and getting the show on the road. Worrying over the victim's plight. Dealing with the victim's family or the news media. Working with many other high energy and strong ego types. Finding the victim in a less then pleasing state, or dead. Complex technical rescues where everything is 59 TEAM MEMBERING 60 happening at once. Coming off an adrenaline high after the call out. Worrying over how well things went in the weeks after the call out. POST INCIDENT STRESS Post Incident Stress is a normal human reaction to critical or dynamic situations. It may be characterized by any or all of the following: a). A sense of deep remorse or personal loss. b). A high level of anxiety having no obvious cause. c). A nagging sense that something more could have been done, accompanied at times by a feeling of personal responsibility for the death of the victim. d). An inability to get a victim's name out of your thoughts. At times accompanied by a sense of anger towards the victim for his/her getting killed. e). A loss of the ability to function within the organization. Often this may lead to the person leaving the organization. f). Difficulties arising in relationships with family or friends that extend from Search & Rescue activities. g). Other symptoms. Absolutely anyone may at some time or another experience symptoms such as those listed above. Be aware that it isn't just body recoveries and intense rescues that contribute to the problem. The aftermath of a successful rescue or search has been compared to coming off a wild roller coaster ride, only with lots more adrenaline lying around. With the adventure over, we must instantly revert back to the comparative boredom of everyday life. The transition is not always easy. For those you leave behind the problem is fed by their honest concerns for your safety. Erroneous news reports or media sensationalizing of the facts only serve to fan the flames. COPING WITH STRESS All stress reactions are normal but unnecessary responses of caring people to the suffering of others. Coping with all forms of stress begins with your accepting the problem as a normal human reaction. The single most important activity for preventing post incident stress is to "end the call out". We do this with a debriefing 60 CHAPTER 9: YOUR PERSONAL COMMITMENT 61 where all involved get together at a convenient point to ask questions of and to explain to each other what went on and why. Volunteers need to complete their picture of what happened. They need to understand why decisions were made and what the conditions actually were. This reflects the dynamic nature of our business. Many things happen in many different places. There is a sense of isolation from the rest of the team when you are out on a field assignment and things start hopping miles away. By holding a debriefing we fill in the blanks and pull all the pieces together. This is especially important for the newest Team Members. Older and more hardened sorts often prefer to skip the debriefing. This ignores the reticence of newer people to voice their concerns or desires. Following up a rescue or search with a social gathering is very helpful in reducing tension and easing the transition to quieter pursuits than Search & Rescue stuff. Pizza Meetings and that sort of thing after an operation are an excellent way to unwind and make the transition from controlled franticness to mundane everyday life. The benefits of social activity for stress reduction should also be shared with the rescuers family. Quite a few volunteers are in the habit of inviting family members to these after the call out get-togethers. This allows spouses and children a way to participate in Search & Rescue. It also helps the family to fulfill its mutual support function for all its members. Without this involvement the rescuers family often experiences stress reactions. The sense of isolation from what is going on as well as concern for a loved ones safety can be extremely trying on families. Involve your family as much as possible both for their benefit and yours. Should it not be possible to involve your family at one of these events, be certain to at least discuss the details of the operation with them afterward and to listen to their concerns. Even with a debriefing and social interaction to end the call out, volunteers may still experience the effects of post incident stress. When this happens it is up to the person so afflicted to seek out help. Help is available from several sources. Most people simply discuss their trouble with family or close friends either in or out of the Search & Rescue community. Commonly this is all that is needed. CRITICAL INCIDENT DEBRIEFING Critical Incident Debriefings were created to assist public safety professionals and volunteers to defuse the emotional trauma that can result from participating in an extreme emergency operation. These "Critical Incidents" are those which exceed the normal level of tension or danger commonly encountered by 61 TEAM MEMBERING 62 emergency workers. These are situations where people died after rescuers arrived, and frequently following intense or even heroic efforts to prevent death. Or a Critical Incident may simply involve an especially useless death or suffering; such as a child, teenager or young adult. The debriefing is carried out by a team of professionals who have volunteered their time to serve the needs of emergency workers and members of the public who have been involved in life and death incidents. Normally done immediately after a critical incident, a debriefing can be requested at any time by anyone. The debriefers work to bring out underlying sources of stress or emotional trauma through a question and answer or roundtable discussion process. Whatever method is used the goal is to help people confront and defuse underlying stress. Critical Incident Debriefings are most timely when they are requested before a critical incident is over. It is in the first few hours after the call that the greatest effect can be had on preventing emotional trauma from becoming embedded. If you are involved in an operation and feel such a debriefing is called for, discuss it with the Operations Leader or the Sheriff's deputy assigned to the operation. 62 CHAPTER 9: YOUR PERSONAL COMMITMENT 63 this page unintentionally left blank 63 TEAM MEMBERING 64 This section relates a variety of reminiscences that I believe lessons can be learned from. In reading this stuff, keep the idea at the forefront of your thoughts that they are intended more as a mental exercise than entertainment. Endeavor to learn, and reach your own conclusions. 64 ADDENDUM 65 this page unintentionally left blank 65 TEAM MEMBERING 66 THE RESCUE OF CHRIS If you have not read "The Thompson Family Search", in the chapter on Search, read it first, then come back to this page. The backlash of The Thompson Family search began even before it was over. How the need to rescue me came about is still unclear. The parties involved remember it differently at different times. Finger pointing continues to this day. Near as I can tell, all this confusion is being carefully maintained both to amuse and protect the guilty. When last we left the search, all had been found, and there was peace in the mountains. Bob Birkett, the Thompsons, and the good people of Team 3 had settled down to a hearty meal, and a pleasant nights sleep. The signal fire I started was done in the Old Boy Scout Tradition. Close to the rock the hikers had yelled from was a large expanse of dish shaped rock. Into this me and the hikers dragged a notable quantity of dead and downed wood. To get the signal fire going quickly, I swore the hikers to secrecy, and employed a method revealed to me by a paroled arsonist. The WHOMP!! of the ignition was heard for miles, and the flash triggered satellite sensors designed to detect the launch of nuclear missiles. To this day, President Ray-Gun still refuses my phone calls. I was tired, and the hikers were tired. But we all felt pretty good for what we had done. So as Bob bushwhacked his way to the victims, the hikers and me settled down to a good meal and a brilliant display of twinkling stars and meteors. We talked of wilderness, and mountains we had known. Towards 22:00, Bob and Team 3 had reached the Thompsons. The hikers had retired to their own camp a ways off from my position. The last thing I heard through the scanner was Basecamp asking Bob what my plans were. Bob answered that my feet were sore, but I was O.K., well equipped, and would hike out in the morning. This was entirely accurate, and was accepted by Basecamp. It was a temperate night, so I eased into my sleeping bag to enjoy a nights sleep under the stars. This was not to be. I was nearly unconscious when the scanner began to cackle. My mind was foggy with sleep and the contentment that accompanies the happiest of wilderness experiences. The words were clear enough, but were slow to find their way through my half slumber. Eventually I awoke fully and was stunned to hear that someone was coming to get me. This was a truly revolting concept. Friendly folk are welcome always in my camp, but the radio seemed to be saying that I was to be escorted out of the mountains! The last thing I wanted to do was crawl out of my comfy sleeping bag and trudge off through the dark. Besides, my "Signal Fire" was not about to pay any heed to the puny amounts of water carried in 66 ADDENDUM: THE RESCUE OF CHRIS 67 Search & Rescue backpacks. The scanner was pretty staticy, so I got my shoes on and got back up on the rock for better radio. I learned that Loma Griffith and Dave Waine were starting in from Marshall Gulch. It was not to late to stop them. While I had the time, I just did not have the volume. The intense shouting I had done earlier had left me with no more than a puny and painful squeak in place of the especially loud shout that I am normally fortunate enough to possess. The only thing I had to communicate real information with was my big mouth and lung power. I tried, but got only hoarse and insignificant volume. I almost blew my Acme Thunderer Whistle. But I realized all I would likely do was scare the pants off Team 3 and bring even more rescuers to my aid. Dave and Loma did not know with any precision where I was, and went by me at first. But with a few whistle toots to guide off of they found my camp, which was well hidden from the trail. The fire, the camp, and the intense star show were all it took to illustrate the value of spending the night where we were. They had come in with light packs, expecting to take my load from me. No sleeping gear. So we dug into my pack and came up with enough extra warm stuff to make them comfortable through the night. We enjoyed hot chocolate and hot cider from my pantry, and cooked a couple of freeze dried dinners to fill any remaining voids. We enjoyed some good conversation, until finally dozing off in the wee hours of the morning. All were out of the field by 10:00 or so. I never did get to meet the Thompsons, as they got out before I did. But stories of the little girls and their dad abound, and their delight at being found brightens this already happy memory. A definitive answer as to why two rescuers were sent in after me despite Bob's insistence that I was fine remains elusive. Several possibilities seem reasonable to me. SARA's attitude towards trainees has often been described as the "Mother Hen Doctrine". Neither trainees nor full members are to be left alone in the field. If you are forced to have volunteers operating singularly in the wild and woolly you at least equip them with two-way radios. This is followed by dispatching additional people at the earliest opportunity. Perhaps it was this simple and reasonable concern that served as the catalyst by which my situation became so distorted. Another possibility is that no volunteer likes to be left out. Loma has given some indication to me of facts that suggest she and Dave were just anxious to get in on the action. The victims were not located conveniently for this. "But look, there's a trainee out on his own! We gotta go help him!" This reminds us that one hindrance to good communications is our desire to make the facts fit what we want to do with our time. This echoes the school of thought that proudly and properly proclaims: "Of course the victim needs our help! We want to go 67 TEAM MEMBERING 68 hiking!" Whatever the truth may be, I deeply appreciated the concern of Dave and Loma. For even though I needed no assistance, they cared enough to send the very best; Themselves. 68 ADDENDUM: THE RESCUE OF CHRIS 69 this page unintentionally left blank 69 TEAM MEMBERING 70 SOME THOUGHTS ON LAND NAVIGATION We all get rated, whether we know it or not, by how deep into the wilderness we can travel. The idea here is to address what I see as a great gulf between the "deep woods people" and the "two miles in and then out" volunteers. I'm not degrading the value of the latter bunch, they do the bulk of the work in this business. But they don't get to have the most fun! Since getting there is half the fun, and almost all of the problem, here are some hints at becoming just a wee little bit better at the travel business. Abandoned Trails & Other Wonders. Finding and following abandoned mountain trails is far more art than science. To my thinking it epitomizes the highest evolution in land navigation. I have been an Orienteer, and appreciate the skill and dedication that sport requires. But the art of Land Navigation is only just beginning with such tools as compasses and altimeters. Don't get me wrong, I own and use both compass and altimeter for precise locating of helispots and rescue sites. But most of my wilderness travel is done by developing an intimate sense of the land. For this a map is essential, and a good one at that. A 7.5 minute topographic map is vital to land navigation because it presents you with the same data that your eyes will give you when you get where you're going. It is a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional world. Once you have learned to orient a map with a compass, you begin learning to orient a map with the reality before you. The shapes upon the map exist before your eyes as the hills and mountains and canyons you've been trudging through. The funny little squiggle on the map is that tight spot you passed through in the last canyon. Look at the map and see the shapes of the land. See the flow of water and the action of geologic forces. Human routes of travel follow natural lines of least resistance. Noticed any trails going straight up any cliffs lately? Probably not. There is a flow and a linearity of movement to trails that is indicative of human action. Humans move with purpose, and therefore with intelligence (well, mebbe' not all humans!). In this sense the trails on your map are the same ones long forgotten by map makers. When you are looking at a cross country route where a trail is known to have been there are subtle indications that the patient and experienced eye can discern. If the trail is not too far gone the path of least resistance through the brush will have a peculiar linearity to it. This least resistive path will flow in lines alongside creek bottoms rather than in them. Or it will hug a ridge line as long as it can, and use switch backs to descend steep slopes at an angle to be appreciated by human feet. 70 ADDENDUM: SOME THOUGHTS ON LAND NAVIGATION 71 A more lost and aged trail will endeavor to do as the last paragraph says. But it will meet with the indignity of plants growing where they will, and to densities that revoke all sense of discretion. Here you seek a somewhat subtler hint of what once was. Seek the tops of the brush. The trail likely ran through a low wavy line defined by the meeting of two sides of high growth. You may not be able to walk through it with any thing less than a chainsaw, but you've found the puppy just the same. So far I've been talking about trail indicators that result from natures actions to fill the void left by human passage. But people do more than just clearing the brush from where they care to walk. They dig out a treadway to walk on. This is important, for much of a treadway will outlive the cleared lines when brush reclaims the trail. Before the Brush Corral Trail was reclaimed from the Manzanita Monster I tried to follow it with some degree of precision. In several places I could find no evidence of the trail save for getting down on my hands and knees to search for it. And there, hidden from the eyes of lesser travelers, was an obviously constructed treadway running straight and true beneath the thicket. Tread does eventually disappear to rain and wind. The tread may run in short sections, or be only wide enough for one boot. At this stage it may be difficult to separate human from animal trails. When confronted by this it's important to consider the difference between human and animal movements. People travel to get somewhere fairly distant. Deer and such travel between safe places to sleep and sources of food and water. People trails tend to be long and bypass lesser water sources in favor of larger or more conveniently spaced ones. Animal trails tend to be short, moving from protected pockets of trees on the lee side of ridges down to small water holes and sources of food. Humans also leave signs behind. No, not the great big wood and metal wonders found today. Rather they do things to the land that animals can't do. I refer to cairns and blazes. A cairn is a pile of rocks that says a trail was once there. Many conventions and attitudes exist towards cairns, so I'll not try to explain them all. The typical cairn is made of three rocks stacked along the trail edge. Frequently the small rock on top falls off, and is lying next to the other two. Also, the cairn is usually aligned to the direction of the trail. But the passage of man and beast alike may move cairns, so this is not always a good indicator of trail direction. Blazes are cuts through a trees bark all the way down to the wood. They are no longer inflicted upon trees. This means that except for recognizing the actions of lesser forms of humans, you will need to recognize old blazes. Look for wounds that have healed over. The bark will appear as if it has reflowed over a wound, which is actually what it does. Peering closer you should see old hatch marks deep in the wound where the bark has not yet managed to close it. Blazes are usually done in pairs. One large and a smaller one above or below it. When a tree grows 71 TEAM MEMBERING 72 sufficiently to completely heal blazes all you will see are two vertical areas of ripple in the bark. Even with complete healing, the hatch marks may still be found beneath the bark. I've found this in downed trees felled by storm or fire. Indeed, I've found the remains of hatch marks on old stumps that were all but destroyed by fire. It may be the blazes on trees that are the longest lasting indicators of a trails presence. Another thing to look for is the stonework sometimes done to hold a tread in place. This is rarely very sophisticated, usually just a linear pile of rocks cleared from the trail and placed to hold back dirt. Often such things are found where switchbacks had been. I have found such stonework reinforcing switchbacks on both the Little Window and Brush Corral trails. But even this stonework will eventually be disassembled by the action of time and running water. To get back to maps for a bit, I hate to say it but damn few people ever truly learn to read a map. Most can use one to a certain level of navigational sustenance. But most never see the fine detail a topo map provides. Seeing these details separates the Truly Skilled from the Merely Abled. You need not be a member of the Merely Abled set. Nothing is stopping you from learning to navigate with precision by the use of Map & Brain other than your dependence on a compass. Consider this; when Map & Compass is being taught there is almost always the admonition that to read a map well you must sit down with a properly aligned map and proceed to identify surrounding peaks. Most people stop when they get the map aligned to north and south. These are the Merely Abled folks. The Truly Skilled folks follow up by first identifying the peaks and other features. Then they take it a step further. They do it again! The more of this you do the less you will find need for a compass. With enough practice and a wee bit of perseverance you will someday be astounded that all you need to locate yourself is a good map and a good look at the surrounding terrain. Spend ten minutes aligning map and shooting bearings to plot? Ridiculous! The finest of Land Navigators require only a map and their own two eyes to nail down their location in less than a minute. Take a hike! And while your at it, look ahead to where you are going. Study the terrain on the map and come to know its general lay and features. No need for minute detail just yet, simply look at the map and figure what you will see over the next couple of miles. When you get good at that, try saying how many minor little drainages you will cross between here and there. Or try saying that over the next mile the trail will climb thirty feet, then drop twenty about halfway along and remain level for the rest. Next try thinking not so much in precise terms of degrees and minutes of angle, but rather in terms of where the trail goes and how it gets there. There are north-south trails in the Catalinas that spend notable miles going east-west. I think more in terms 72 ADDENDUM: SOME THOUGHTS ON LAND NAVIGATION 73 of northerly, southeasterly; or for the yuppie crowd how about westish? Remember, these are not the precise directions of a compass. But they are the directions that people travel in, and they are the directions by which nature lays out the maze upon which we all so merrily dance. A last note of caution. The above applies to mountainous terrain. Forested flatlands are altogether a whole nother critter. 73 TEAM MEMBERING 74 THE GREAT PIG CHARGE OF 1989 or; The Knagge Trail Massacree This tale, every word the absolute truth, is offered for two reasons. First is that it has a thing or two to say about the fun to be had from Land Navigation. The second is that I enjoyed writing it down almost, but not quite, as much as I enjoyed doing it. I enjoy following trails that others claim not to exist. Old trails offer a certain sense of history and adventure. Dense underbrush and decades of non-use seek to hide all evidence of an old trails presence. People who can see these trails are among those whom I most admire for their wilderness skill and spirit. My fondest wilderness memories extend from these most challenging of navigation exercises. Finding and following an old and abandoned trail is tough work, but most satisfying when you do it well. This tale relates a trail finding trip which I would not care to refer to as one of my best efforts. Whoops! comes to mind as a descriptive term appropriate to the events of the first day. Keep in mind that the goal is not simply to navigate between two points. Rather it is the trail that is the goal. As such it is a continuous goal that is achieved moment by moment, and lost just as suddenly. In the Catalina Mountains are a great many old trails that have long been retired from maps and the general awareness of the hiking public. I have had the good fortune to follow a number of them. In this case, the trail has recently been restored to its prior glory. I wanted to follow the Knagge Trail before its restoration could be completed. In the late spring of 1989 I set out alone from Incinerator Ridge along the short portion of the Knagge that was still followable. My plan was to connect the Knagge with Brush Corral Trail using Davis Canyon and a reported route over Evans Mountain (a trail has since been constructed connecting these points). Loma Griffith would meet me at San Pedro Vista in the evening of the second day to provide a ride back to Incinerator Ridge. The upper section of the Knagge begins by taking you steeply down into heavy forests with much old growth. As the old growth is left behind the trail comes out to a small overlook on a rocky ridge with views of the San Pedro River valley. The trail turns off the ridge just before the point, and drops into a small hanging valley. It descends through this short section, crossing the drainage and contouring out onto the opposite ridge line. Then along the curve of this ridge line and into the next drainage on a mostly easy grade. In wetter seasons this next drainage often holds varied and lush undergrowth. The trail may be indistinguishable from the tangled ferns and underbrush. Crossing this drainage the trail turns down towards the opening of the ridge. Along the way the remains of a small corral are 74 ADDENDUM: THE GREAT PIG CHARGE OF 1989 75 passed in a leveled area. Then, as the trail comes out into the open and exposed hillside, Knagge Cabin is reached. The cabin stood for many years until a large tree came down and brushed the side of one wall. The cabin was not smashed directly, but the roof was caved in. Debris was scattered widely and there is much junk about. Below the shelf on which the cabin sits is a large expanse of rock with great views and occasional water. The trail peters out at the remains of Knagge Cabin. But the route is obvious for a short ways down a few old switch backs, past an old mine and back across the drainage. The last of the obvious trail is lost as you turn out onto the ridge. The going on this ridge is quite easy as the trees are of fair size and the underbrush very sparse. The trick is to avoid wandering off on some minor finger of the ridge other than the one which you are supposed to wander off. This is wandering with a plan, remember? The route crosses over the ridge and continues on its lee side. Here a tread appeared, along with old blazes in large trees. This lasted barely a hundred yards. After a while, and as elevation is lost, the big trees begin to give way to the scrub of dense manzanita bushes. This is where things begin to get interesting. By this point the day grows hot, and finding indications of old tread or blazes is ever more difficult. As the work increases in difficulty so too does water consumption. I worked the manzanita along the ridge as long as I could. From time to time I would find old cairns or other indications that I still had the Knagge Trail in reasonable proximity to my hiking boots. All at once I came upon a large clearing with big shady junipers. Here I stopped for lunch. The junipers had old blaze scars deep in their bark. I was solidly on the trail, of that there could be no doubt. I left my pack to reconnoiter the immediate vicinity. The trail appeared to curve off one side of the ridge. This did not make sense with the map, but by golly there went a tread plain as day! An elderly gentleman of some acquaintance had told me of a mysterious stone marker along this ridge. He had been a ranger back in the late thirties and early forties. He knew many of the people that had explored these mountains around the turn of the century. He had been told that this marker was known to the old timers he knew as a boy, and related how they found it to be buried in wilderness when first they encountered it. The belief being that this six foot pile of rocks predated the arrival of the white men. I went looking along the very top of the ridge line away from the trail but where the marker was reported to be. After thrashing through dense cover for ten minutes or so I came into a small clearing carpeted with dead fallen branches all bleached white like so much skeletal remnants. In the center stood a tall pile of rocks, easily a foot over my head. I don't know if the reports of the markers antiquity are accurate, but it was a real kick to find it buried in the deep manzanita. I returned to the clearing and picked up my gear. I charged down 75 TEAM MEMBERING 76 the treadway I had found, but it did not last long. In hindsight I realize that it was not curving off the ridge, but rather it must have angled the trail towards the finger of the main ridge from which the trail would enter the canyon bottom some distance away. But that is hindsight, for I soon found myself in deep manzanita again. My error was a simple one. I was on the south facing side of a ridge where the trail should be, but the ridge I was on was actually just a minor finger of the real one. The manzanita was too thick to see landmarks that would have alerted me to being just a few dozen yards off course. I continued along the wrong finger of the ridge, doing my best to weave through the thinnest sections of manzanita while keeping the ridge line close to my left. This would keep me at the approximate elevation of where the trail was supposed to be as it descended the ridge. At least that's the way it was supposed to work. The manzanita thinned as elevation was lost. With landmarks now visible I found myself in the wrong place; although not disastrously so. The ridge I should have been on was obvious to the south, and my ridge was falling nicely into the same watershed. This I determined by studying the land shapes on a topographic map and comparing them to what lay before me. It was clear that the lay of the land was not correct for what the map indicated for my believed location. But by considering the topography from a perspective of one minor ridge to the north of the correct one, all fell into place. Too far off course to take time for backtracking, I decided to connect this ridge with the trail which lay across the canyon to which the drainage off this ridge was a feeder. I expended considerable energy on stray manzanita, and water began to run low as the day grew hot. But previous excursions on the Potato Patch Trail had brought me to a year round water hole close to my present location, and alongside the lower portion of the Knagge. I sighted a sandy wash below my ridge which ran out to where I wanted to be. I busted through the manzanita along the wash and dropped happily onto the flat open sand. I charged down this super highway and around a slight bend. Whamo! Cliffed Out! Well, not really cliffed out. The wash tumbled down steep rocky steps and boulders for perhaps fifty feet. On the north side it was possible to down climb a little and traverse along a wee shelf to the opposing slope. From there it was a simple hike down into the big wash, crossing a large flat covered with ocotillo bushes. On the slope opposite I should find the Knagge Trail again. A short ways down this section would bring me to the needed water hole. I crossed the stream bed of rolled and polished stones, most thankful for the shade its trees provided. The stream bed was bone dry and dusty at this point, but the trees were quite healthy which suggests underground water. Knowing that the trail should be up high on the opposite slope I moved anxiously to recover it. I pushed through moderate brush and encountered a nifty surprise. 76 ADDENDUM: THE GREAT PIG CHARGE OF 1989 77 There before me was spread out a freshly cut tread, with chain sawed tree stumps and horse track all about. Apparently someone had started on the lower section of the Knagge. I hopped up onto the trail and proceeded downhill at a refreshingly rapid pace. Within five minutes or so the trail dipped down again to the stream bed, and my water hole. I had consumed all but my last quart of water at this point. The water hole is a truly wondrous place to find in high foothills of low trees and hot winds. It is surrounded by magnificent cottonwoods and great green growery stuff. The stream bottom constricts above the water hole, and comes down through a cut in a dense rock shelf. At the base of this cut the rock dives under the sand, with the stream bed opening out over a very wide area. At this point a sizable trough is created into which water is constantly supplied. Off side of the water hole and perhaps 75 feet away is a natural shelf above the stream. Ranchers had built a small line shack there, with old corrals and much debris about. Being behind schedule and rather dry I had been thinking of the line shack as a good place to camp for the night. Also the time I had lost thrashing about in the manzanita had thrown my Brush Corral circuit onto the scrap heap of previously brilliant ideas. There would not be time to pull it all together the next day. This loss of time dictated a less lengthy navigation for the next day. The Potato Patch Trail sprung shining to the top of the "Plan B" list. So I set down in a cool shady spot by the water hole to relax a bit before filling water bottles. While the stream bed above and below the water hole was dry, water flowed steadily into the pool. Within yards of the pool the runoff would disappear entirely, leaving only a dry wash in the high Sonoran Desert. I had just stood up to start filling some water bottles when I heard some very curious sounds. I almost shrugged it off when, for want of a better term, I heard what could only be described as "The Fart Heard Round The World". I turned to look in the direction of the noise and saw a line of short dark shapes running across the stream bed perhaps a hundred feet off. Seeing that there were pigs in the area I figured that they were likely seeking the water hole. I tooted on my whistle and gave a yell of "Hey pig faces!" to make sure they knew a humanoid was about. I hurried to get bottles filled up and get out of the pigs way. I had just bent over to fill the first bottle when a movement and commotion caught my attention at the extreme edge of my vision. I looked over my shoulder to see a line of pig faces running fast and with snouts down straight through the brush towards my position. Whenever I hike alone I carry a Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol. I carry this weapon in a manner which provides for rapid 77 TEAM MEMBERING 78 deployment. A quantity of Collard Peccary moving rapidly upon my person encouraged a most speedy response. While turning to face them I drew the pistol, thumbed the safety and, in my best John Wayne style, fired the first double action round at the lead piglet. I was in a poor stance to hit a fast moving target and actually fired nearly over my own shoulder. But the round threw dirt in the critters face less than 15 feet from where I stood. As the gun went off I had turned a good 120 degrees and settled into a better shooting stance, prepared to wreak damn serious havoc on the charging critters, of which seven or eight were in uncomfortably close proximity. Fortunately further gun play was not necessary. At the instant of detonation the lead pig spun in his tracks, nearly falling over. The second pig side swiped the first and spun to run away. I could have easily killed several of them at this point, and probably should have just to get even with them for testing the acceleration rate of my heart! It was obvious that my plans to relax in the line shack and kick back for the night were somewhat faulty. There had been a serious drought, and the pigs were likely not the only critters who would be wandering through during the night. Indeed, the gun fire did not send them scurrying off for parts unknown. They simply retreated into the brush uphill of the water hole and proceeded to raise a hell of ruckus. Snorting, pawing the ground and farting up a storm! I hurried to fill my water bottles and get the hell out of there! Keeping one hand close to my pistol, I repositioned to fill bottles while looking directly towards the pigs. At the same time I kept making lots of noise so piggies would not think me too docile. When done I threw on my pack and with gun in hand hurried down the trail. The trail took me close to the pigs for perhaps a hundred feet until it turned to recross the stream. I did not stop until I reached the Potato Patch Trail. I finally stopped to camp at this junction. All the way my thoughts were focused on all that nice cold water I stuffed into my pack. Without time for so much as a swig. The night was spent under the stars in a bivy sack. A tolerable meal of freeze dried backpacker food, day old bagels, too warm cheese and a very noisy pistol contributed to a good sleep. I hiked out the next morning along the only somewhat visible Potato Patch Trail. The route out was without incident of an animal nature, but was easily as challenging in terms of route finding. The adventure ended in the early afternoon of the second day when I reached the Butterfly Trail and rendezvoused with Loma Griffith who was out for a day's trekking before picking me up. 78 ADDENDUM: THE GREAT PIG CHARGE OF 1989 79 this page was almost unintentionally left blank 79