Anyone done a real AR?

[Tom Dunlap]

I'd like to hear about any real AR's that have been performed. What lead to the accident? How did the rescue take place? Outcome?

Many years ago a homeowner was cutting down a tree when I came to bid the work. They had the ladder leaning against the tree and 2x4s cleated on treehouse-stlye. I was too late for the bid so I headed back out to my van. when I heard the saw start I turned to look and knew that the climber was going to get hurt. The top branches banged the cutter. By the time I got into the back yard, the climber had started down the ladder. He was wobbly so I got behind him on the ladder and talked him down. He was leaning his butt out so far that he might have fallen. I spotted his feet onto the rung. The ambulance came and we backboareded the guy. He got a gash on the back of his head. Two weeks later they finished cutting the tree down.

Tom

 

[roachy]

Lucky for me I have never rescued anything but a few "20 yr"climbers who were stuck to the tree like winnie the phoo.just dropped them.

 

[davespencer]

1 ar but not in a tree.
I was climbing a mountain in Alberta with a friend and he took a 75 ft zipper while we were 1200 ft in the air. As he fell, all of his gear slung on his shoulder and his backpack with our first aid kit flew away and landed on a ledge 800 ft down. I had to rappel to where he was hanging and due to a lack of gear, had to treat him while suspended. After about 1 hour I was able to get the attention of some other climbers who were able to traverse across to us. Using their gear we lowered him down to a ledge where we could further treat him. I took 6 hours for a helicopter to come and pull us off the mountain. If I did not know first aid I'm sure he would have died (he agrees).

Oh yeah, For the first hour I had my feet against the rock and the guy on my lap. I could not walk properly for several days from the damage done to my legs by the harness.

List of injuries-
severe concusion causing 1 eye to drift and grey stuff to leak from ear(he was wearing a helmet)
jaw broken in 18 places (now titanium(good in a fight))
collar bone broken
some bone in shoulder broken
every rib on left side broken except one
punctured lung
ruptured spleen
broken hip
cartiledge damage in knee

Neither of us have done a whole lot of rock climbing since then

Dave Spencer

 

[tod_k]

A fella that worked for us performed one while he was working for line clearance. A co-worker was in a sruce tree clearing the wire and got zapped ( indirect contact). He layed upsidedown for a few minutes 911 was called and the fella spliked up with a layard tied in, but his lanyard around the victom to keep him upright. and lowered via the 2 seperate climbing systems. The victom made a full recovery. The line clearnce company had verbal commands on what to do if an ar needed to be performed. The training payed off. Everyone on the crew knew exactly what to do.

 

[D_kraus]

I did a real rescue in the late 80's. This was before I had any exposure to proper safty procedures.
Another climber and I along with a ground man were doing line clearance in the woods. We would hike in in the morning then hike out in the afternoon. On our hike out we had to go up a small cliff. There were lines set at the bases of trees that we had used to repel down in the morning. I was a bit ahead of my partners. I body thrusted up and keep walking. Shortly after, I heard screams and yelling. I dropped everything (dumb) and ran back.
At the scene it was the climber screaming and the ground man yelling. He had been yelling for me to bring my gear, so seeing me without it he ran to get it. The climber was suspended in the air 25 feet down. He was tied in to a tree at the top where I was and lanyard in to a big tree that had fallen over. He had decided to climb the tree that was growing on the cliffside instead of bodythrusting. He had just put on his flipline when the tree fell over.
It was about 18" in diameter where he was at. He was being cut in half and screaming bloody murder. He was yelling "cut the rope, cut the rope!" If I had cut the rope I would have sent him and the tree down the cliffside, not good.
So I grabbed his line and slid down to him, zip line style. Once I was to him I stood on a dirt ledge next to him, and grabbed his saw off his belt. I pulled the starter cord right out tring to start it. By this time the groundman had returned and lowered my saw down to me. I cut the top off the tree, then cut the bottom off. He swung onto the dirt ledge that I was on and let out a scream of relief.
He was black and blue around the middle, and bought me a few beers that night.
I was lucky I didn't become a second victim in my panicked haste to do something

 

[klimbinfool]

The first Ar I was involved in, was actauly doing areial rescue training on a dummy. It was about 105 deg that day and the last guy to up was our oldest and most out of shape, (So called climber) He huffed and puffed up to the dummy, wrestled around with the darn thing for about ten minuts.The dummy , wich I will refer to as Bill, Bills legs where hooked over a limb. The climbers was fliplined into Bill, but below him.Being that he struggled for so long with Bill, heat exhaustion took over and was wore out. he couldnt even unclip himself from Bill to let himself down.

I always have someone in the tree , if it isnt me for safty reasons. seeing what was happening, I motioned for the saftey climber to help out and bring him down.

The heat exausted climber went to the hospital for check up and was back to work a couple of days later.

Same climber two years later had the same thing happen to him. Knowing he was out of shape , I had him climb the smaller of the two Camphor trees. I finished mine and the walked over to the groundman and asked why the climber was just standing up in the tree not doing anything. I yelled up to the guy and asked if he was alright. He told me he was just reasting. I knew something was wrong, So I went up to help him out.The climber was very red and pooring sweat. He just looked haggard. I said to him , " I think you need to go down, " he said, I think I can do that one limb." watching him he struggled on a very simple latteral. Never making it to his destination, I told him to come back in and head down.Slowly he did. Resting at the trunk for a bit and then slowly went to the ground. Mean while I motioned for the groundman to call for help. The climber layed on the gound for about a half hour before he was taken to the imediate care.He was givin plenty of water by the way and was cared for while I finished the tree.

The third Ar was a 250lb guy who was climbing some small Sycamore trees with me and he popped his knee out of joint.Screeming like a injured Cyote I asked what was wrong. Just before I entering the tree, his knee popped back in and he was able to come down on his own., But unable to walk. The ambulance showed up about two minuts after he got to the ground.He was fine , but he didnt climb for the rest of his tree crew career.

The forth was actually at a climbing seminar that i was helping put on in the Bay area. It was kind of comicle.

I was running the entry station when I hered a bunch of comotion going on. So I walked over to find a bunch of fellaes staning around the tree . The climber had dislocated his shoulder and he was fading in and out from the pain. A climber was in the tre with him holding him steady while another climber was trying to set a line. (Jared Abrojena)..This was a tree only 50' max set up for a small work climb.Jared was having a hell of a time, must have been nervous, so I kind of chuckled and ask if he wanted me to set the line, wich I did and then he went up.
The climber was only 25 to 30 ' off the ground , but couldnt be moved without secoundary help to stablize him. 911 was called first thing, but we were put on hold, could you believe that !. It took the paramedics over 45min to get there. We all kind of laughed and thought, "man glad this wasnt a really seriouse one".The climber was ok and from what I understood he did the same thing about a year down the road.
I guess the point behind this AR was, no matter how many good climbers we had there, how do we really act under real cenario . I guess its hard to say , unless it happens to you .

Greg