Twice over memorial day weekend our brigands were called out on missions. The first came on Friday, May 22, around 1945, a hiker coming from low elevation had gotten up to Stewart Lake Area and began having severe symptoms of altitude sickness. This hiker was experienced, and knew what to do with elevation sickness (e.g. get lower) but also had a known set of other existing conditions with which he was worried about compounding effects and thus had made the call for help. Two brigands — Da Mule and Bond — hit the road in response arriving at incident base where one of our own, Old Yeller, was the incident commander! This was Old Yeller’s first week as a brand new incident commander, and it was a baptism by fire, resolving 6 incidents in that week alone! Fortunately, our subject, an experienced hiker, and been descending while teams — Atalaya SAR, Skyline SAR, and our own — were making their way to the trailhead and by the time we arrived had already gotten himself nearly back to the trailhead. With the descent in elevation and re-hydration, the symptoms of altitude sickness had indeed dissipated, and better yet there were no compounding effects with his other medical conditions (though he did check himself into a clinic just to be safe, as one should). So while our team ended up not doing anything of note for this particular mission, we were there ready just in case. This is often the case for missions, but they are important nonetheless, as the “just in case” scenario can easily turn into “now’s the case” scenarios.
Another call came just two days later on Sunday, May 24, around 1645. Another hiker with elevation sickness was now vomiting up by Nambe Lake. Once again the same teams assembled (Atalaya SAR, Skyline SAR, and LAAFB) and raced to a different trailhead where Old Yeller was leading a response. This time only a single brigand — Bond — was immediately available with a second — Da Mule — coming a few hours later. Once again, while teams were assembling and deploying to the subjects location, our subject and her party had managed to descend in elevation, at which point her vomiting had stopped and she could be rehydrated. The Santa Fe teams met our subject on the trail while she and her party were slowly making their way out, and LAAFB ended up not leaving the trailhead as we were not needed. Once again, we were there for the “just in case” scenario and blessedly were not needed as things went well.