02/28-03/01 Nordic Patrol weekend report

[Sid]

Saturday -2/28 - 3 patrollers: Daniel H, Keren T, and myself

We got to the EOC for GAR and were informed by the rangers that there was an ongoing SAR. A pair of climbers had called in the night before reporting an injury to one of the members. He slid down while approaching Camp Muir, injuring his hip and yard sale-ing his gear. They somehow got into the shelter and spent the night there because of high winds. In the morning, they spoke to the rangers and the injured party was described as "semi-ambulatory" (which meant felt better than the previous night, but still wasn't moving). They sent up a hasty team (two winter techs: Ryan and Winnie) to meet up with the group who were planning on attempting to walk down, three MRAs to act as a tech/rigging team to set up an anchor and ropes at Pan Point (in case assistance was needed to get down the steep sections) and Nordic carrying up the litter. We carried the litter up to the top of Pan Point and waited/conducted PSAR. The patient chose to attempt walking down instead of stopping and getting loaded into the litter and was able to get himself down safely. At which point we packed up the sled and headed down as well (we got down a little after gate closing).

Some learnings - we tried out a few different configurations, but with the amount of gear and weight and three patrollers, we found that dragging the sled was easier than carrying it until the base of Pan. We loaded it on our packs to get to the top. And we pushed/dragged the sled the whole way down.

Sunday 03/01 - 10 (!!) patrollers:

Nordic 1: Scott Schopman, Matthew R., Scott S, Ryan M.

We started at Narada, went up Devil's Dip and added 4 more poles to the lower section. Then we went up to 4th crossing, looked at the bowls and decided not to ski it and did a quick refresher and practiced digging hand pits.

Nordic 2: Dennis D., Daniel H., Matt H.

Reset poles from Narada to Reflection Lakes. Skied the refrigerator on the way back.

Nordic 3: Alli L., Helaina H., Summer E.

PSAR around Edith Creek and the base of Pan. Checked/reset poles at the bridge and the waterfall by Alta Vista.

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The truck is 3/4ths full and the Expedition is half-full. We tried to fill it up, but the park lost power as we were coming down and as a result, the pump was not operational.

House stuff:

• We have new dish towels for the kitchen
• We could do with cleaning supplies for both bathrooms - toilet bowl cleaning brush and gel
• The fireplace was on when we got there on Friday night - likely left on all week. It was likely turned on along with the thermostat, and then instead of killing the gas it was left on with the temperature set low, so when the thermostat went down to 65 during the week, the fireplace was likely cycling on and off the whole time. That is dangerous - let's make it a point to go over instructions on operating the fireplace (potential taskbook item?).

- Sid