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Pollock Pines Power House Rescue!
2000
If the phone rings at 3:00 in the morning, you have two thoughts, either one of your kids is in trouble or there is a search! Hopefully the latter! As I answer the phone I learn there is a rescue.
A woman has sprained her ankle while hiking down the steep canyon to EID's newly acquired Project 184. The woman's companion walked out and called 911. Station 25 responded, but isn't able to get the woman out due to a lack of manpower and darkness. They have also abandoned their litter while trying to locate the woman. They are not moving anymore until we get there.
Four of us arrive on scene, Earl Hoffman, Bill Fisher, Frank Munoz and myself, and listen to what has happened to this point. With only four from the technical team and three firemen, we know we will have our work cut out for us. We head down to the powerhouse to meet up with Mike Golub, Ray Pledger, and the Dold's, Megan and Phil.
The OHV team has been out all night on another search. They were happy to be relieved so they could go get some sleep before going to work, in another hour or two??? Although we could have used their manpower, they were exhausted and we heard that there was a Growlersberg Crew (Prison Conservation Crew), in the area that could help out. We learn at this point there is a medic with the woman and her companions, and the other two firemen were working their way to the powerhouse.
As we unload the equipment, the firemen arrive and tell us what equipment they have on scene and we pack up some more gear and head out. We carry the litter up the STEEP grade, incline, hill, mountain, whatever you want to call it, and we wish we had more help.
When we reached the height we needed we had to start cutting through the heavy brush toward the woman. The Growlersberg Crew arrived at this time, and caught up to us in almost no time. Oh, to be in better shape! Now we had fifteen more bodies! They see the brush we are heading into and volunteer to go get their chain saws and cut a path in for us. It sounded great to me. We continued to break brush while they cut a path in behind us.
Several hundred yards later we arrive on scene. At this point we were seventy-five feet above the woman on a steep embankment. Not a high angle rescue, but definitely a steep angle rescue, (40 to 60 degrees).
You practice and practice through the years and when it is time to put it to work you assign duties, make changes in your mind and reassign duties. The litter goes down with the firemen and Earl. They package the woman for transport. Bill and Frank tie anchors and we take a three to one mechanical advantage, (come to some of my classes to learn about this!) down to the litter.
With six on the litter and the rest of the Growlersberg Crew hauling we haul the litter up to our location. Worked very nice, no real strain on anyone, pretty textbook, what a relief! The trail we head out on is still steep and not a real trail, or so I thought! The Growlersberg Crew with the chain saws has broken through to us and was in the process of leveling the trail. Unbelievably fast! We still attach ropes to the litter for a belay in case someone e slips.
It is slow moving but all of the Growlersberg crew changes places and we get the litter to the penstock grade. We now have to go back down the steep grade to the powerhouse. Once again with six on the litter and the rest holding onto the rope for balance, they are belayed to the bottom with out any real problem, until the last fifty feet. This is pretty vertical and slippery with water coming down the side of the mountain.
Overall, a very good rescue. Could we have done anything different? Yes have more SAR personnel on site. Would I like to have more equipment, yes a lightweight fiberglass litter for carryouts and not just the heavy stainless steel litter we use for high angle. But more importantly having more trained SAR personnel for carryouts. We were lucky to have the Growlersberg Crew this time. Next time will we have to wait for a second call out for more personnel to arrive???
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