Mountain rescues on the rise: Another hurt hiker brought off Camel's Hump
Toolbox
By SUSAN ALLEN TIMES ARGUS STAFF - Published: August 15, 2009
The Waterbury Backcountry Rescue Team made its seventh rescue of the season Thursday night and into Friday morning, bringing a 65-year-old Londonderry woman off Camel's Hump after she fell and broke her leg. That marks a busy season for the team, which typically handles two to four rescues a year.
Six of the seven rescues have been on Camel's Hump, according to team leader Brian Lindner. The seventh was bringing someone with an injured knee off Mount Abraham in Warren, Lindner said.
"We are seeing a lot – capital L, capital O, capital T," he quipped on Friday. Lindner said the high number of accidents is primarily due to rainfall this season, with water making the trails slick and more dangerous.
But, he noted, people are hiking unprepared or making decisions that contribute to the problem, such as leaving too late in the day for hiking, and failing to bring flashlights and appropriate clothing for conditions.
"We've had a couple where hikers who made a couple of poor decisions and we had to go bring them out," Lindner said. So far, the rescue team hasn't been sent to find lost hikers; each case involved an injured hiker.
Of the seven rescues, six involved injuries such as broken bones, and knee and ankle injuries. Two weeks ago, rescuers suspected one fallen hiker had internal injuries; it took 12 hours to get the victim off Camel's Hump, he said.
In such cases, the team treats the specific injury at the scene. The hiker is then put in a hypothermia bag, much like a sleeping bag, "because for the most part these people are frozen when we get to them … they've been lying on the ground for hours," Lindner said.
The hiker is then put in a full-body splint – similar to an air mattress that molds to the body — to immobilize injured bones or joints, and finally onto a litter or medical stretcher that sits on a large wheel.
Three rescuers walk on either side of the rolling litter, holding ropes tied to the head of the contraption, slowly lowering the patient down the hill.
"It's exhausting, and it's dangerous for the rescuers because now we're spread out very wide across the trail," Lindner said. Unlike a hiker who can track down the center of the trail, the rescuers are forced out to the side, often trudging through vegetation in the dark.
The call about Thursday night's accident came from a man who had come across the injured hiker on Camel's Hump, then headed down the mountain into cell phone range to call 911. The fallen woman, described as an experienced hiker, was located one-half mile south of the Montclair Glen Lodge on the Long Trail south of the summit. She had broken her left femur.
The emergency call was received at 5:30 p.m. and six emergency crews responded, including Camel's Hump Backcountry Rescue Team, Colchester Technical Rescue, the Green Mountain Club, Mad River Valley Ambulance Service and Stowe Mountain Rescue.
The woman was finally brought off the mountain at about 1 a.m. on Friday. Lindner credited the caller with speeding the rescue because his information about the injured hiker's location and condition was specific and accurate.
"This gentleman gave a very excellent report so we knew precisely where the patient was and we knew what her injuries were," he said.
Richmond Rescue took the woman to Fletcher Allen Health Care by ambulance, he said.
Although Waterbury Backcountry Rescue has billed some people for the cost of retrieval in the past, Lindner said that is somewhat controversial because rescue crews don't want people to wait too late to call for help in hopes of avoiding a fee, thereby creating a more dangerous situation for themselves and rescue teams.
Lindner, who works at National Life during the day, said the 23 Waterbury Backcountry Rescue Team members all have day jobs, then come home at night and often receive a call out to a mountain for a rescue. Rescues typically require as many as 30 people to complete, so other nearby emergency services teams join the effort.
"It's just what we all signed up for," Lindner said of the job.
"But," he added, "we didn't quite sign up for this volume."
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