Mission Report by Chris Frankle
Just after lunch on the 18th the brigade received a call to assist in evacuating a female subject with an ankle injury near Stewart Lake, having slipped on the icy creek while descending. Four members of the brigade responded. Naturally, given the location, the EMT and SAR teams from Santa Fe arrived before the brigade and were already making their way up trail when we arrived. Our assignment was simply to assist in the ~4 mile litter haul. The team made it’s way up the trail and met up with the other teams about 100 m from where the subject had fallen. They had packaged her in the wheeled litter and had just started moving down. After a quick snack and getting out gloves, jackets, etc. for the trip down (switching from rapidly ascending to slowly descending with the sun going behind the mountain requires more layers on a cool day…), team members joined the haul rotations. In addition to an EMT team, Santa Fe county fire also provider a saw team to clear deadfall from the trail, something that was super appreciated by the litter haulers!
The going was slow on the steep, narrow, and rocky sections of the trail. There were typically 4-6 on the litter at any one time, a driver, a brakeman, and 2-4 side stabilizers. There were enough responders to make 4-5 rotation crews, each taking about 200 m at a time. That might seem short but it kept everyone fresh enough to keep a reasonable 1 mph pace. Fortunately for all, a mounted SAR team was available and arrived at base about the time the ground teams started down. The mounted team met the ground teams at about the halfway point. With a little bit of creativity and assistance, the subject was able to be transferred from the litter to a horse and ride the rest of the way down to the trailhead where an ambulance was waiting. The ground teams followed the mounted team down, “just in case”. Everyone arrived back at base around 2130.