ASRC Training Guide Version 1.0 Established by ASRC Board of Directors 5 October 2019 Approved by ASRC Publications Committee 5 October 2019
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
LACH PA IA P N A ♦ ♦ S E E A U R C C H + RES APPALACHIAN SEARCH ANd RESCUE CONFERENCE Training Guide ASRC Training Guide Version 1.0 Established by ASRC Board of Directors 5 October 2019 Approved by ASRC Publications Committee 5 October 2019 Appalachian Search & Rescue Conference, Inc. P.O. Box 400440, Newcomb Hall Station Charlottesville, VA 22904 This work is licensed under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) . To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for com- mercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incor- porating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects. Set in Scala Sans and Minion with InDesign This document may be downloaded from http://archive.asrc.net Preface In the early 1970s, Rita Cloutier, Ray Cole, Gene Harrison PATC HQ suggested they call the local County Sheriff and the and I, at the instigation of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Forest Service District Office, which they did. Finally, the next Club’s Council, organized the Appalachian Search and morning the local county and forest service people managed Rescue Conference. Ray, Gene and I put as much of the to get some people out on the trail, and of course they just ASRC’s history as we could remember in a document on the found two frozen bodies. ASRC Archive called The Early History of the ASRC. Part of The second incident: It happened at Harper’s Ferry. that bears repeating here, the two incidents that resulted in Harper’s Ferry is where the Shenandoah River joins the the ASRC’s creation. I refer to this as the ASRC’s founding Potomac River, and the greatly-enlarged Potomac pours myth. through the Blue Ridge. It’s an impressive gap, with some nice The first incident: one late fall, a boy scout troop was cliffs on either side. The cliffs on the northern side are about out for a hike along the Virginia/West Virginia border, on 300 feet high, and known as Maryland Heights. I’ve climbed the west side of the Shenandoah Valley. The place is called there, and it’s a real challenge. There are some overhangs, but Wolf Gap, and it’s pretty wild compared to, say, Shenandoah the real interesting challenge is that there’s a train tunnel National Park. As the crow flies, it’s about twenty miles due through the bottom of the cliff. And this is for the B&O main- west of Front Royal, Virginia, which is at the northern tip of line, so quite frequently a big freight train barrels through Shenandoah National Park. The PATC maintains a cabin the tunnel and the whole cliff shakes. The area is a popular up the trail from the gap, and makes maps of the trails in the National Historical Park, but unlike most NHPs, it has plenty vicinity. of backcountry and trails and cliffs (and even John Brown’s Wolf Gap is in the George Washington National Forest. I Cave). don’t know if you know this, but the management and culture Here’s the story as we heard it. Now this was back before of National Forests and National Parks are as different as the National Park Service Rangers at Harper’s Ferry had their night and day. (Having been a summer-seasonal National own vertical rescue capability. They do now and have had for Park Service Ranger for several years drilled this into me.) the past several decades. Well, there was this climber who was There are many differences, such as hunting being allowed in hurt and stuck halfway up the cliff (or halfway down, I don’t forests but not in parks. But for our purposes, the main dif- know if he was climbing or rappelling or what). The Park ference is jurisdiction. National Park Rangers generally have Rangers had a mutual aid agreement with a local fire depart- “exclusive jurisdiction”—they are in charge of all search and ment (Bolivar?) to handle cliff rescues, so they called the fire rescue and other emergency services and law enforcement department. And the way we heard it, this fire department within a park. However, National Forest Rangers generally lowered a wire-basket Stokes litter down to the guy, with a have “concurrent jurisdiction”—most emergency services rope on the head of it, and a tag line on the bottom. And I within a national forest are handled by the local counties and guess someone rappelled down and strapped him in the litter. other municipalities. But then, instead of lowering with someone tending the litter, Anyway, the boy scout troop was on the trail from Wolf they just lowered on the top line while pulling on the bottom Gap to Big Schloss (“big fortress” in German, a reference to line from below. And as they guy got lowered down, the litter the big blocky cliffs). Actually, they were on the way back, kept spinning around, crashing against the cliff face, smashing and they were behind schedule. It got dark. And it started his face pretty bad, enough to keep him in the hospital for snowing; hard, and fast. When they straggled back to the cars quite a while. The Park Service was not happy. in misery and disorder, a couple of the scouts were missing. So Based on this narrative, true in all respects or not, the two of the adults set out back up the trail, in the dark, and in ASRC was founded with a primary charge of improving heavy snow. SAR training in the mid-Appalachian region, so that when Well, the two kids showed up at the cars, but they hadn’t things like this happened, there would be more trained seen the adults. As it got later and later, there was no sign of individuals to respond. At first, the ASRC was not involved the two adults. After waiting, and waiting, someone finally in response at all: it was all about training people in SAR went to a pay phone (remember, this was long before cell- skills, and only later did we organize local Groups to pro- phones) and called PATC headquarters in DC and asked vide response organizations. for help. They said they needed people with headlamps and From the beginning, the ASRC was all about training and snowshoes to go out and look for the two adults. Now, in credentialing, and this Guide continues this emphasis, more those days the PATC had no callout roster, nor any sort of than 40 years later. emergency response plan. This was even before the days of the Trail Patrol, not that even to this day the Trail Patrol is any — Keith Conover, July 2019 sort of response team, or patrols in this area. The people at 3 Contents Preface 3 5. Carrying the Litter 35 ASRC Training and Credentialing Overview 7 6. Rotating Litter Bearers 35 The ASRC Training Guide 7 7. Obstacles: Laddering, Toenailing 35 Training Revision Process 8 Field IV (Trainee) Learning Objectives 37 History 9 A. Safety, Health and First Aid 37 Testing and Credentialing 10 1. Mid-Appalachian SAR Hazards and Reasons for the Credentialing Levels 10 Risks 37 External Forces 10 2. Personal Equipment, Clothing and Professionalism and Pride 11 Survival 38 Guides and Recognition 12 3. Hypothermia 38 Interchangeable Parts 12 4. Frostbite 38 2014-2019 Restructuring 12 5. Heat-Related Illness 38 No Self-Credentialing 12 B. Communications 39 PTBs 12 C. Land Navigation 39 Names and Content 13 D. Operations, Management and Wilderness First Aid 13 Leadership 39 Meeting Other Standards 14 E. Rescue 40 Right-Sizing; Frequency and Severity 14 Field III Educational Goals 41 Field Training 16 A. Safety, Health and First Aid 41 Overview 16 B. Communications 41 Field Credentialing 17 C. Land Navigation 41 Topic Organization 17 D. Operations, Management and Guide for Training Sessions 17 Leadership 42 Work to Do 19 1. System Operations 42 Search Manager Training Overview 19 2. Field Team Management 42 Skills of a Search Manager 19 E. Search 42 Search Manager Levels and Requirements 20 F. Rescue 42 Field IV (Trainee) Educational Goals 21 Field III Curriculum 43 Field IV (Trainee) Curriculum 22 A. Safety, Health and First Aid 43 A. Safety, Health and First Aid 22 1. Personal Hygiene 43 1. Mid-Appalachian SAR Hazards and 2. Fatigue, Exhaustion and Nutrition 43 Risks 22 3. Bloodborne Pathogens 44 2. Personal Equipment, Clothing and 4. Confidentiality 47 Survival 24 5. Emergency Bivouacs and Camping 3. Hypothermia 26 Practice 47 4. Frostbite 28 6. Water Purification 48 5. Heat-Related Illness 29 B. Communications 49 B. Communications 30 1. Phonetic Alphabet and Prowords C. Land Navigation 30 Practice 49 1. UTM/USNG Grid System 30 2. Radio Controls and Maintenance 2. Safety Direction 31 Practice 49 D. Operations, Management and 3. Radio Communications Procedures Leadership 31 Practice 49 1. ICS as Adapted for SAR 31 4. Cellphones 49 2. Operational Procedures 33 5. Alternative/Backup Communications E. Rescue 34 Modes 49 1. Lifting a Litter 34 C.