Cindy Purcell
our correspondent in the wilderness
Training Day
Wednesday, Feb 25, 2004 (11:23
AM)
Today I'm working the middle shift, covering law enforcement patrol duties in the main canyon. I'll respond to calls for assistance from visitors and try to slow down speeders on the main road.
We also have Search and Rescue Team training today, so I came on duty two hours early to participate. In our rescue scenario today, the 'victim' had fallen and broken his leg on the lower cliffs of the Lady Mountain route. The Lady Mountain route is what I would call nature's most difficult stair-master. The climb requires scrambling over slick rock faces, using webbing hand lines to navigate up and down chimney formations and literally clawing your way to the top. Given the steepness and loose rock on this route, the potential exists for a serious injury and a very difficult rescue.
The SAR team had to figure out the safest way to get the fallen climber down to the parking lot. We decided on a guiding line: several rescuers climb above the patient while another rescuer is lowered down below. The patient is then tied into a litter and, using the guiding line, both rescuer and patient are lowered to a paved trail about 800 feet further down. At this point, a wheel can be put on the litter and the patient is wheeled over the paved trail to the parking lot. It's a very slick operation.
Today was a good training day, despite the constant rain. We all looked like a bunch of drowned rats when it was done. That doesn't dampen anyone's spirits, though. We enjoy the change. Zion is in the desert southwest, and we average only about fourteen inches of precipitation a year. On a day like today, the rain and snow provides a contrast that gives depth to the cliffs and brings life into the canyon. While the visitors run inside to get out of the rain, the rangers run outside to look for waterfalls.
I'll spend the rest of the day on the road, keeping an eye out for rock falls or the snow on the east side that makes our roads slick and dangerous to travel. I drive past Checkerboard Mesa, and the snow on its face defines the striations of rock that explain the name. The clouds are hanging low across the cliffs and the only sound is that of a light falling rain. It's a great evening in Zion, a perfect time to hunker down by the woodstove next to the Virgin River with a good book.
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Cindy Purcell
