Evening is just getting on when our Brigands receive this call for an injured hiker in Jemez Springs. Four brigands respond with Da Mule, Romulus, and Remus moving ahead to incident base, at the parking lot of a bank in Jemez Springs and Bucky coming not too far behind. Earlier in the day, drones had been scanning the slopes for the hiker whom had managed to make a call to 911, but had not stayed conscious long enough to give full details of his location. Fortunately, right as teams are arriving, the drones have located the hiker at the base of the cliffs surrounding the town, just short of 2 miles straight up from the town and river.
When the front three of our team arrive, we had just missed an early team from Rio Grande Basin Rescue and Albuquerque Mountain Rescue Council (AMRC) which just began to climb to the location of the subjected. We were held at incident base for a short time to assemble with others incoming from Cibola SAR, Rio Grande Basin Rescue, AMRC, and the fourth from our own team, to form a second field team to carry up any additional equipment required after the first team arrived at the subject and could conduct their initial assessment. Receiving this additional equipment – additional medical supplies and technical extraction gear – we made our own climb to the subject (the little less than 2 miles mentioned before) arriving slightly after midnight.
Our subject had been found at the base of a cliff among some pinon and juniper trees, and was in bad condition. Multiple broken bones and possibly extensive internal damage, but he was alive, awake, and under the administrations of EMTs now. Evaluating the nearby cliffs, it was unclear where he had fallen from, with surrounding cliffs soaring 80-100 feet (a fall that none of us would expect someone to survive), but miraculously our subject was still alive. Given our subjects’ condition, a request was sent out for a helicopter to extract him. Initially, Classic Air arrived, but was not set up for a night hoist extraction on the cliff side, and so provided a bright spotlight to the EMTs working on the subject. National guard then responded with a Black Hawk helicopter to extract our subject. While we waited for the incoming Black Hawk, we assisted AMRC in evaluating alternative extraction paths. First, we looked at a vertical lift back up the cliff to the plateau above, where a helicopter could land and extract the subject. However, upon evaluation, there were concerns about the crumbling cliff side providing inadequate anchorage to work with. So the alternative was a nearly 2 mile medium angle extraction back down to the town (a very long operation).
As the Black Hawk approached, though, we were able to move our subject on a litter far enough away from the cliff that the pilot felt comfortable enough getting in to extract (a testament to the talent of this pilot as he/she came in really close). After moving the subject, nearly all searchers were instructed to climb up further out of the way of the operation as the down-wash of the heli could kick up rock and debris and we wanted to limit the number of exposed bodies. Leaving the EMTs with the subject, the rest of us climbed up above the operation and had an aerial view as the Black Hawk came in and dropped a para-jumper medic to prepare the subject for aerial extraction. After preparations were complete, the Black Hawk again approached to pick up our subject and para-jumper medic and flew them off to ABQ medical center who were waiting to receive and care for our badly injured subject (he survived and is expected to make a full recovery!)
With our mission done, we all descended together, debriefed, and returned home. Arriving around dawn tired but happy to have participated in such an important operation.
