Red River Gorge volunteers discuss what goes into hiker rescues
Republished from WEKU.
Earlier this month, rescue crews at the Red River Gorge made national news after saving a hiker who had been missing in the canyon for two weeks. The high-profile case is one of many operations gorge rescue teams undertake.
The Red River Gorge covers around 29,000 acres of forest, cliffs and rugged terrain. For curious hikers, it can be easy to get lost if exploring off the trails.
John May is the chief of Wolfe County Search and Rescue, one of the teams that helps hikers in such situations.
The 50-man unit is entirely made of volunteers, who are on standby on top of their day jobs.
“We’ve averaged anywhere from 80 to 90 rescues a year. That’s over one a week, so we stay really busy,” May said. “We’re probably one of the most active rescue teams in the eastern part of the United States, just because of the area that we cover.”
May says it’s mostly a matter of just getting adventure seekers back on track. Most of their rescue operations involve reaching lost hikers over their cell phone and are done remotely.
“We actually send them a link to their cell phone, they click on that link, and then their location appears on our SARTopo map, so then we know exactly where they are,” May said. “And in that case, we may opt to give them directions on how to get back on trail, or a heading on how to make their way back to the trailhead.”
SARTopo is a topographic radar rescue teams use to map the entire gorge, and track where a missing person might be located.
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For multi-day operations, it’s used to track areas where rescue teams have searched, their paths and places they might not have checked yet.
“If they have cell servers, we can see them back in Incident Command, exactly where they are and what they’re doing. So it sends that track back in real time,” May said. “So at the end of the day, at the end of that operational period, you look at that map, and you can see areas that you haven’t been into yet.”
They’ll also start to use other tools or dog teams to help with in-person tracking. Some members have taken classes to better find signs of human activity in the forest.
“As humans, we leave signs everywhere we go. I mean, if we walked through this wooded area that we’re in right now, we would leave signs that we’ve been there,” May said. “Could be broken twigs on the ground, dew on leaves that, if it was in the morning, you can see where the dew’s been knocked off the grass.”
In rare cases, family and friends of a missing person might find personal belongings that might help provide the rescue team with clues.
That’s what happened during the Scott Hern rescue earlier this month, and part of what led to him being found.
“When they started looking at this diary, they were like, ‘Oh, he’s been coming here for a couple of months.’ So they sent us pictures of the diary. Bell Falls was in there, Sal Branch Falls was in there, and that’s where his vehicle was parked at,” May said.
Getting injured people out of the gorge can depend on their condition. It can involve carrying them out for miles on a stretcher, or using special rope gear if they’ve fallen off a cliff.
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In more extreme cases, teams will get assistance from the National Guard to help with helicopter extraction.
“We’ve done raises as high as 150, 160 feet that people have survived – you know, seriously injured, but they’re alive, so we have to get over the cliff, provide medical care and get them packaged, and then raise them up the cliff, sometimes carry them out for miles,” May said.
An Emergency Medical Services team is also on hand to help with any on-site treatment. David Fifer is the founder and coordinator of RedSTAR EMS, the Gorge’s wilderness treatment team.
“When you’re having a given medical condition in your living room, you generally are not having to worry about temperature and weather patterns and hydration status and all these sorts of things,” Fifer said.
Those outdoor conditions are what Fifer calls “environmental pathologies” – the underlying reasons why a lost hiker like Hern might feel fatigued or sick.
“When we, you know, locate somebody like Mr. Hern after basically two weeks of being exposed in those environments, those are some of the big considerations,” Fifer said. “What’s his nutrition status? How much has he had to drink? And what has he been basically exposed to in those elements?”
Because of that, the actual treatment that’s performed can depend from outing to outing.
“We are prepared for whatever we might find, and we carry a wide range of equipment, a wide range of medications, and we have a wide range of treatment abilities,” Fifer said.
For prospective hikers, stories like Hern’s are cautionary tales. Fifer says it’s a good idea to prepare beforehand.
“A lot of these calls could be avoided if people focused a little bit more on checking the weather, being honest with themselves about their own fitness level and bringing what’s usually referred to as the ten essentials,” Fifer said.
The National Park Service says those essentials include a navigation system, sun protection, insulation like a jacket or gloves, a flashlight, a first-aid kit, a firestarter, a repair kit, extra food, extra water and an emergency shelter.
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Originally published by WEKU.
Republished with permission.
