We wrapped up another ski season with our Nordic Senior and Nordic Master (NM) training clinic at Bolton Valley, VT. The patrol and management were gracious hosts and worked with us to help make this event such a success. Bolton Valley provides traditional Nordic track and skate skiing and backcountry skiing for all skier levels and is an excellent choice for advanced-level evaluations.
For the Nordic Senior clinic, four patrollers expanded their knowledge and tested their skills. Saturday started with a ski tour in spring conditions, working on several uphill techniques, especially at a few challenging water bars. At the cabin, we opened the patrol’s rescue cache, and the Bolton patrollers demonstrated how they use their backcountry litter. Some new ideas were adapted as we practiced loading a patient.
After lunch, we headed out to do rope rescue work. Jeff Sergeant led the group, demonstrating the raising and lowering systems we are trying to standardize throughout all division programs requiring rope rescue skills.
The main event started in the evening. Jeff Sargent was about to be evaluated for his Nordic Master overnight SAR exercise. This is one of the three final NM evaluations required once you meet the prerequisites and is considered by many to be the most demanding. Our suite became the ICS command center with Greg France as the Incident Command (IC), training Mike Lapierre and Brian Doyle to take over in the future. Jeff started to prepare the ICS 200 paperwork. Mike Balk, our patient and lost person, headed off to a location only known to the rescue support team. Once in place, a set of GPS coordinates was called in as the last seen point of the missing skier. Jeff downloaded the coordinates into his phone. All systems were double-checked before Jeff headed out the door.
A cold front was approaching with strong winds picking up to 25-35 mph and gusting to 45, snow flurries, and temperatures dropping to single digits. It was going to be a cold night for the participants. We discussed our backup rescue plan for the rescuers, hoping for the best. The overnight SAR exercise requires the participant to navigate to the missing person, treat their injuries (at least two), build a shelter, spend the night, prepare a hot meal, and evacuate in the morning.
We tracked Jeff’s movements and studied his search patterns. He called in at regular intervals, reporting his progress. Making it to the first set of coordinates, he was surprised no one was there. A second last seen point was called in. Jeff added this to his phone, and after another 20-30 minutes of searching, the subject was located. He called this in along with his first set of vitals and treated the subject’s injuries.
Once the patient was stabilized, Jeff called back in for assistance with the evacuation. IC notified Jeff that the rest of the team was involved in another callout and that no help was available. He would have to spend the night with the subject. He replied that he was starting to build a shelter. Two hours later, once we knew Jeff was settled in with Mike, we went out to observe his situation without them knowing (evaluation and safety factor).
For Mike, part of the NM IT training is to be the patient for several of these events. As an IT, I have suffered dearly for it. Jeff was a strong candidate for this scenario, and he did very well. After making breakfast, they were both evacuated and returned to the IC smiling.
Except for the sun coming out and the temps going up to 20, the weather on Sunday was still like the night before. We spent the morning building improvised toboggans and had the students demonstrate their rope skills. We finished the day debriefing, and all headed off in different directions.
We will be back at Bolton next year, so check the division’s website calendar for the dates and registration information.
