Jtree "rescue"?

My wife and I decided to take a quick trip to jtree shooting to be there early evening, climb that evening, sleep, wake up, climb in the early morning and then head home to beat the heat.

We got there in the evening and i was racking up on the west face of Intersection Rock in Hidden Valley Campground. As I was racking up I heard a panicked european voice saying, "I will go to the visitor center and call 9-1-1 just stay there!" and then heard a car tear off. This obviously made my ears stick up so I walked over to the south side of Intersection Rock and saw an older male sitting high on the face with just shoes and chalk bag. After talking with him I discovered he was free soloing and fell and shattered his ankle. Game on.

Now. I am no rescue wizard by a LONG shot. I have currently been really studying and practicing self rescue to make sure I am sharp for myself and partner but compared to most people I am pretty fresh in this world. So I figured I would give this a shot and try my best to help this man until I felt I was putting myself or wife in danger. I am only posting this because i realize what an amazing learning experience this was for me and would love to get input from the more seasoned on what I did right, wrong, or anything I could've done better.

I ended up just tying an overhand on a bight on the end of my rope end put my fattest heaviest locker on the bight. I clipped it to my harness as basically just a tag line. A few meters down the rope I tied another overhand on a bight and clipped my wifes harness (he didnt have one or anything) a double length sling and a couple lockers. I climbed up the first 20 or so feet of the route below him. I felt I was close enough to have a chance at throwing my rope up to him with that heavy ass locker on it. I realized I could easily come off balance throwing the rope so I tied a figure eight on a bight, shoved a .5 x4 in, and got myself in direct to it just in case? I throw the rope and he caught it first try.

This is wear I realized the individual I was attempting to help was very inexperienced. When I realized he didnt even know how to put the harness on I asked him if he would even be able to tie into it and his response was, "no I dont think i remember..i'll just tie the rope around my waist." great. He said he was gonna just drape my rope around a feature in the rock and he said he would just "hand over hand" his way down? I said I have no idea what your even saying and told him to throw the sling I gave him around said feature put a locker on it and clip the rope in (it was tied around his waist now). Once he did that I down climbed the route and put him on belay. I told him before he weighted the rope that i could not see the feature he had slung and it is totally on his judgement. He said it looked fine and weighted the rope.

I lowered him to the ground and gave him water. i was able to just flick the rope and pop the sling of the feature (bomber ha). But i got my bootied sling and locker back so sweet. He couldnt even stand on his right leg so I carried him on my back to his motorcycle. I said he wanted to ride himself to the hospital. (wasnt his shifting ankle ha) and rode off on his own after an awkward hug session..

I did it I guess?

As I was walking back to my wife the european guy came back and i told him the guy was down safe. he was realived and walked away. There was a slight language barrier but I believed he said he got through to 911.

20 min later i see a search plane circling the area followed by a helicopter. great. i was upset about this waste of tax payer money and didnt want these guys searching all night. So after slight hesitation i picked up the Hidden Valley emergancy phone and gave my name and what had happened. At that time an ambulance and cop rolled in and the call taker told me to relay the info to them. I talked to the cop he got my info and it was over.

This was lengthy. I apologize. Again, just looking to gain everything I can from this experience so please tell me what i couldve done better. I obviously know I couldve just led up to him built an anchor and handled business up with him but I didnt trust my current ability on any of the routes leading to the obscure spot he was in.

thanks.

Wow, good on you, and LUCKY you.
A couple of quick thoughts:
If the 'bomber' lowering point had blown, would he have grounded? And if so, consequence?
Could you have climbed to him and built a proper belay?
It being J-tree, and hidden valley, i would expect (and have seen) rescue to be fast (relative to the pain maybe not so), so unless it was life threatening, i would, in this instance (a road right there and not life threatening) have attempted to climb to him, and lower him SAFELY. From your description, he was unable to access whether his point of protection was bomber. Not good!
Like i said, LUCKY you.
It's 'Amerka', land of the brave and the home of the lawsuit. And i would have been devastated had my rescue gone bad.
Not to piss on your parade.

Good for you for helping him. Since you are asking, I will be the second Monday morning quarterback for you.

Doesn't sound like he was that "high on the face," if you only had to climb 20 feet and then could throw the rope to him.

Couldn't you have climbed all the way up to him, with an extra harness, built an anchor next to him, then do a tandem rappel? That way, you know the anchor is solid and that he is properly secured to rappel or be lowered.

Doing it that way, you would have had to either climb back to the top to retrieve your gear and rappel off the rap rings, or leave some webbing where you built the anchor.

Anyway, good job not killing yourself or the clueless victim.

Glad it all went well!

1) It seems from your account like the whole operation was backed up with your one 0.5 cam. If the guy had been wrong about the horn he slung, either in its strength or in his ability to sling it, it sounds like the whole shooting match would have been riding on that one cam to handle a factor 2 (more?) fall...unless maybe he would have decked prior to loading the cam if his sling failed.

2) I think typically a rescue team would not rely on a non-climber to place such a critical piece as that sling. It sounds as though the guy was basically safe and could have hung out and waited for SAR, and although it's great that it worked out, if he'd incorrectly evaluated that sling (which sounds pretty possible given that he didn't know how to put on a harness or tie in), he would've been dead on the ground (possibly with your lifeless body next to his) instead of sitting on a ledge in pain.

Obviously I wasn't there so I may just not be understanding the situation, but you did ask for feedback so that's mine.

Again, really glad to hear that everyone's safe and sound, and I think it's great that you reached out to take care of a fellow climber.

kdionise wrote: I obviously know I couldve just led up to him built an anchor and handled business up with him but I didnt trust my current ability on any of the routes leading to the obscure spot he was in. thanks.

I will quote my original post to answer Muscrat and FrankPS.

Optimistic- the .5 was just to protect myself incase i lost my balance while throwing the rope. That would be nowhere near a factor 2.

I down climbed to the ground before i lowered him.

Good on ya for helping out a stranded dude. Wacky situation.

People should all be aware that there's an emergency phone located near the toidy right there on the north side of the Intersection Rock parking lot. Much faster than driving to town. I assume it works...

Well done for stepping in and helping.

I won't comment on what you did right or wrong as I'm just not qualified and don't know the situation like you do. But I will say that there seems to be a tendency for people to rush to help victims in emergencies without appropriately evalutating the situation. I'm not saying that's what you did, and I'm not saying it's not. The most valuable advice I've ever received on responding to emergency situations is to take the time to evaluate the risks to you, to others, and to the victim before you act. I don't think doing this needs to take a certain amount of time, but it's sensible to do it. Whilst acting without thinking has probably saved many people, I think it's probably killed many, many more. This isn't climbing specific, it applies to any rescue or emergency scenario and I thought it was worth mentioning.

kdionise wrote: I will quote my original post to answer Muscrat and FrankPS. Optimistic- the .5 was just to protect myself incase i lost my balance while throwing the rope. That would be nowhere near a factor 2. I down climbed to the ground before i lowered him.

Ah. Gotcha. Missed that part!

This guy was free soloing...how was he expecting to get down?
Was there a "walk-off"?
If so, could you have just scrambled up the walk-off to get above him and make a solid anchor or find the rap rings to lower down to him and do a tandem rappel?

Sorry...i'm not familiar with Intersection Rock, so don't know if there is a walk-off. Just providing another thought.

Props for stepping up either way.

Cuba wrote:This guy was free soloing...how was he expecting to get down? Was there a "walk-off"? If so, could you have just scrambled up the walk-off to get above him and make a solid anchor or find the rap rings to lower down to him and do a tandem rappel? Sorry...i'm not familiar with Intersection Rock, so don't know if there is a walk-off. Just providing another thought. Props for stepping up either way.

There is a walk off on the west side of intersection. but where he had fallen to on the south side it was unreachable. I tried that option. I am assuming he was planning to get down that way (or maybe he had no clue) but where he fell to put damper on that.

Another option would have been to top out (or otherwise get above him) set up a rappel using the most convenient rap station (assuming there is one, otherwise build a bomber anchor that you will retrieve later), rap to him with the extra harness, help him put it on, then both of you rap (tandem or one at a time if you trust him) to the ground. The is a more traditional "pick off" method used in SAR.

An important consideration in these things is the condition of the victim and how urgently they need medical attention. In this case, it sounds like guy would have been fine waiting another 30 minutes. The extra safety of this method probably would have been worth the extra time.

I'm glad it worked out, though. Good on you for helping out!

Starting to think the T2 might be right...

I'm not aware of any "walk off" the west side of Intersection rock, period.

What route was the guy on the south side?

Rule number 1, don't make things worse.

Greg Petliski wrote: Where is there a walk off on intersection? Unless youre at the ledge where the right hand ski track starts, its not a walk off. You have to either rap twice from the mikes books side, or double rope rap from top, or single rap to aforementioned ledge. You admit to having little experience in rescue, and you went ahead and assisted someone with non-life threatening injuries, in a super popular and easily accessible area, when you also admit to basing your whole safety system on a single cam and some feature that the admittedly inexperienced climber used. Just my 2c since you asked, but it feels like you just really wanted to be the hero, which is a natural human condition, to want to help someone, but you let that feeling get in the way of good judgement, which would have been to ensure the victim is stable, and that is all. Awesome no one got hurt any further. Hope the guy or his friend bought you some beer or something! The instinct to help others can be so powerful that we are blinded to the hazards we may be entering, or may be creating.

My thoughts exactly.
There is no way I would have even considered letting someone who doesn't know how to put a harness on set up the top anchor for a lower... If it wasn't set up right, and it slipped, YOU just killed the guy. Waiting just a little longer for rescuers who knows what they are doing is better than being dead, in my humble opinion.
And please, please, don't call the tech rescue guys a waste of tax payer money!!! How were they supposed to know a hero showed up?

How did this guy fall, shatter an ankle, but manage to stop what seems to be about 30-40ft off the deck....? Odd situation.

Seems like there's some thinking that really should have happened before you played hero.

If the ledge was big enough for him to shatter his ankle on but not fall further I would imagine it would have been big enough for him to comfortably sit on and safely wait for professional rescue. If it weren't big enough for this hucking a rope with a carabiner on it at him is not a good idea... at all. What you did here was extraordinarily dangerous

The safest way to go about this is obviously to wait for rescue, but I can understand wanting to help.

So... if you wanted to help here's a safe way to do it. Either walk around to gain access from above, set anchor and rap, or lead a neighboring route and gain access above him, set a redundant anchor above the injured climber and either lower down from the anchor to the injured climber or rappel from the anchor you built.

It's safer to transition from belay to rappel here once you've built the anchor so you can control your own descent and communication issues with your belayer won't cause injury to yourself/the injured party.

Rap/lower down to the injured climber and immediately connect yourself to the injured party if you're worried about the party falling from the position. From here, once you've accessed the climber you should build an anchor and secure the injured climber to that redundant anchor with a releasable hitch (munter mule overhand). Now you're at 'baseline' and your injured party is SAFE and you are safe as well. Once they're safe you can do an assessment/stop bleeding/calm and comfort the injured party.

So let's say you HAVE to move down (it sounds like you didn't have to). Learn how to do a counterbalance rappel and tandem rappel and assess which is the appropriate way to go. Take your time through this whole process and think everything through - at any point your injured party should be in a redundant system that is releasable under load.

From your post it reads that you did something that was grossly negligent and put this injured person at enormous risk because you wanted to play hero. Didn't know how to put on a harness but you let him 'build and anchor' with a sling?! Seriously?! Seems like reckless endangerment ESPECIALLY if you identify yourself as a 'rescuer' and he trusts you to know how to get him down safely, which you didn't do - at all!

You've been 'studying rescue' but you broke every rule in the book. Have a guide show you how to perform a rescue like this if you really want to learn, but next time leave it to the professionals because plain and simple you got lucky. This really isn't a 'good for you' scenario - the negligence you displayed here is borderline criminal, and if he had been injured and his family pressed charges you would have had no defense.

He was probably on Mike's books, or the Southeast corner....

Hey Medic714... you sound like a really fun person to be around.

Jovid wrote:Hey Medic714... you sound like a really fun person to be around.

Just on duty and having a long day night. And this is why I avoid posting here, when safety like this comes up it's hard not to.

Damn. Why risk both your lives for a non life threatening injury? Just curious.

So kdionise do you feel now that you would do anything differently based on what people have said here?