Harness Safety - a little dated but a good read.

Davej wrote:

Must be pretty bad. How many people are usually involved in a recovery like that?

Well yeah, Dave, sometimes it is. The worst one was the man who intentionally hanged himself by free climbing a 30 foot snag, tying off, and jumping.

Here's the G rated version:
Scent dogs found him on a ridge 100 yards away from his car. Victim was obviously deceased. After the police gave the wordthat the coroner was on scene, I threw a line over a safe TIP in a neighboring tree and climbed well above the vic. Using my down rope, police pulled me over to where I could access the vic's rope. I attached double prusik cords to the vic's rope and cinched them down. Then I attached them both to my \"D\", pulled tension, cut the vic's rope above the prusik cords, and rappelled to the ground... Slowly...only detail I will offer here is - Smell rises.

As far as how many people? It depends...on a lot of things. I mean really, it only takes one properly trained person to get someone down out of a tree. That's the easy part.

Others involved would be, of course, the police (Local or state), SAR team - because we are usually the ones who make the find, Fire Department (Often they are not trained for this sort of thing, but it's good to have them there as extra manpower to carry the body out), ambulance/paramedics, County Coroner, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Bureau of Forestry rangers (if it happened on state park land), PA Fish and Boat Commission Waterways Conservation Officers (if it happened within their jurisdiction), PA Game Commission Wildlife Conservation Officers (if it happened on state game lands)... and the list goes on and on. Press, TV helicopters... you get my point. It's a big circus.

So you see...The moral here is...Tie in at your ventral \"D.\" If you fall: Just lower yourself to the ground, pull your rope down, pack up, and go home and change your drawers. Avoid bothering all of these (us) people - usually at 3 in the a.m

Interesting stuff. The British HSE recently released a report which downplays the risk of suspension trauma (which they recommend calling \"suspension syncope\" and how a patient with potential suspension syncope should be treated. Supposedly they will release a report soon with more detailed findings. Perhaps it has been released but I could not find it.

The most interesting piece of information, for me:
\"The sometimes quoted suggestion of recovery in a semi-recumbent or sitting position was considered to be without any sound evidence base and may prove dangerous through prolonging the lack of blood return to the brain.\"

From this page:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/falls/harness.htm

And an older HSE report on the subject, which I haven't reviewed (but if folks are curious):
http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/crr_pdf/2002/crr02451.pdf

Baker wrote:
Avoid bothering all of these (us) people - usually at 3 in the a.m

Well, the thought of trying to get a throwline over a good limb on a cold morning at 3am while a helicopter is circling overhead, an audience is watching, and a dead guy is hanging nearby is not a pleasant one.

Hi Baker,

What SAR Team are you with and what location?

wildrice wrote:

Hi Baker,

What SAR Team are you with and what location?

Hey park ranger,

I'm a Lt. with East Penn Search And Rescue. (Link below)
The nearest state parks here are Hickory Run, Tuscarora, Nescopeck, Beltzville and, Locust Lake. All within 25 miles.

As a naturalist at CCEEC (link below), I work pretty closely with the EESs at all the parks too.

Baker,

I am on the GA DNR SAR, so I can understand where you are coming from.

If you are every coming down my way look me up, we do tree climbs on state parks.

Go to Panola Mountain State Park and take a look.

It would be nice to keep intouch and discuess some things (e-mial::: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Take care