Our judges for the fifth annual CSAR photo contest were Matthew Eric Lit, a Colorado-based professional photographer; and Howard Paul, also a Colorado-based professional photographer and a member of Alpine Rescue Team. You can see Matt Lit’s work here and Howard Paul’s work here.
Best Rescue/Training Photo
Third place – by Kali Redmond of Vail Mountain Rescue Group. “This photo was taken on the third day of our Rigging for Rescue course last season. We had been practicing the pike and pivot maneuver and a ride and lower of the litter, as well as proper anchor set-ups. On this day, we set up a high angle rescue scenario with members from Vail Mountain Rescue and ski patrollers from Beaver Creek. We work closely with patrollers from both Vail and Beaver Creek Mountains, and we also have many patrollers who are members of our team. The gentlemen in blue are both members of Vail Mountain Rescue; the one at the foot of the litter is Max Kruger and the one leaning over the edge is Dr. Weiner, our medical director. The gentleman in the litter is Beaver Creek ski patroller Tyler Lombardi and the gentleman in the yellow/ tan shirt is Gavin Mastell, a Beaver Creek ski patroller who has an avalanche dog in training. It was taken with an iPhone from a safe and roped-in stance. We were practicing on a wall near Gilman Canyon, Colorado.”
Second place – by Helen Rowe of Summit County Rescue Group. “Under the disco lights of Flight for Life and the moon, Summit County Rescue Group delivers a patient to the helicopter after a strenuous uphaul through a boulder field on Buffalo Mountain in Summit County. The patient was satting in the low 70s and unable to continue on foot and had come to stop in the steep, unrelenting scrambling section known as the “boulder field”. Team 1 accessed the patient and began care before teams 2 and 3 played oxygen bottle relay to stage O2 along the exit route, anticipating a long carry-out and requirement to maintain high flow. After one failed attempt to find a landing zone, Flight for Life made a second attempt and was able to land on a small saddle above the patient, requiring the small response team to move the patient up and out of the boulder field. The flight crew met us with headlamps to guide the path to the helicopter, and once there we were met with a Saturday night disco of the night time navigational lights of the helicopter and the backdrop of a full moon. Yes, it’s another rescue mission helicopter photo but this one is very different!”
First place – by Jack Hickisch of Alpine Rescue Team. “Alpine members practice moving a teammate once uncovered from an avalanche burial during a training.”
Best Interagency Photo
Third place – by Harry Sandler of Routt County Search and Rescue. “During a multi-agency effort to rescue an injured snowmobiler on Buffalo Pass, RCSAR was assisted by a Routt Powder Riders groomer and a Steamboat Springs Fire Rescue paramedic to help get the patient to definitive care.”
Second place – by David Hunsicker of Front Range Mine Rescue. “This is teamwork. MSHA, DRMS, Colorado Front Range Mine, Tech Rescue, we all work together to reach one goal: to help rescue the miners.”
First place, by Helen Rowe of Summit County Rescue Group. “Teamwork makes the dream work. When a father and son got cliffed out on Quandary Peak’s west ridge and were not prepared to spend the night, we stepped into action and sent teams to get them. And like many rescue calls coming in at the end of the day, this involved a post sunset infil to a lower saddle, a team then taking several hours to summit Quandary Peak and scramble along the ridge to find them. At this point they were severely hypothermic and had no dexterity to be able to move any further on their own. The two rescue team members from SCRG spent a very cold night with them on the ridge to wait for daylight and helicopter extraction. Due to gusty conditions, we had multiple aborts from both helicopters. The night before saw three aborts before two teams were able to be infilled to a lower saddle. There were another three aborts on the morning of the extraction, including an attempted hot wheel load before HAATS was able to successfully lower two hoist technicians to the field team. It’s worth noting that being on a 14er ridge meant that the team (two patients, two rescuers, two hoist technicians) had the working space of a pinnacle about the size of a truck bed, with steep 1000-foot drops on either side. When a Blackhawk attempts a hot load and to add one of its wheels to your already tight working space, it makes for some very intimate teamwork! In this picture you can see Summit County Rescue Group, a Vail Mountain Rescue Group rescue technician, a HAATS Blackhawk, and a patient. What you don’t see is the mountain rescue mission coordinator, the rest of the team at the trailhead, the additional team member working from home to coordinate with CSAR and HAATS, the sheriff’s office support to close the main road to land the helicopter, beefed up with CDOT support to do the same thing the next morning. There was also the Flight for Life helicopter that infilled team 1 the night before, the Summit Fire and EMS ambulance and crew that came to meet the patients once extracted, and the additional team member communicating with the subject’s wife and who came in to meet and walk out the team members who spent the night in the field.
Best Internal Teamwork Photo
Third place – by Helen Rowe of Summit County Rescue Group. “My team is awesome! And what makes us truly awesome is not all the tech, shiny gadgets and newfangled ideas we adopt, but how we manage when none of those are options and all we can do is strip it back to the basics and make it happen. When a team was met with a critical HAPE patient on the side of one of our more popular peaks and the best option was to go up, through a boulder field to meet with the helicopter, this small group of late night responders took it in their stride to move the patient in the litter to the landing zone. By the nature of the boulder field, a technical rope system would offer more problems than benefit and the only option was for the team to form progressive columns on either side of the litter and move it hand over hand, inch-worming up and up and up. It was like an orchestrated dance; I’ve never seen a team fall back to complete unison to keep the patient moving. Each member peeled off and found a route to scramble up to reposition for hand over hand again, with the right amount of light communication between them like they’d practiced this a 1000 times and everyone just fell into place. Anyone not ready? OK, let’s move another 20 feet. Rinse and repeat. And repeat. And repeat… Stripped back to the basics, this rescue captured a small team doing what it does best – true grit and teamwork to help someone who is having a bad day. And you should have seen how much pizza was devoured at the trailhead after this mission. And truly earned!”
Second place – by Ken Namowicz of Garfield County Search and Rescue. “This image was captured this winter near Glenwood Springs while training with an Arizona Vortex for high-angle descent off a sheer cliff face. Our team trains regularly and year-round to build both technical expertise and a strong team dynamic. Full trust in your teammates is essential when lives are on the line.”
First place – by Jack Hickisch of Alpine Rescue Team. “An Alpine member assesses the tension in each rope of a mirrored system while team members are lowered over the edge during a road-based uphaul training.”
Best Historical Photo
Second place – submitted by Dave Christenson of Rocky Mountain Rescue Group. “This photo is by the late Dave Lewis of RMRG, and the photo belongs to RMRG. The image is a scan of a 35mm slide transparency and was taken in October of 1966. It shows a vertical/ cliff litter evacuation training on Castle Rock, Boulder County, Colorado. Two litter attendants (orange jackets, white helmets, bottom middle) are lowered down a cliff, guiding a litter-borne (simulated) patient mostly obscured by litter bearers. The other two figures in the image are rescuers who assisted with anchor building and patient loading before the start of the evacuation.”
First place – submitted by April Christenson, Rocky Mountain Rescue Group. “This photo is from the Bill May collection of “old” photos that were donated to RMRG archives. These photos belong to RMRG. The images are a scan of original black and white photographs, circa1957. The photo shows a vertical/ cliff litter evacuation training on Castle Rock in Boulder County, Colorado. Two litter attendants are lowered down a cliff, guiding an Austrian litter-borne (simulated) patient. The Austrian litter is different in its distinct curved shape. The Austrian litter and Austrian cable rig were donated to Rocky Mountain Rescue Group after we participated in a recovery effort resulting from a double airliner crash over the remote Grand Canyon area in 1956. An Austrian rescue team was also part of the recovery efforts. RMRG worked with the cable rig system and saw potential in its future use with RMRG. The cable rig was developed to be able to go up with the load of a patient and litter bearers in remote locations. It could also go down for long distances. This led to RMRG doing extensive testing and developing their own version of a winch and cable system. They did not adapt the Austrian litter design.”
