|
10.
Search and Rescue Activities
LAM History Index |
Go
to Previous Topic |
Go to Next Topic Some years after the
Maroon Bells accident, Pauline Ungnade (Herbert Ungnade's widow) donated
funds to the club for search and rescue equipment, including a complete
litter assembly. The Mountaineers set up a calling list for rescue
activities and were sometimes called out by the Los Alamos Civil Defense
organization. In 1972, after the accident on Blanca Peak and the
fatality in Yosemite, on the initiative of Larry Campbell, Eiichi
Fukushima, and Len Margolin, the club formally established the position
of Search and Rescue Director, with Len Margolin as the first Director. In 1975 the Mountaineers rescue team
consisted of 20 active rock and/or snow climbers, many with Advanced
First Aid or Emergency Medical Technician training.
The club's search and rescue team contributed to numerous local
searches, including a night-time search for a missing person in White
Rock Canyon and a climbers' search for a lost hiker on Hermit Peak near
Las Vegas. Eiichi Fukushima recalls that the club's team participated in
a search for a downed airplane in Cimarron Canyon and found some live
and some dead people. On a lighter note, Eiichi also participated in a
search for some women who had become lost while hiking in the Pecos near
the Santa Fe ski basin. Len Margolin was part of both the Cimarron
Canyon search and the Santa Fe Ski Basin search. He recalls that Herb
Kincey played a very important role in both of these episodes. Herb
Kincey was a strong supporter of the Mountaineers' climbing school and
also worked closely with the St. John's College search and rescue team.
Len said that "The Cimarron Canyon search started late on a winter
afternoon in the middle of a blizzard. Larry Dauelsberg, Don Liska, Bob
Mitchell and I set off on snow shoes through already deep snow; we had
some cooking gear and sleeping bags, but no tent. The missing plane had
a signal device (DF?) and we had some device to track the signal. The
first evening we followed several signal tracks, but each ended on the
steep cliffs on the west side of the canyon. Finally, we bivouacked for
the night. I remember we all huddled under a waterproof tarp, trying to
stay dry and conserve our communal warmth."
"The following day, we started out at first light and followed a third
track, which also ended at the cliffs. At this point, we were getting
frustrated, but when we radioed our lack of success to Herb at base
camp, he got very excited. Herb had figured out what was happening,
essentially that we were tracking signals reflected from the rock walls.
This meant that the plane had to be on the east side of the canyon.
Furthermore, having three tracks Herb was able to triangulate the
probable source and sent us directly to the plane. The plane had had two
couples on board. When we got there, the two women were still in the
plane's back seat, with assorted broken bones but otherwise okay. The
two men had survived the crash in better shape, but had left the plane
looking for help and both were found later frozen to death."
"The Santa Fe Ski Basin search started without us. Two women hikers had
been out in the general area of Penitente Peak/Skyline Ridge; they had
camping gear, but were several days overdue when the search began. The
various Search and Rescue groups, including horsemen and dogs, found no
trace of the women the first day. Then, Herb Kincey recognized a
possible scenario: that the women had gotten disoriented and descended
into the drainage of the Santa Fe reservoir rather than back to the ski
area. Herb requested a group of mountaineers to work their way from
Penitente Peak down into the drainage and then to follow it back to
Santa Fe. Eiichi Fukushima, Ken Ewing and I, and a fourth whom I cannot
remember anymore, responded."
"Herb warned us we would probably just have a pleasant walk in an area
that is normally closed to hikers. But, in fact, Herb's surmise turned
out to be exactly correct. We had made our way about half way down this
very long drainage, which was choked with downed trees and thick
vegetation. Eiichi and I had lapsed into some conversation about
science. Ken, taking his responsibilities more seriously, walked ahead
yelling out every few minutes. Suddenly, his yell was answered by four
very loud pistol shots. The women, knowing that they were lost, had made
camp and were waiting patiently to be found. They were hungry and we had
carried lots of food. So Eiichi prepared a meal and I was elected to
take our radio and climb a high ridge to let the other searchers know of
our find. Even on top of the ridge, the signal was weak and so I climbed
a tree to improve reception. I remember asking Herb to be sure to have a
car meet us at the end of Canyon Road, but I needn't have worried. A
huge crowd, including several reporters, were waiting for us when we
emerged several hours later."
The Mountaineers used to conduct annual rescue practices at the Back
Rocks or the White Rock "Y." Ken Ewing often volunteered to be
"rescued," and endured many bumps while being lowered in the litter.
Once Ken also had the thrilling experience of being lifted up into an
army helicopter while strapped into a litter. Ken learned how to carry
an injured person by having them sit in a coiled rope and then strapping
the rope to his shoulders so they could ride on his back. Sometimes,
when people died, they willed their climbing equipment to Ken, and he
donated it to the club's equipment cage at the Fire Station on Arkansas
Street.
Fig.
1. Herb Kincey and the Mountaineers carry the litter during
search and rescue practice at the "Y." (Bob Cowan photo, April 1972).
The club also received a lot of generous help from Herb Kincey
in Santa Fe, who used to operate a climbing store in his house. Len Margolin
recalls that "Herb was always concerned for safety and helped to
formulate many of the belaying techniques that we used. He also taught a
great many young climbers to respect the cliffs." Ken Ewing once jumped
out of a helicopter during a rescue exercise with college students from
St. John's. He landed badly and hit his knee very forcefully, leaving
him with a permanent limp.
The club's search and rescue expertise also came in good stead at the
Brazos cliffs. Len Margolin was involved in a rescue at the Brazos in
the early 1970's. He recalls that "Two young climbers had gotten most of
the way up the gully east of Easy Ridge, which was later named the
Bowling Alley in recognition of its constant rock fall. However, the
climbers were unable to exit the final overhang and instead managed to
rappel most of the way down before running out of hardware and daylight.
They were stuck about 6 pitches up and had managed to attract attention
by yelling. Bob Hobson, steward of the main cliffs and good friend to
the Mountaineers, called the state police, specifically asking for Don
Liska and me to respond for a rescue."
"Early the next morning, Don and I were flown north by a local Civil Air
Patrol pilot, Stretch Fretwell. On the way, Stretch decided to buzz the
cliffs to give us "the big picture" before dropping us off at the
unpaved airstrip at the Brazos Land & Cattle Ranch. However, with the
plane flying nearly 90 degrees from horizontal and with the cliffs so
close we could almost touch them, both Don and I became airsick and had
to plead with Stretch not to take a second pass."
"Stretch did take two passes in landing, one to scare the cows off the
small dirt airstrip and the second to land. We were met by the state
police, transported to the Brazos Lodge, and were at the base of the
cliffs roping up by 10 AM. Other LAMC climbers were driving up with the
Stokes litter, in case an evacuation was required, and so Don and I went
up to assess the situation. In fact, both climbers were fine, if cold
and hungry. We were greeted with the question 'got any food'?"
"This was a rescue with a happy ending. We all rappelled down and walked
out on our own feet. The young climbers had acted responsibly, although
LAM rules would have frowned upon a trip with only one rope team. Don
and I were treated to a good dinner at the Lodge, courtesy of the
Hobsons. We were also offered a flight back home, which we declined in
favor of a ride with the state police. I believe the successful
conclusion of this rescue was a major factor in persuading Bob Hobson to
allow continued climbing on the cliffs."
The club's search and rescue expertise was again required at the Brazos in June 1978,
when there was a rock climbing accident on Central Rib in the Brazos,
about 1000 feet up on the cliff. Club member Don Shirk took a lead fall
and broke his leg at 3 PM in the afternoon, and he had to spend the
night on the cliff with his partner. Norbert Ensslin and his partner
rappelled back to the ground, getting down just after dark, and phoned
Len Margolin to start the rescue operation. The next day, Don Liska,
Len Margolin, Lou Horak, Larry Dauelsberg, and other experienced
mountaineers climbed up to the injured climber and conducted a full
scale rescue operation to lower him to the ground in a litter and get
him to the hospital. Don Shirk had spent the night wrapped in a down
jacket, but his partner had spent the night freezing and shivering on
the ledge next to him. That same person had experienced a serious case
of heat prostration on an earlier Grand Canyon trip. When he came down
from the cliffs, he couldn't help noting that "you really get your
money's worth on Mountaineers' trips!"
Over the course of time, some senior club members like Larry Campbell
and Hank Blackwell shifted their focus from climbing to search and
rescue and became certified Search and Rescue directors for the State of
New Mexico. And, the club itself dropped out of this activity in
1988, when New Mexico State Highway Patrol rules for training and
certification made it too difficult for the club to obtain and maintain
certification. Jan Studebaker was our last Search and Rescue director; a
job he held for two years.
LAM History Index |
Go
to Previous Topic |
Go to Next Topic
.
|
