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Ice, Shattered ankle, self rescue, all on tape

patto

23-Nov-2011
10:02:35 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ovr55k6evE

Great video, well put together.

No being plucked off by a helicopter here. No mild dehydration.


mattjr

23-Nov-2011
11:11:10 PM

Ouch..

Thanks for posting.

simey

23-Nov-2011
11:36:43 PM

Good video. It certainly puts into perspective some of the lame call-outs and rescues that have taken place in recent years.


benjenga

24-Nov-2011
6:58:13 AM

Real men!!
A great watch and something to think about if you ever get yourself hurt way out in the hills.
The boney M moment was classic touch the vold moment.

simey

24-Nov-2011
8:22:45 AM

I'm not advocating self-rescue in all instances. The point I am making is that that a few people have called rescue services simply because they are worried about not being tucked into their beds that night, or they are a little thirsty.

Richard Delaney

24-Nov-2011
8:23:10 AM

I made my own way out in Switzerland 20 years ago on a ski mountaineering trip with an ankle (fibula) broken just above the boot.
I wish I had not been so stubborn and called the helo.

My efforts meant that I needed surgery and 4 pins that are there for life. Helo would have just seen me in a cast.
I am now have life long pain, loss of function, and a nasty scar that will continue to scab forever.

I say back off with all these judgements - being there and imersed in whatever at the time is nasty stuff.
We are very lucky having rescue services available and it's a very slippery slope if we start trying to draw a line about who deserves rhem and who doesn't.

Richard


Phil Laukens

24-Nov-2011
8:59:39 AM

As I sat watching the video with my own broken foot/ankle (7 weeks ago) strapped in a cam walker, I realise that you keep doing what you enjoy until something goes wrong and you sustain an injury.
I can't wait to climb again but I intend to be extra vigilant and try as hard as I can to minimise the chance of injuring myself again while still doing what I love.

Though I've said this to myself in the past and when you do recover and with the passage of time you tend to forget and go and find another way to hurt yourself. :)


Sabu

24-Nov-2011
12:12:47 PM

Wow epic video. Glad they got through and hope Ed makes a quick and full recovery.


Cesca

24-Nov-2011
12:32:37 PM

On 24/11/2011 davidn wrote:
>My concern is also that the judgement and name-calling (evidenced in recent
>threads) mostly means that the climbers feel attacked and disinclined to
>share their stories. As mikl would say, learning from their experiences
>is useful to us all...

Have to agree with this. Online and real-life judgement/backstabbing/criticism of people who've been rescued is rife in New Zealand as well, and it doesn't help anyone. I *know* there are occasional rescues here in NZ where it seems the rescuees relied too much on the rescue service or chose to ignore advice that was given to them, but there are far many more rescues where this is not the case - where things genuinely went wrong and those involved did their best under the circumstances.

rolsen1

24-Nov-2011
4:40:54 PM

On 24/11/2011 simey wrote:
>I'm not advocating self-rescue in all instances. The point I am making
>is that that a few people have called rescue services simply because they
>are worried about not being tucked into their beds that night, or they
>are a little thirsty.

I broke my wrist skateboarding about 10 years ago, it was a bad compounded break. I didn't have a mobile at the time, I had the one manual car (broke left wrist) we owned...long story short someone else there called an ambulance for me (I'm a member)

I felt really guilty and apologised to them when they arrived, they looked at my wrist and said I did the right thing ..... but they said what they do get annoyed about is all of the old local footy players who do a slight injury and call for an ambulance.

simey

24-Nov-2011
5:24:18 PM

On 24/11/2011 rolsen1 wrote:
>I broke my wrist skateboarding about 10 years ago, it was a bad compounded
>break. I didn't have a mobile at the time, I had the one manual car (broke
>left wrist) we owned...long story short someone else there called an ambulance
>for me (I'm a member)
>
>I felt really guilty and apologised to them when they arrived, they looked
>at my wrist and said I did the right thing ..... but they said what they
>do get annoyed about is all of the old local footy players who do a slight
>injury and call for an ambulance.

What is the point of your story? You break your wrist skateboarding and get picked up in an ambulance. You then try and make some weird comparison where your injury is deserving of an ambulance trip, but local footy players who get injured aren't allowed the same service. Uhhh??!!

Anyway, ambulance officers are paid to do what they do. A call-out for an ambulance for a skateboarding or footy injury isn't in the same league as a call-out to a cliff face where dozens of people - ambulance, local police, police S&R and volunteer groups such as the SES & ARG are suddenly called into action. If the person is seriously injured, fair enough, but if they are benighted or thirsty... well that is lame.

rolsen1

24-Nov-2011
5:29:19 PM

On 24/11/2011 simey wrote:
>On 24/11/2011 rolsen1 wrote:
>>I broke my wrist skateboarding about 10 years ago, it was a bad compounded
>>break. I didn't have a mobile at the time, I had the one manual car (broke
>>left wrist) we owned...long story short someone else there called an
>ambulance
>>for me (I'm a member)
>>
>>I felt really guilty and apologised to them when they arrived, they looked
>>at my wrist and said I did the right thing ..... but they said what they
>>do get annoyed about is all of the old local footy players who do a slight
>>injury and call for an ambulance.
>
>What is the point of your story? You break your wrist skateboarding and
>get picked up in an ambulance. You then try and make some weird comparison
>where your injury is deserving of an ambulance trip, but local footy players
>who get injured aren't allowed the same service. Uhhh??!!
>
>Anyway, ambulance officers are paid to do what they do. A call-out for
>an ambulance for a skateboarding or footy injury isn't in the same league
>as a call-out to a cliff face where dozens of people - ambulance, local
>police, police S&R and volunteer groups such as the SES & ARG are suddenly
>called into action.
>
>

Just saying from my limited non related experience that its hard to know if you are doing the right thing in calling for help....

and that according to my one expert source local footy players are particularly bad at it

patto

24-Nov-2011
5:45:09 PM

In this situation I don't think there was any other option other than self rescue. They may not have had mobile access and even if they did you could freeze before help arrived. Best to just keep moving and get back to the car ASAP.

simey

24-Nov-2011
5:45:22 PM

On 24/11/2011 rolsen1 wrote:
>Just saying from my limited non related experience that its hard to know
>if you are doing the right thing in calling for help....
>
>and that according to my one expert source local footy players are particularly bad at it

The players are not the ones making the call for an ambulance. It is the trainer whose responsibility it is to attend injured players. And if the trainer feels that the injury warrants a trip to the doctor then they are obliged to call the ambulance, otherwise they are the ones who are liable.

Wendy

24-Nov-2011
6:10:51 PM

Did anyone else find getting dragged to Brown Girl in the Ring kinda freaky?

I don't think anyone is criticising cases like this when rescue is obviously justifiable, and the fact that they got themselves out speaks tonnes of their perseverance and ingenuity, but no one would have batted an eyelid if they had call a heli.

I got choppered out of a canyon in 97 with some extensive list of injuries, and no one has ever once questioned our decision (well, my friends' decision - i was a babbling mess, in and out of conciousness) to call a rescue. On the other hand, I've also broken my ankle 4 times and gotten myself out each time (ok, so 3 of them were pretty close to the road) . I've also helped people with assorted injuries/illnesses out and battled through long distance bushwalks with minor sprains and a massive allergic rash, because they didn't seem worth setting off the epirb for - and they seem perfectly reasonable calls to have made, none of them were really difficult decisions either way. I'd like to think it was not that difficult to be prepared enough to manage these things and make these sort of assessments, but apparently it is.

The question is really, how did we learn to make reasonable assessments and manage situations and how come other people haven't? When we teach people to climb or take them into the bush in some other context, do we also talk them through this sort of stuff? Bitching about people on the internet might provide hours of entertainment, but it doesn't really help anyone.

simey

24-Nov-2011
6:29:28 PM

On 24/11/2011 Wendy wrote:
>Bitching about people on the internet might provide hours of entertainment, but it doesn't really help anyone.

I reckon it sends a pretty clear message to anyone reading Chockstone that getting benighted on a climb doesn't warrant an emergency services call-out.

One Day Hero

24-Nov-2011
7:56:38 PM

On 24/11/2011 Richard Delaney wrote:
>My efforts meant that I needed surgery and 4 pins that are there for life.
> Helo would have just seen me in a cast.
>I am now have life long pain, loss of function, and a nasty scar that
>will continue to scab forever.
>
Yeah, but at least your cred is intact!


ChuckNorris

24-Nov-2011
8:04:54 PM

Simey - by my reckonin you just got trolled.

rolsen 1: simey 0

simey

24-Nov-2011
8:46:02 PM

On 24/11/2011 fukface wrote:
>Simey - by my reckonin you just got trolled.
>
>rolsen 1: simey 0
>

Well if writing dumb shit and making a dick of yourself somehow scores you points on the trolling scoreboard, then I'm more than happy to have lost.


ChuckNorris

24-Nov-2011
9:03:30 PM

Personal opinion is that rolsens post is not a troll. However if you read it as a troll, when you combine it with your short tempered defensive replies it is kind of funny.

Anyway simey when are you going to pick up your cam? And also do you want to get involved in a plan I'm cookin up with hero that involves loose women and a big tyro?

There are 26 messages in this topic.