El Dorado County Search & Rescue

It's around 1:15 pm and I am walking my dog behind my house near Osgood Swamp when I start to hear sirens. Hmmm, I say, something big must be going on. After about 10 minutes, I hear Brian Schafer from Lake Valley Fire come up and say to Central "I just want to confirm that a SAR coordinator is enroute". This perks my attention and I start to head back to my house with a quickened pace.

When I hear that the SAR is for an injured climber hanging 100 ft. off the ground, I start to run. As I am returning, I suddenly realize that I have no car (I had taken it to the shop that morning to get a new exhaust system) and with no car I have no gear. Luckily Lynda gives me a ride to Caltrans where, along with Pat Hambel, who plays hooky from work and pulls in at the same time, we hop in 901 and take off.

We turn onto Hwy 59 with fan belts screaming and smoke pouring from the back, but the tired old engine doesn't quit just yet. Enroute to the call I hear that the climber is actually on Hogsback, the dome in the middle of the valley, and not Lovers Leap. With the focus now on Hogsback, I decide to go in from Slippery Ford (aka Rock Crusher) rather than the Strawberry Campground location that Lake Valley is staged at because it is shorter and quicker. John Truesdell joins us at that location and we all start in.

It's not long before we meet up with Lake Valley personnel and a litter full of gear about half way up the trail and right there at the turn off to Hogsback. We grab some gear off the stokes to lighten their load and head for the top, with Schafer about 100 yards ahead of us. We catch him and proceed to the top of where we believe the route called "Deception" tops out.

Once on top, it was decided to lower one person and use a full main and belay setup, Lynda took belay, John took brake, and Pat was assigned to edge, while I got set up to go over. The lower went nice and smooth - around 300 feet to reach the patient.

Once there I stabilized the patient with the help of an off duty ER nurse and Joe Anderson, and when that was done, I was lowered the rest of the way to the bottom. There I picked up the stokes and Donnie Periera, who had helped lug the litter in all the way to the bottom. As soon as the system on top was switched over to a haul (which was very fast I may add) Donnie and I were raised back up to the patient, where we packaged him into the litter. After the system on top was changed back to a lowering one once again, we tied in and accompanied the litter back down to the base and to a point where medics could take over patient care.

Once down, Scott Swift from Lake Valley and myself discussed what to do next and we came up with two ideas. One was to short haul or hoists him out, and the second was to cross the river at the bottom of the canyon. Crawford checked the availability of H20 and they were unavailable so rather than hike him out the trail we decided to take the patient across the river.

With the help of several climbers, the team evacuated the patient down the steep scree slope remaining before the river. Once at the bottom, a small highline had to be set up. Two firefighters crossed with the rope to set up a fixed anchor with a tagline on the roadside of the river. On our side, we set up a haul system to tension the line so no one would get wet.

First across was the patient and he was in the ambulance by 3:00, pretty good considering we got toned out at 1:30. As soon as that was taken care of we got the rest of our gear and our people over to the roadside as well. The line was torn down, Mike Sukau from the SO got us all back to our various vehicles and locations and we all wrapped up with a debrief at Station 7.

First the positives, we had a great turn out, everything went smoothly and professionally, and no one got hurt. Now for the points that need to be improved upon. I personally wasn't prepared for this; I had none of my personal gear (it was all in my car at the shop). I should have thought ahead enough to order an air resource well before the patient reached the ground, and, at the river I should have set the highline up faster. These weren't major things but the next time this happens, I, along with the rest of the team, will be more prepared for these types of situations. Second we still have a person or two coming up on the air when they shouldn't be. This can be dangerous, I was covered several times by unnecessary traffic as I was trying to ask the crew at the top to slow clown my descent.

I would like to personally thank those that showed up, they were: