Injured Climber Rescued From a Summit in Yosemite Using a One-Of-A-Kind Rescue Technique
To-tock-ah-noo-lah – this is the name Spanish people gave to the majestic El Capitan, translated to “Rock Chief.” Rising to 3,000 feet from the valley floor, this cluster of gargantuan granite rocks is worshipped by the visitors of Yosemite National Park for its sheer size, bathed in unfiltered sunlight and almost a godly aura. Its steep, towering walls undulate in deep U-shaped valleys, looming from which, trees like sequoia, ponderosa pines, yellow pines, black oaks, and incense cedars guard the tall cliffs with pride. Put aside the aesthetics, the extreme vertical terrains of these cliffs make them akin to death valleys for climbers. Thanks to Yosemite’s high-precision strategies and quick-thinking rescue team, one climber got saved from the treacherous uphill struggle, as the park shared on Facebook.
The incident unfolded on October 20 and was shared only recently. The climber was about 5,800 feet high when he tumbled down a steep slope and injured his arm, Ty Blasingame, the CHP helicopter pilot who assisted in the rescue, shared with SFGATE. The patient was stuck on El Capitan’s spire, about halfway up the boulder’s Salathe Wall, along a granite pillar with a flat top. Thanks to the supersmart Yosemite Search and Rescue Team (YOSAR), the climber received assistance without having to wait for too long.
To rescue him, YOSAR leader Jesse McGahey and her team utilize their special “toss-across” technique. The state-of-the-art rescue technique is chalked solely to Yosemite, and it has not been observed in action among rangers of any other national park. The high-angle technique was implemented aboard a California Highway Patrol (CHP) helicopter, as the park mentioned in the caption of their Facebook reel.
This precision maneuver allows rescuers to battle the whipping winds and steep granite, and still reach the climber safely. The method, as observable in the footage, shows a helicopter hovering in the azure sky above, while down below, two park rangers are assimilating a green bean bag they used to hop down to the climber stuck on a ledge adjoining the tall cliff. With sci-fi-looking silhouettes of the helicopter casting shadows on the rocky walls, the climber cheered at the camera, latched to the tight rope attached to the bean bag.
“Ready to go for a ride, buddy?” one ranger asked the patient. “Where are we going?” He said. “We’re getting out of here,” the ranger replied. Excited, the climber said Okay with a big “Whooa!” With this, the ropes belted around his body were pulled upwards into the helicopter. For a few moments, the climber remained dangling mid-air, suspended like a red bird with contrast of a golden beam of light sparkling in the blue sky in the background. After the climber was transported to safety, he was immediately taken into the care of a doctor for surgical assistance. He is now recovering.
The brilliant rescue technique was invented by Yosemite’s rescue personnel in the early 2000s, according to Noe Gonzalez, a CHP flight officer and paramedic who assisted with the rescue. The technique, he explained, involves tossing a weighted bean bag attached to a string and using it to hook people to rescue equipment, as also demonstrated in the footage. “The technique is very specific to Yosemite, I don’t think it’s conducted anywhere else, the way that we do it,” Gonzalez noted.
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