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bdog84
Jan 6, 2005, 11:44 PM
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Let's say your on the summit of some high-altitude mountain, like Denali. After days of adventuring to the top, you conquer the mountain. But at the top, something goes wrong--someone breaks a limb, or some circumstance has occurred in which getting back down the mountain will be extremely difficult.
How do you call for help? Can rescue helicopters travel up to 20,000 feet? When you go on high-alpine climbing, do you bring a GPS or any other kind of equipment with which you can call for help should the need arise?
Or how about looking on a lesser mountain, say Mt. Shasta in northern California, just about 14,000 feet. Could resue efforts be more feasible on a peak of that elevation?
There's also the difference between the two peaks in terms of surrounding area. I've never been to Alaska, but it's my understanding that it's not populated at all in the surrounding lands of Denali. However there is a larger population of people near Mt. Shasta. Would this affect resue efforts? Assuming there is such a rescue station nearby.
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lothartx
Jan 7, 2005, 12:27 AM
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Two options that I can see.
1) Have a spiritual epiphany, find God, and pray. Then quickly proceed to freeze to death.
2) Ever read Touching the Void?
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mendou
Jan 7, 2005, 12:46 AM
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In reply to: How do you call for help?
i have never been in a situation like that, but i think that bring a pair of radios are not a bad idea or maybe a movil, because in some mountains the movil works alright... but if i would climb a mountain far of the town, maybe i would warn some friend before climb on it...
if this does not convince you, you can try to watch "the worst case scenario" show :D
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davidji
Jan 7, 2005, 12:49 AM
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I think ham radio is best for those situations. I'm not a ham radio user, but I think 2m is preferred over for example .75m. Much better than FRS and similar.
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bdog84
Jan 7, 2005, 12:50 AM
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Also, how much does it cost to consult rescue help for atop a mountain? Do they take it out of your insurance?
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skat
Jan 7, 2005, 12:53 AM
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Hey there, Ya.. Im watching the dvd of Touching the Void actually..
There are GPS location beacons that are advertised for such an expedition. You just remove the safety and flick a switch and your location is sent to a satelite. The satelite sends the signal to a control station and help could be on the way. They might not be able to Fly you out or anything but something might happen. If nothing else it gives you hope that someone is on thier way. Hope it helped.
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lambone
Jan 7, 2005, 12:54 AM
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I had to get rescued off a summit once. It's a long story, and I don't want to get into all the details now, but there were three of us stranded at the summit of Glacier Peak in Washington for 3 days. It sucked big time.
Eventually we made a call to 911 with the cell. It was the only number that we could phone out to...stronger signal for some reason.
We just wanted them to notify our parents that we were ok, but a major recue effort was launched, including helicopter attempts. The helo could not see us due to a thick cloud ceiling just above the summit.
Eventualy a strong team of three made it up the standard route, found us, and helped us get out of there. This was as the storm wwas breaking.
It sucked and I wouldn't recomend ever putting yourself in that situation. If you need to be rescued of the summit of a big peak in bad weather it's really not good. We made a major judgement error when we decided to bivi up there, one I will never make again.
Rescue teams will ussualy try with th ehelo, but it is totaly weather dependant and certian choppers have different altitude restrictions.
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bdog84
Jan 7, 2005, 12:57 AM
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What sort of situation could occur on the summit of a mountain to necessitate a call for help? Bad weather is the immediate answer--but what kind of bad weather? How does this bad weather prevent you from going back down the mountain?
Are there any other realistic situations not related to weather requiring rescue?
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kman
Jan 7, 2005, 1:01 AM
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In reply to: do you bring a GPS or any other kind of equipment with which you can call for help should the need arise
Can't call for help with a GPS. If you going to remote...or even not so remote mountains you can't rely on getting help. Make sure some one you are with is well versed in wilderness first aid. Even here in the rockies on some of the peaks close to towns you can't garantee anything. Let's say your half way down a peak...let's say...4th class, your on your way down and your buddy breaks his femur (upper leg bone) it gets dark at 6:00 and it's 5:30 now...you have a cell phone so you call for help...there not going to send a chopper cause it gets dark in half hour...you got a a long time to wait before any one gets to you so you better know how to apply traction to that break. Hell even if it's noon you might not get a chopper...too windy...cloud cover too low...might not even have cell service. Those FRS radio's are only good for 2 k's.
The point is you can't rely on a rescue to get you out of a jamb. You need to be 100% self reliant. If some gets life threatening injuries your basically screwed.
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kman
Jan 7, 2005, 1:04 AM
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In reply to: What sort of situation could occur on the summit of a mountain to necessitate a call for help?
C'mon man, use your head a bit dude. If your asking questions like this you might wanna think twice before going up a mountain.
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kman
Jan 7, 2005, 1:07 AM
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In reply to: What sort of situation could occur on the summit of a mountain to necessitate a call for help? Bad weather is the immediate answer--but what kind of bad weather?
:roll: Why the funk would you call for help because of bad weather?? Jeebus!
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bdog84
Jan 7, 2005, 1:09 AM
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None of the questions I've asked have been to prepare for an actual mountaineering adventure. Actually, I'm asking these questions because I have to write a short one-act play that takes place on top of a high-altitude mountain for a local community theater project. Being that I've never been involved to any degree in mountain climbing, I am no doubt naive about particulars. That's why I need to consult people who actually know something about it.
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kman
Jan 7, 2005, 1:11 AM
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Then I apologize for my impatience with you. Bit cranky right now.
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kman
Jan 7, 2005, 1:14 AM
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HEY MAN! If your doing this for a play then your already a better producer then the ones on movies such as vertical limit and cliffhanger lol. Good for you for actually doing some research.
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slobmonster
Jan 7, 2005, 1:16 AM
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Gwan over to Amazon.com and buy K2, a play in two acts.
Unlike the movie with the same name, the play is quite good.
As for the answers to your questions, you'd be surprised what motivates some people to call for a rescue.
On Denali's summit in a storm? Recite slowly:
Whale
Oil
Beef
Hooked.
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bdog84
Jan 7, 2005, 1:18 AM
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Yeah, I don't know much about mountain climbing but the unrealistic things in those movies should be apparent to any layman.
I doubt many people seeing the play would know as much as you guys about the details of mountain climbing, but it's always a good idea to be as true to reality as possible.
Thanks for the link. Darn, someone already wrote for the stage on the subject? Oh well, I'm just doing this for a festival in my hometown.
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lambone
Jan 7, 2005, 1:25 AM
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In reply to: Why the funk would you call for help because of bad weather?? Jeebus!
In reply to: What sort of situation could occur on the summit of a mountain to necessitate a call for help? Bad weather is the immediate answer--but what kind of bad weather? How does this bad weather prevent you from going back down the mountain?
In our situation the weather was really fuckin bad. Like if you wen't out in it you could die.
If you haven't been at the summit of a Cascades Volcano during a serious storm then you just can't relate. Think 70 mile an hour winds with horizontaly blowing frozen slush and less then 20 ft of visibility. After the first night our tent was caked in over two inches of ice.
Adding to the difficulty, we were doing a "carry-over" going up one route and descending another, that involved crevase navigation. We had only a general idea of the condition and location of the descent route, without any visibility it was a dangerous prospect.
Also, I was with two rather inexperienced climbers and we had inadequate gear for braving such a storm. Hence the decision to hunker down and wait it out.
3 days later after our planned return date, wet and approaching hypothermia we decided to make the call, if we hadn't our families would have with no idea of our situation, requiring the rescuers to search the whole damn mountain.
So there you go. Ultimately the fatal error was choosing to stay on the summit during a glorious sunny evening, ignorant to the quickly approaching storm that was unforcasted. We missed the close of our weather window by a few hours and had an epic. Shit happens and you deal with it the best you can. I am just thankfull nothing bad happened to the many rescuers who volounteered their time and energy to help our dumbasses.
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davidji
Jan 7, 2005, 1:29 AM
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In reply to: Also, how much does it cost to consult rescue help for atop a mountain? |
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lambone
Jan 7, 2005, 1:32 AM
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ours was free...the only paid rescurer on the mission was the head of the Sherrif Department SAR. The helo was from the army base and written off as a training exersise.
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punk
Jan 7, 2005, 1:36 AM
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start yelling HELP!!!
or pickup the phone and yell at the person on the other line Help!!!
or stand out and flail to any passing Heli once he down to check on you yell at him HELP!!!
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glyrocks
Jan 13, 2005, 11:52 PM
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In reply to: shit happens and you deal with it the best you can.
It amazes me how few climbers understand that.
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tempestwind
Jan 14, 2005, 5:56 AM
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In reply to: Two options that I can see. 1) Have a spiritual epiphany, find God, and pray. Then quickly proceed to freeze to death. 2) Ever read Touching the Void?
:roll:
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tempestwind
Jan 14, 2005, 5:58 AM
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In reply to: In reply to: What sort of situation could occur on the summit of a mountain to necessitate a call for help? C'mon man, use your head a bit dude. If your asking questions like this you might wanna think twice before going up a mountain.
Exactly!!!!
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tradman
Jan 14, 2005, 1:32 PM
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Point to remember:
If the weather really is so bad that descent is very dangerous or impossible, then rescue organisers may not be prepared to send rescue teams to almost certain death in an effort to get you.
If the rescue teams are able to come up to you, they're going to want to know why you couldn't get down, and unless your excuse is good - like, "both my legs are broken and well I just didn't feel like it" - it could get a bit embarrassing.
Bottom line: learn to make an emergency bivy. If you haven't, then don't put yourself in a situation where you might need one.
:wink:
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thegreytradster
Jan 15, 2005, 4:38 AM
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In reply to: Let's say your on the summit of some high-altitude mountain, like Denali. After days of adventuring to the top, you conquer the mountain. But at the top, something goes wrong--
Let's just say you should never leave Bakersfield.
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