Medical Emergency Windsor Trail – Mission 88 Santa Fe Ski Basin

July 20th 10:15 p.m. For this mission the Brigade was called upon to be plan B. A hiker was experiencing a medical emergency about three and a half miles up the Windsor Trail in the Pecos Wilderness. The plan was to have the New Mexico Air National Guard hoist the hiker out of the wilderness and whisk him off to the hospital. Well, anyone with any experience with helicopter operations knows helicopter hoist extractions don’t always work so you need a backup plan. The backup plan in this case was for the Brigade to haul our wheeled litter to the subject and assist in hauling him out in case the helicopter rescue failed. Santa Fe Atalaya had a fast moving medical team already heading up the trail when we arrived at incident base. We moved fast and arrived at the patient site minutes after the helicopter lifted him out. Even though we couldn’t actually see the raise because it was the middle of the night and there was a forest of trees between us and the helicopter we were close enough to hear and feel the roar of a massive machine hover just beyond the trees. More than likely a Blackhawk. Impressive. We rested for a few and proceeded to haul our litter back out empty. Even though we hauled the litter in for nothing we are glad the helicopter worked because a litter haul would have been brutal. We are also looking into procuring a lighter litter and wheel. The Incident Commander was pleased with our efforts. Even have a short movie of us working: