Portland reservists help rescue skier off glacier Published May 8, 2006 By Master Sgt. Ruby Zarzyczny 939th Air Refueling Wing MOUNT HOOD, Ore. -- Fourteen days after participating in a joint search-and-rescue training exercise with other local rescue organizations, reservists from the 304th Rescue Squadron were back on Mount Hood May 6 to save a life for real. A skier was traversing the more than 11,000-foot dormant volcano’s summit with three other skiers when he fell more than 300 feet through a boulder field landing on Reid Glacier, said Sgt. Sean Collinson, Clackamas County Sheriff Rescue Team incident commander. One of the skiers skied down the mountain to get help. Two American Medical Response Reach and Treat team members and three Portland Mountain Rescue volunteers reached the injured man first but needed help to get him back up the mountain slope. “We have averaged 60 to 90 search-and-rescue missions a year for the last five years,” the sergeant said. “Not all of the volunteer rescue groups have the same resources and capabilities that the pararescuemen at the 304th have, and we knew we could use their help with this rescue.” At 1:15 p.m. members of the Air Force Reserve Command unit received a request for assistance in the rescue and left the Portland International Airport 45 minutes later. They arrived at the Timberline Lodge at 3:30 p.m. where the Clackamas County Sheriff Department was operating a command-and-control center, said Capt. Quintin Nelson, 304th RQS combat rescue officer. Captain Quintin and Senior Master Sgt. Matt Ramp, a 304th pararescueman, staged at the lodge to give command-and-control directions to the pararescue team. By 4 p.m., snowcats took three pararescuemen – Tech. Sgts. Kevin Baum and John Davis and Staff Sgt. Josiah Blanton – and seven volunteers from the Portland Mountain Rescue above the Palmer Ski lift to the 9,200-foot elevation level pushing through the wilderness boundaries where they started climbing to the injured skier. Carrying more than 50 pounds of equipment and supplies on their backs, the pararescuemen climbed about half a mile to reach the Illumination Saddle by 5 p.m. At that point, they hooked into the initial rescue team's rope system. Within an hour they started pulling the survivor off Reid Glacier to eventually move him off the glacier through the snow-cover mountain terrain to Illumination Saddle. “Using brut force, we were able to pull the patient up the mountain slope and gain one foot for every one foot pulled,” Sergeant Baum said. “We changed the rope system to gain a mechanical advantage. “This system decreases the actually weight of the patient being pulled up the slope, giving us a mechanical advantage of three feet gained to every one foot pulled,” Sergeant Baum said. After more than two hours of pulling and climbing, the rescuers had moved the injured skier about 3,000 feet to Illumination Saddle where they began a 1,000-foot elevation descent to Palmer Ski lift at the 8,500-foot elevation level. “The weather wasn’t too bad,” Sergeant Davis said. “It was snowing with intermittent whiteouts. At Illumination Saddle, we were above the cloud deck, but the clouds would come through Reid Glacier and obscure our sight, so we couldn’t see where the lower rescue teams were sometimes.” They reached the lift at 9 p.m., and a snowcat drove them to the lodge where they started loading their patient into the waiting ambulance. The patient was then transported to a Portland hospital. This was Sergeant Blanton’s first mountain glacier rescue. “Overall, the mission wasn’t a lot different then the training we do,” said Sergeant Blanton. “We’ve all done a lot of search-and-rescue exercises with the other rescue organizations here. We’ve practiced everything from glacier to avalanche rescue scenarios using all the (search-and-rescue) principles we are taught. All of the knowledge I have gained through practice was applied during this real rescue mission.” (AFRC News Service)