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Avalanche search teams suffer “stress injuries” over time

Members of the media report Travis Sirek (right) of the Summit County Search and Rescue Group speaking to Laura McGladrey, a clinician at the Stress, Trauma, Adversity Research and Treatment Center at the University of Colorado (center) and Aaron Parmet (left) medical officer of the Summit County Rescue Group as part of a staged avalanche rescue near Ten Mile Canyon National Recreation Trail at Vail Pass on March 11, 2021. (Eric Lutzens, The Denver Post)

The memory of a rescue mission a decade ago still haunts Charles Pitman. Recalling the picture of a father and uncle praying for a ten or eleven year old boy on a mountainside while rescuers resuscitated him, Pitman paused, tears in his eyes, to collect himself.

It was one of Pitman’s first assignments with the Summit County Rescue Group. A family had been snowmobiling on Vail Pass, only a mile or two from Pitman’s location, when he described that tragic day. The boy had accidentally crashed the snowmobile he was driving into a tree. In a blinding blizzard at 11,500 feet, nurses on-site while skiing performed CPR, but it quickly became apparent that there was no point in continuing.

“You see, it was years ago, probably ten, twelve years ago,” Pitman said. “It was that hard. I have dealt with a lot of casualties. It’s the nature of what we do. But I think the fact that it was a kid hit really, really hard. “

The consequences of trauma, death and grief of the next of kin must be witnessed, be it in the case of accidents, avalanche deaths or missing hikers in summer. Pitman spoke after members of the Colorado search and rescue community held a media event and training scenario on Vail Pass Thursday to demonstrate how to react when victims are caught in an avalanche.

Mountain search and rescue teams, made up of volunteers, regularly conduct similar training missions. Dale Atkins, a rescue team member since 1974 and a forecaster for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center for 19 years, said most exercise on-site for at least two weekend days a month, along with two or three hours of class during the week.

Search and rescue members look for a living person buried in a simulated avalanche debris field. Colorado search and rescue teams from five counties simulated an avalanche rescue at Vail Pass on March 11th. (Eric Lutzens, The Denver Post)

But the reality is, no matter how fast they get to the crime scene or how well organized their search is, they are usually too late to rescue a victim buried in an avalanche.

“We’re most likely to find a body, and it’s on recovery,” said Atkins, who works on the Alpine Rescue Team that covers Clear Creek, Jefferson and Gilpin counties. “We have that in mind. While we search, there is always the hope that we will be proved otherwise and that we will find someone alive. The sad reality is that we seldom find living people. “

Most members of mountain rescue teams can’t help but identify with the victims, since they are avid ski tourers, snowboarders or snowmobilers even in their free time. They regularly do risk assessments when recovering in the backcountry, just like their victims before they snowslide.

“We all in search and rescue love to do the same things,” said Atkins. “Every accident, every rescue has an impact on us. We have our options to deal with it. Often it is in conversation with our friends in the team because we have these common experiences, but which can build up over time. I think all rescue groups have lost some good members who, so to speak, left the team too early because of their experience in dealing with the deceased. “

Colorado had 11 avalanche deaths in a month and a half that season, one less than the 1993 record, so representatives of several rescue teams, County Sheriff’s Departments, the Avalanche Information Center, and the Colorado Search and Rescue Association brought the media out to the Vail Pass exercise Provided.

“It was a historically bad year in terms of snow conditions and fatal avalanche accidents,” said Brian Lazar, deputy director of the Avalanche Information Center. “We’re starting to turn the tide a bit with regard to snowpack conditions. The dry, really warm weather of recent times has helped heal some of our really problematic vulnerabilities, but we’re still a long way from the woods. The storm that is coming (this weekend) has the potential to drop enough snow and generate sufficient charge to wake up those deeper weak layers and create much larger and more devastating avalanches. The avalanche danger will increase. “

Colorado search and rescue teams from five counties simulated an avalanche rescue near the Ten Mile Canyon National Recreation Trail on Vail Pass on March 11, 2021. Two search and rescue workers attempt to slide a test dummy buried in the snow near an overturned snowmobile into a simulated avalanche slide. (Eric Lutzens, The Denver Post)

In the training scenario, Pitman played the role of the mission coordinator. The exercise began by interviewing a teammate from the Summit County Rescue Group who posed as a “reporter” – the term rescuers use to refer to people who are with avalanche victims when they are caught – in the simulated avalanche scenario.

“I need to get as much information from you as possible so they know what to look for,” Pitman told the rapporteur, played by Travis Sirek, a colleague with the Summit County Rescue Group. “Help me out of here. How many people and what did you do? Do you know where they were caught? “

Pitman asked what the missing were wearing and whether they were wearing avalanche transceivers. He explained what was going on when the search began. Sirek asked if he could actively help with the search as the victims were his friends.

“I understand and I know how traumatic it is now,” said Pitman. “But believe me, we will do everything we can to find you as soon as possible.”

Sensors and avalanche dogs were used in the search. “Probing lines” of seekers sank 10-foot stakes into the rubble field and searched the snow for signs of victims. Radios crackled as rescue workers tried to make the scenario look and sound as realistic as possible.

Keena, an avalanche search and rescue dog from the Summit County Search and Rescue Group, runs horizontal laps down a simulated avalanche slide in search of a living person buried in the snow. It wasn’t long before Keena found Jesse Reller, also from the Summit County Search Group, buried in the snow. (Eric Lutzens, The Denver Post)

“Two victims found, both died,” came a radio update. And later: “Be warned, the coroner has been notified, victim lawyers are on their way.”

Laura McGladrey was there, representing the Responder Alliance, an organization that helps people who work in search and rescue, law enforcement, fire departments, nursing, and others who are regularly exposed to trauma and death, to help them come to terms with their lives to support.

“When they say 500,000 COVID deaths have died, I think, ‘500,000 nurses watched someone die,’ and we have to take care of them,” said McGladrey, a psychiatric nurse specializing in stress, trauma, Adversity Research and Training Works (START) Center on the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus.

She also has two decades of mountain rescue experience. She recently worked with the Eldora Ski Patrol after two deaths on their slopes in as many days. She said the effects of trauma and death on rescuers build up over time as snow builds up on a slope until an avalanche occurs, a predetermined breaking point when rescuers experience emotional “stress injuries”. Talking to the next of kin is “more influential” for them than finding corpses.

“Watching the woman with the kids comes into our tissues,” said McGladrey. “It is these contacts that have been with the rescuers over the years. When I ask rescuers what are the two events that have particularly impressed you throughout your rescue career, it almost always says, “There is a family and there is nothing I could do about it.” ”

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Keena, an avalanche search and rescue dog, is rewarded by her owner and handler Doug Lesch, both of the Summit County Search and Rescue Group, after she found Jesse Reller, also of the Summit County Search Group, who during the simulation. (Eric Lutzens, The Denver Post)

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