Vertical cave rescue techniques and equipment

[Scarecrow]

Hi everyone,

I am a caver from South Africa and curious what techniques and equipment are used in other countries for cave rescues.
Some of the specific things I am interested in:

Do you use mainline and belay system or rather twin/dual tension systems when lowering and raising?
Which equipment do you use for rope grabs in raising?
What lowering equipment do you use?
What equipment do you use for the belay line?
If a twin/dual tension system is used, then which devices do you use for lowering?

Of course any why this rather than that is very welcome!

 

[DannyW]

I am sure someone more experienced then I will give you better advice but the members of the club I am with in Western Australia rig the entry pitch with only what is needed and leave the rest above ground so you can use a 4:1 pulley system using a duck or shunt on the main tensioned line to break into it and put a stop mounted on the main anchor point then you can continue to raise (pulling the rope through the stop) or quickly lower with the stop if required. Works pretty well and reasonably fast.

 

[Madness]

Try Googling 'Life on a line PDF'

 

[Amy]

Depends on the cave, depends on the drop, depends on rigging options. That's the short answer.

Belay and main line haul? Sure that's what the standard for the NFPA is. But in reality is that always a good idea? Hell no. For example - two years ago 586ft freehang and you'd twist that up so badly it would be a mess. A rappelling counterbalance system was used instead. Because you don't want to haul that much onto a tiny ledge. It was beautiful rigging! Work of art. I love doing rescue here we have such amazing talent.

NCRC just put out a shiney new book of American rescue techniques. It goes over a lot of variations. http://www.innermountainoutfitters.com/manual-of-u-s-cave-rescue-techniques-3rd-edition/

 

[Scarecrow]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. Yes I have the second edition of Life on a Line. It is however from 2007 and I wonder if some things have changed. Life on a Line is also very vague in some respects, with long discussions about positives and negatives about certain equipment and techniques, rather than definite answers on what some teams use. Guess that is due to the "depends on the cave and drop" thing comes in.

The 580 foot sounds like an interesting rescue! Any more info on it? Pictures of the rigging?

 

[Amy]

The reason there is long talk of positive and negative is because cave rescue is not cookie cutter. You have to know a wide array of techniques and pick the best for your situation. There is no such thing as one size fits all. It is impossible to regulate as you can for other types of rescues, because each drop, each bolt, each edge, each passage, is unique.

Cave rescue 101: is it safe? Will/does it work? If the answers are yes, do it.

The main 586 drop was rigged with what is called a rappelling counterbalance and flying Rebelay. The counterbalance brings the patient up without the need for a haul system, and the flying Rebelay brings them from free hanging in the middle of the pit over to the passage to exit the cave. A very good technical write up is here (the rescue made quite a few of our national rescue papers) the 7th image is a sketch from one of the lead rescuers of the rigging. http://www.firefighternation.com/article/technical-rescue-usar-0/complex-rescue-deep-cave-takes-more-24-hours

Here is an account of the incident and cave, as told by trip leader https://m.facebook.com/notes/troy-fuqua/rescue-in-ellisons-cave/511925948860861

An account from one of the rescuers on a team called in later (walker county responded first, we have three major crews for this entire region - the size of the UK - so lots of people were held on standby for relief later) in fact the unit I'm on is about four hours from the cave and we had the "be here at 7am" callout,knowing it would be a long rescue and they'd need fresh help. That sort of mutual aid happens often here. We have Walker Co Cave and cliff in Georgia, Hamilton co cave and Cliff in Tennessee, and then Huntsville cave rescue (the one I'm on) in Alabama. Other various smaller squads have cave/cliff training too but those are our main players http://www.ryanrodd.com/rescue.html

I do recommend the new NCRC book I posted the link to in my last post. It has lots of training and rigging diagrams that are very well done.

 

[Scarecrow]

Thanks,

I find examples of actual cave rescues to be very helpful!

Unfortunately we don't have things like Fantastic Pit in SA. Our deep pits tend to be at the entrances to the caves only and are generally 50m or 160feet drops.

Inside the caves the drops are usually small, and often have a lot of loose rocks and boulders and not so stable walls... good rock for anchors can be hard to find.

Will definitely try and get hold of the NCRC book.