The difficulty of an SRT rescue

SoftBankHawks

SoftBankHawks

Branched out member
Location
Japan
I have been trying to sketch out a new risk assessment to hand to my crew and boss concerning aerial rescue and focusing on aspects of srt, like the difficulty of releasing the croll. I wondered if anybody had any ideas for this, or have rescue scenarious planned out that they could share. I have a scenario where the croll is cut away from the climber and realised that my treeflex harness would have to be cut as there is no other soft link...i'm sure you guys can come up with a better alternative. oh...this is with no trunk belay, the rescuer has to go up to the climber. thanks...
 
To release the Croll, you can create mechanical advantage (such as a RADS) using the Ascension above the victim as an anchor point. Or make an attachment point above with a prusik if the handled ascender is not available.
 
so do you mean....clip a grigri onto bottom of ascension, take a bite of rope from below croll and place in grigri, pull on rope to lift climbers weight of the croll?
 
sorry, I got that wrong...place pulley on ascension and grigri on bridge to form RADS, pull to release weight off of the croll.
so rescuer must have crab, pulley and grigri. trouble is my rescuer carries one rope, two prussik loops, and a lanyard...unless I carried the RADS system...
 
I wonder how long a proficient rescuer would take to do this, I'm acutely aware of suspension trauma...I like trunk belays...
 
Contrary to popular belief, suspension trauma is not a serious issue for tree climbers. More of a fall protection problem, not work positioning harnesses.
 
I had to do rescue trainings on a ropescourse I worked on. The scenario was a participant caught on a zip line and you had to go out and lower them. The tasks involved:

1. Verify they can't be self rescued.
2. Roll etrier out to them to take weight off harness
3. Grab rescue rope (always coiled on zip platform)
4. Uncoil, rig a rescue 8 to steel biner, pretie knot for victim, clip biner to cable, push out
5. If victim can't do a ground-guided lower (which couldn't happen in training) I go out, and do the maneuver myself.
6. Roll out, clip them in to the eight, have ground belay take the rope, I either lift victim to unclip initial tie-in, or cut their initial tie in. Ground and me lower victim.

This is regularly accomplished well below 5 minutes by people who have had a little bit of practice.

love
nick
 
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trouble is my rescuer carries one rope, two prussik loops, and a lanyard...unless I carried the RADS system...

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It's not reasonable to expect the rescuer to be up in the tree already and need to perform the rescue with the gear he's got on him. Usually the climber will be alone and the rescuer will come up from the ground. In that case, you should have a dedicated rescue kit that's in a dedicated bag and not used for anything else. It can have a few of the different items discussed here. It helps a lot to have stuff pre-rigged, like a 5:1 jigger (5:1 MA with rope clamp (Petzl microcender) at each end).
 
thanks guys, already I have a number of new ideas from your posts. I was led to believe that an unconcious climber would suffer from suspension trauma within minutes. I will have to do more research because it is still very much a grey area in my mind even after speaking to arb trainers and first aid trainers. I thought that it was KEY to get an unconcious climber supported as soon as possible...but advice says not to relieve that pressure after to long as the rush of toxins could damage internal organs...hmmm...any advice here?
TLHamel....who on earth are the two guys in your avatar? I've been meaning to ask you for ages....?!
 
1. Access the crown (not by the same line as casualty - it could be damaged).

2. Set up a RAD system as explained some distance above casualty (upside down), but with a rescuecender on a separate line.

3. Slide Rescuecender (with Rad line attached) down casualty's line. Take the strain. Cut casualty line and lower through the grigri.

Simple, very quick, straight up and down rescue. No need to descend to casualty. The casualty comes straight back down the line of ascent. If they need assisstance, then reverse the RAD and descend to casualty.

If the climber is out along a branch, they will already be on a descender type device, and so can easily be lowered as per a standard DdRT rescue.

No need to cut up that TreeFlex!
tongue.gif
 
No need to bother with any of that actually.

Standard UK rescue procedures will work just as effectively:

Use Method B or C, and carefully cut the casualty's line.

I don't see any special issues just because its SRT???
 
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Contrary to popular belief, suspension trauma is not a serious issue for tree climbers. More of a fall protection problem, not work positioning harnesses.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not (exactly) true. Any time your body is in a vertical position with no way to "stand up", you're susceptible to suspension trauma. If the victim is wearing a sit harness only, as opposed to a full-body, you might be splayed out in a horizontal(+/-) position rather than vertical, but you'll still get suspension trauma.

[ QUOTE ]
I was led to believe that an unconcious climber would suffer from suspension trauma within minutes. I will have to do more research because it is still very much a grey area in my mind even after speaking to arb trainers and first aid trainers. I thought that it was KEY to get an unconcious climber supported as soon as possible...but advice says not to relieve that pressure after to long as the rush of toxins could damage internal organs...hmmm...any advice here?

[/ QUOTE ]

All this is true.
Proper rescue protocol (after prolonged suspension) is to put victim in a stokes basket and keep them more-or-less vertical, then slowly lowered to a horizontal position.

This appears to be a good site:
http://www.suspensiontrauma.info/

http://www.osha.gov/dts/shib/shib032404.html

Miller makes a good product for industrial fall protection users in the case of a conscious victim:
Miller Relief Step
Of course, you can easily make this yourself of webbing and crabs.
 
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Of course, you're all familiar with [ QUOTE ]
Standard UK rescue procedures ... Method B or C

[/ QUOTE ], right?

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SoftbanksHawks will be. I was replying to his particular situation.

I should also add that a Petzl ID is rated for rescue loads if using the RAD for rescue.
 
I wasn't taught how to rescue a climber off mechanical ascenders for my NPTC qualification and neither was my groundsman and so this has become a special issue for my working day, espeically as I will be working with a unicender soon enough...unicender plus croll at all times in a work climb...that must open up new issues. My gut feeling is to work off a line choked at the TIP and not off a trunk belay...I'll have to see how things progress but that is the idea. Anyway so I could be on a croll after climbing back into a natural re-direct...I'm just trying to cover different angles and get my groundies up to speed. thanks again for the help guys.
 
For the CS38 qualification, I think you will have been taught method B; how to rescue a casualty with a stuck line?

Just treat being locked on ascenders as a stuck line. No need to get complex with rescue.
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Its rare that I work off SRT for various reasons.

You could block your line through the small ring of the friction saver, with a return line attached for repositioning. No risk of cutting a down rope that way but is retrievable.

I never run a saw until I'm off clamps and on a descender. Because this way I know I can self rescue instantly on a one hand descender like the Camp axel.

Some food for thought.
 
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