Jefferson Rescue

[Charlie]

maybe they know some one who knows some one who knows some one

[Breeze]

As I understand it, NHANG answers calls like these from NHF&G readily and treats the exercise as " active training time ". It is not billed to patients. Its not about who knows who, its about using and maintaining skills.

I have seen the helos, on occasion, tooling around the northern Presi's, and the readiness level for Resue Missions up there is well maintained. It is what they flight crews would be needed for in overseas operations, so real time training missions are reasonable and a huge gift in situations like this.


This particular party was well equipped to establish camp, and the brother of the victim ( an MD as well) encouraged waiting until daylight to send help. It was NH Fish and Game ( with Mike Pelchat) who made the call for the helo.

I certainly hope Dr. Cress recovers fully!

Breeze

[Bill O]

As I understand it, NHANG answers calls like these from NHF&G readily and treats the exercise as " active training time ". It is not billed to patients. Its not about who knows who, its about using and maintaining skills.

I have seen the helos, on occasion, tooling around the northern Presi's, and the readiness level for Resue Missions up there is well maintained. It is what they flight crews would be needed for in overseas operations, so real time training missions are reasonable and a huge gift in situations like this.


This particular party was well equipped to establish camp, and the brother of the victim ( an MD as well) encouraged waiting until daylight to send help. It was NH Fish and Game ( with Mike Pelchat) who made the call for the helo.

I certainly hope Dr. Cress recovers fully!

Breeze

Very well said. The media often gets it dead wrong when all they want to know is who is going to pay for the helicopter, amongst other things. They don't seem to grasp the economics of the military and the fact that this is valuable training for war and future rescues.

[Breeze]

Thanks Bill.

Jefferson is a nasty summit for a carry-out, especially with a head injury and possible C-spine trauma. Can't imagine NHF&G trying to effect a litter rescue down Caps Ridge Trail, not any better down the eastern side. This definitely needed an airlift.

NHANG IS US Military, and they ARE a product of our tax dollars, working hard at home.

It was just about 2 weeks ago that I saw a similar Helo appear out of the Great Gulf area and beat hard for Conway. There had been no rescue call, it was just a readiness training flight. There is a helo pad at The Memorial Hospital in Conway, where Emergency Plans need periodic drills, too, so keeping the training readiness fresh and including the local response teams would be a key mission for the whole community.

Breeze

[Bill O]

When you say it like that I guess a litter rescue would be hard off Jefferson. I keep thinking of Washington and there are so many options. You can usually take somebody to the summit and there's an escape line (Auto Road) that runs down one side of the mountain.

[WEMT]

Had this guy been bleeding out help would have been there much sooner. Those helicopters do fly in the dark.

Given that it was a non life-threatening injury they had much more wiggle room and were able to hunker down for the night

Instead of a couple of hours

DOT says on the street, a first responder must be on the scene within 10 minutes of dispatch. (Don't always make it, but that's the rule.)

Yes, Bill I understand, but suppose they had not been on (or easily accessible to) a summit... (Just putting in a plug for BE PREPARED)

[Maksutov]

Thanks Bill.

Jefferson is a nasty summit for a carry-out, especially with a head injury and possible C-spine trauma. Can't imagine NHF&G trying to effect a litter rescue down Caps Ridge Trail, not any better down the eastern side. This definitely needed an airlift....

Probably the easiest hiking rescue route would be the Appalachian Trail south to either the cog railway (if they'd cooperate with such an effort) or up to the summit and down the carriage road by vehicle.

Hope the good Dr. is OK.

Accidents happen, even to the most experienced climbers. For example...

The weather folk on the summit advised all persons who had hiked there on July 4, 1990 to depart the summit ASAP, since a cold front with a line of intense thunderstorms was coming in. My hiking partner and I went down the Tucks trail, turned left on the Alpine Garden trail and then over to Lion's Head, figuring this would be the quickest way to get below tree line.

Just before the steep pitch off Lion's Head, a big rock jumped up and bit my right knee. Lots of pain and blood but kept going. The sound of the thunder echoing off the Carter Range was a wonderful experience in stereo surround sound! Real, natural Fourth-of-July fireworks!

We were about 100 yards from the Pinkham Notch camp when the torrent started. A sprint and we were on the porch. There a gal from our party whom we had left in Tucks earlier (she was out of gas and turned back) checked out my knee and did some EMT work on it. Why do patients tend to fall in love with their nurses?

Anyway she did a wonderful job, such that the next day I was able to climb to Square Ledge with her.