CARA (Catalina) repeater helps in Mount Baldy rescue!

[WA6ARC]

Saturday afternoon around 3:00PM on July 11, 2009, I was monitoring
the
CARA repeater (Catalina Amateur Radio Assn.) on my base station, when
I
heard a call; "is there anybody listening", I responded; "probably
about 300 people" and the caller said he was on his HT hiking around
the Mt. Baldy area, he said he was about 2.5 miles off road and
resting
at the wilderness San Antonio Ski Hut and that a few hikers had
arrived
from farther in the backcountry claiming one of their group of 15,
had
broken his ankle and was a mile or more up the trail and they needed
help. Mt Baldy is the highest peak in the San Gabriel Mountains and
the highest point in Los Angeles County, California and Mount San
Antonio is at 9,900 feet above sea level.



I had my computer on and asked the caller for his call sign and
name, he responded: KE6MTF, Kirk , th
ey matched and I proceeded to
ask he had a cell phone and he told me there was no cell service on
anybody's phone. I told him I would coordinate emergency services
over my land line and asked for his exact location. Kirk did an
excellent job, he had a good idea of where he was but was not sure
of the County he was in, however someone there had GPS coordinates.
I
called 911 and was transferred three times until it was determined
that
he was in San Bernardino County and the Sheriff dispatch, Chelsea
helped coordinate the rescue with San Bernardino Fire, who sent a
foot
patrol and dispatched a helicopter to meet someone at the Ski Hut to
take them where the hiker was down. It took a little less then an
hour for emergency services to get above the location in a helicopter
and they were not able to land the helicopter because of the rocky
terrain at the ski lift. Meanwhile the group of 15 hikers had
gotten
the injured party down the trail to the Ski Hut and had his leg
stabilized and determined it was probably not broken but they still
did
not feel they could carry him out as the trail down from the
wilderness
Ski Lift was so steep.



The dispatcher called back and said they would need to perform a skid
rescue, where they drop and suspend from the helicopter, a bed
basket,
where the=2
0victim is secured and pulled out in this manor. The
dispatchers also asked if there were any other needs such as; food,
water etc. and there were not. After about 15 minutes from arriving
on site they were working to perfect the rescue and the victim was
air
lifted out, successfully, without further complications.



Kirk KE6MTF and HAM radio, saved the day, he had a good signal into
the
repeater and he had a spare battery with him and he needed it,to be
able to stay in communication thru the rescue. Folks on the CARA
repeater where very gracious to respect the traffic and keep
communications open during the rescue. Many thanks to CARA club for
their awesome reach in southern California on 2 meters @ 147.090, +
offset, no PL. This is such an excellent example of the benefits
of
Ham Radio If people had to hike out of the wilderness and get to
their cars and find a cell signal, they might have been pushing up
against the loss of daylight hours and rescue would have been
significantly more difficult and might have included more people then
just the initial injured party, meanwhile a couple of HAM radio
operators, stood in the balance. I was very pleased how everyone I
spoke to with emergency services, seemed very used to and willing to
use a HAM radio operator, to ask questions back and forth with Kirk
=0
Ain the wilderness, to gain all the information they wanted. They
all
knew what HAM radio was and accepted the call as if I was calling
about
something in my own back yard, in Vista CA, San Diego County, when
the
problem was several counties away in the mountains, several hundred
miles away from me, with people, I didn't know. I am proud to
have
had the opportunity to use my license in an emergency service
situation. As a CERT member, this was the very reason I got my HAM
radio license, for, in the first place!



Attached below are a few I-Phone pics taken just prior to rescue.



Rich

KI6RRQ

760-806-0070