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we learn from our mistakes:
Scenario: a swim in a canyon/gorge swimmer on opposite side of river of team. Goal is to get swimmer safely to other side of river.
Here is how we did it and the review that ensued:
Firstly this was a swim in Rockwood box at about 4000cfs, for those of you who don't know that would be the high side of high in a gorge. Pushy big and fast relentless water making swimming and rescue extremely dangerous, obviously the stakes were as high as they get. I had the pleasure of being the tethered swimmer so I will tell from my account.
Firstly I swam, disoriented as I was the first shore that I saw I swam with 100% effort to GET OUT! This happened to be opposite of where I needed to be with a several mile bushwack to fix that problem. There were 5 of us, 1 in a boat, 3 on the opposite shore. We got a throw bag across the river and tethered it to my rescue vest in the rear on the ring (verify your cinch, and check it again). One person anchored and another held the ancor. the object was to pendulum me across the current. Thankfully (here is where we learn) we ADDED A VECTOR PULL. That would be a downstream biner attached to the rope to assist and relieve the pendulum. If you don't know what that is please take a rescue course. When applying a VECTOR PULL assist there will be a tremendous amount of force at an angle which inhibits the vector biner to slide down the rope. Prepare for this by starting your VECTOR PULL as far downstream as possible and obviously get ready to pull like hell.
We succeeded and in review there were a few things to learn from. First, expect the tethered swimmer to be useless. Expect the tethered swimmer to actually submerge so this has to go FAST. If possible move the anchor operation far up the bank as practical to allow the pendulum to work efficiently. ADD A VECTOR PULL, this is critical. For the vector to be effective it needs to be downstream and get ready for a workout it is hard to pull a vector downstream cross current!
Cheers!
Scenario: a swim in a canyon/gorge swimmer on opposite side of river of team. Goal is to get swimmer safely to other side of river.
Here is how we did it and the review that ensued:
Firstly this was a swim in Rockwood box at about 4000cfs, for those of you who don't know that would be the high side of high in a gorge. Pushy big and fast relentless water making swimming and rescue extremely dangerous, obviously the stakes were as high as they get. I had the pleasure of being the tethered swimmer so I will tell from my account.
Firstly I swam, disoriented as I was the first shore that I saw I swam with 100% effort to GET OUT! This happened to be opposite of where I needed to be with a several mile bushwack to fix that problem. There were 5 of us, 1 in a boat, 3 on the opposite shore. We got a throw bag across the river and tethered it to my rescue vest in the rear on the ring (verify your cinch, and check it again). One person anchored and another held the ancor. the object was to pendulum me across the current. Thankfully (here is where we learn) we ADDED A VECTOR PULL. That would be a downstream biner attached to the rope to assist and relieve the pendulum. If you don't know what that is please take a rescue course. When applying a VECTOR PULL assist there will be a tremendous amount of force at an angle which inhibits the vector biner to slide down the rope. Prepare for this by starting your VECTOR PULL as far downstream as possible and obviously get ready to pull like hell.
We succeeded and in review there were a few things to learn from. First, expect the tethered swimmer to be useless. Expect the tethered swimmer to actually submerge so this has to go FAST. If possible move the anchor operation far up the bank as practical to allow the pendulum to work efficiently. ADD A VECTOR PULL, this is critical. For the vector to be effective it needs to be downstream and get ready for a workout it is hard to pull a vector downstream cross current!
Cheers!