Keeping Warm And Avoiding Hypothermia In The Mountains - Part Three
By Gregg Beisly
Winter is upon us and many of us will be out in the hills having fun and the occasional epic that will be fun in the retelling. Before you get on the snow and ice, make sure you are schooled up on keeping yourself safe.
In this three-part series we are looking at how to keep warm, understand hypothermia and manage an emergency situation in cold conditions.
Part 3 Managing An Emergency In The Alpine Environment
Key Points:
Prevention:
Be aware of potential hazards and avoid them or minimise time exposed to them. Use good decision making when in the mountains. At critical points consider the next step in a climb, being aware of biases that may prevent a good decision. Keep fit and train for good climbing techniques.
Mitigation:
Use safe travel techniques to expose less people to hazards at any one time – e.g. one at a time if you need to cross/climb where there are potential rock/ice fall or avalanche hazards. Construct belays in protected positions where possible.
Wear protective equipment – e.g. helmet, use ropes when needed.
Preparation:
Train in outdoor first aid.
Learn emergency management principles.
Take emergency equipment:
- Emergency comms – PLB, InReach etc
- Emergency shelter
- First aid kit
- Insulation from the ground
Response:
Stop - Remain calm. Ensure your own safety and that of any uninjured members of your group.
Think - What is important now to stabilise the situation? What is important next to improve it? Get ideas from the group (if with others) to answer these questions.
Assess - the impact and consequences of actions.
React - with taking actions that seem best.
Activate beacon (PLB/InReach/Spot…)
Treat injuries, shelter and insulate from the ground and air. Treat people as you would hypothermia cases, as well as the more obvious injuries.
Helicopter Safety
Secure loose items. Stay together and still until told what to do, then follow instructions.
In general emergency management theory, there are five stages. Prevention, mitigation, preparation, response and recovery. Here I will briefly cover the first three and focus on the response stage of dealing with an emergency.
Prevention
Clearly the best emergencies are ones you avoid. In the alpine environment there are many potential hazards that could cause a climber problems. Most at risk are those who are either unaware of, or understand poorly, those hazards.
Rockfall, icefall or avalanches are a common cause for concern for climbers. With mountain knowledge, they can mostly be avoided, or the time exposed to them minimised. Trips, loss of balance, poor technique and fatigue induced stumbles can be avoided by good fitness, training and focus when in consequential terrain.
Mitigation
If something bad happens, the outcome will be much better if fewer people in a group were exposed to a hazard at the same time, or if equipment was being used to lessen the impact of a mistake or natural event. As an example, do you and your two climbing partners head up that gully, with signs of recent rockfall, all together or one at a time, waiting at points sheltered from above? Or do you change plans and take a different route less exposed to the problem? If there is a new rockfall one of those decisions will potentially have the whole group out of action rather than one, or none, of the group. Wearing helmets will improve the outcome if someone is hit on the head by a rock and using a rope if the runout is terrible could minimise injury, although the extra time you would spend potentially under fire will mean picking safe belays carefully.
Preparation
A good response to an emergency will be aided greatly by some preparation. Having emergency equipment and knowing how to use it will increase the possibility of a good outcome.
Emergency communications in the form of a PLB or an InReach type device will massively decrease the time rescue services will take to get to you.
An emergency shelter will keep a storm temporarily at bay or add warmth for an injured person.
Insulation, from the ground in the form of foam mats, and for the body, greatly increases warmth for a patient, or in a desperate bivvy.
A first aid kit with a few essentials will help, particularly if you have taken an alpine focused outdoor first aid course.
Response
It really sucks to be involved in an emergency situation in the mountains, especially if you have witnessed an accident. I know a climber who saw someone in their party trip and fall on an icy slope, slide rapidly into a rock and obviously hurt themselves badly. In a heroic moment, they started downhill at pace to help, tripped on their crampons and slid further than the first person, knocking themselves out and suffering a significant head injury. The rest of the party then had two casualties to deal with, rather than the original one. There may be rare occasions where immediate and drastic action saves the day, but mostly it is more helpful for witnesses of an accident to take a few deep breathes, get past the initial adrenaline rush, and follow a dispassionate process.
The club’s official emergency management process is STAR.
Stop. Try to remain calm and make sure your immediate safety is assured. Next ensure the safety of the rest of your group (if any).
Think about what is the most important thing that needs to happen immediately to stabilise the situation and what will be needed next to improve it. Get ideas from the wider team if there is one.
Assess those options and the impact and consequences they will have.
React by taking the course of action that seems best in the situation.
If you will need outside help to resolve the emergency:
Activate beacon (PLB/ InReach / Spot). If you have cell phone reception you can call the Rescue Coordination Centre. This can short cut the contact list checks and provide more details for the rescuers. (RCC 0508 472 269 - put this number in your phone in case you have use for it one day).
If you do not have a beacon but do have cell phone reception then call 111 and ask for Police.
Looking After Injured People
In the alpine environment you should treat any injured person as if they are on the road to hypothermia. Any injury makes someone more susceptible to hypothermia. They will be stationary, no longer generating heat from activity, possibly sitting or lying on snow or cold ground, and have lost fluid, either externally or internally.
Note: if you have dug someone out of an avalanche or had to rescue them from a crevasse, they will already be hypothermic.
Insulate the patient from the snow/ground very well. Layers of foam mats, emptied packs, flaked out ropes and pack liners can be used. Shelter them from the elements, hopefully with an emergency shelter like a bothy bag. Keep them dry and out of wind and insulated with down jackets, sleeping bags or whatever spare clothing is on hand.
Helicopter Safety
If the weather allows, rescue services may have a helicopter heading your way. Waving a brightly coloured object like a sleeping pad or bothy bag can help you be seen easier, but pack it away as soon as you are spotted. If there are a few of you, gather together and secure any loose items. If the helicopter lands nearby, stay put and wait for instructions from crew or the pilot.
Recovery
After a significant incident it is important to debrief. Talk to people you trust to help you process what happened. There may be important things you learnt from the situation that could be useful for the wider climbing community to know to help prevent similar accidents.
Summary
Make good decisions to lessen the possibility of an emergency. Employ safe travel and climbing techniques, using good equipment to lessen the impact and increase survivability of potential accidents. Carry emergency equipment, know first aid and learn emergency management strategies so if your party, or someone nearby, needs help you have a much better chance of responding well. If you are dealing with an injured person, ensure your own safety and that of others in your party, call for help, treat any immediately life-threatening injuries and keep the patient sheltered, as warm as possible, and well insulated from the ground or snow.
Many thanks go to Jim Davidson for proof reading and helpful additions for this series of articles.