Helping hands

By SAM KLOMHAUS

Sam.Klomhaus@gjsentinel.com

Just after noon on Monday, the Grand Junction Fire Department responded to a call for a mountain biker in distress on Holey Bucket in the Lunch Loops.

The mountain biker was suffering heat-related distress, according to a GJFD press release, and was transported out of the trail network via a rope system.

“Grand Junction Fire is an all-hazards department,” GJFD Community Outreach Specialist Ellis Thompson said. “Our crews are trained to respond to technical rescues like we’re talking about, swiftwater, house fires, wild and urban interface fires, wildfires, hazardous materials, confined space rescues.”

Heat-related illness includes conditions caused by excessive exposure to high temperatures, often compounded high humidity and strenuous physical activity, according to the release. That includes heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. Symptoms include muscle cramps, sweating, dizziness, nausea, confusion, and unconsciousness.

“Sometimes, with some good help and some good coaching, we can assist them hiking out,” GJFD Safety and Medical Officer Zach Leyda said. “Sometimes they’re not able to do that and we have to hike them out or package them up and hike them out.”

When people are unable to hike out, the department can conduct technical rescues with ropes.

“We use ropes for access and safety and consequence,” Leyda said.

For example, Leyda said, if there is a lot of exposure in an area, or if there are safety concerns with the patient or the rescue team, the department will use ropes.

“We’re going to use the safest and most efficient route to get somebody out, Leyda said.

Time, speed and patient condition are also factors.

“A lot of times you can get a lot of steep switchbacks, and any time we’re putting somebody in a basket and we’ve got a hill or something with consequence and the potential for them falling or us falling, we’re going to use a rope system so nobody gets further hurt,” Leyda said. “Like if you’re doing switchbacks, if you follow the trail and the switchbacks up, you’re going to have to set up a lot more rope systems for the switchback, but you can also just use one rope system and go straight up, so it’s kind of a speed thing as well.”

The department uses a titanium basket that weighs about 15 pounds, Leyda said. The department has been using that basket for about two years and it can be used in both high-angle and low-angle environments, and can be hoisted with ropes or pushed along the ground on a fat bike tire.

Previously, they had a steel basket which weighed about 60 pounds, he said.

The basket can also be broken down to fit into crew members’ packs.

“A lot of the stuff that we could just hike as usual completely changes when you have somebody in a basket with one wheel, and you’re tying to navigate them through rock gardens, switchbacks, steeper hills, because the consequence is there, and especially for a patient we’ve got strapped into a basket, we absolutely do not want to cause any further harm

See HELPING, page 18A ➤

Grand Junction Fire Department Safety and Medical Officer Zach Leyda explains the process for rope rescues and all the equipment that accompanies each complex rescue, which varies by call to call, taken at the GJFD Station 1 on Thursday. Leyda and the technical rescue team members are often busier in the summer as there are more injuries and heat-related issues with more people outside recreating.

LARRY ROBINSON/ The Daily Sentinel

Grand Junction Fire Department personnel pull out a titanium rescue basket to demonstrate how a rope rescue would work in a live rescue at the GJFD Station 1. The basket can be used in both high-angle and low-angle environments, and can be hoisted with ropes or pushed along the ground on a fat bike tire.

LARRY ROBINSON/ The Daily Sentinel

Grand Junction Fire Department personnel attach a large wheel onto a titanium rescue basket to demonstrate how a rope rescue would work in a live rescue at the GJFD Station 1.

LARRY ROBINSON/ The Daily Sentinel

The Grand Junction First Department transports a rescue victim in a basket during a technical rescue this week on Holey Bucket in the Lunch Loops.

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to them,” Leyda said.

The basket and the department’s other tech rescue gear, as well as equipment for water rescues and other different types of rescues, is stored in a truck in the bay of Fire Station 1. That truck is primarily used for technical rescues, but can also do other things, Leyda said.

“Every person on our crew will have their own harness, their own piece of equipment that they’re carrying along with the bags,” Leyda said.

The department uses different types of rope systems depending on the angle of the rescue, Leyda said.

“We can do high-angle rope systems which is where, cliff face or all the weight of the patient and our provider are on the rope, we can do a steep-angle system where the vast majority of the patient’s weight and our weight is on the rope, or we can do a low-angle system where the vast majority of the weight is actually on our feet, but we’re using the rope as a guide and as a safety factor to get people out,” Leyda said.

The rescue at Holey Bucket, which Leyda did not participate in, was a low-angle rescue.

“A low-angle system’s relatively simple,” Leyda said. “That’s just an anchor, we’re going to have some kind of belay device, we’re going to have our basket and we’re going to have three to four providers on the basket helping to assist it up.”

Leyda said a technical rescue will have a minimum of nine people assigned to it, and will often require assistance from Mesa County Search and Rescue.

GJFD crews learn rope rescues over about a twoweek course, Leyda said.

Station 1, located at 620 Pitkin Ave., is the department’s technical rescue station because of its proximity to areas like Colorado National Monument, the Lunch Loops and the Spyglass area of Orchard Mesa.

All GJFD crews are trained in technical rescues, Thompson said, but those stationed at Station 1 receive extra training.

All but two of the department’s fire stations also have towers that firefighters can use to train with ropes, Thompson said. This allows them to train without being taken out of service, which training on local trails would do.

Leyda said there have been some situations in which firefighters have been training at, for example, Colorado National Monument, and have had to break down their rope constructions to go to an actual rescue.

Summers are the busier times for technical rescues, Leyda said, with more people outside experiencing injuries and heat-related illnesses.

“People are hiking in the middle of the heat, in 100-degree days, without enough water, or not quite sure what they’re getting into,” Leyda said.

Thompson reminded the public that it’s not wise to be outside exerting yourself during periods of extreme heat.

“We also see a lot of fit people getting in trouble in the middle of the day,” Thompson said. “It’s not a matter of how often you do it.”

Leyda said GJFD personnel have to hike in in that exact same heat, with their own water and gear, as well as water for the patient.

“It can be a real challenge,” Leyda said.