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MOCK SEARCH
20/12/03

Photos/report by David Wright
Click photos to enlarge
5 skiers showed up Sat morning for the gentle 5 mile ski/slog into the
Bradley Hut. A bunch of members skied in the night before to set up the 
3 search/rescue scenarios. Light rain, an occasional wind gust, with snow
flurries further up.

After a brief break at the hut, we worked 2 
separate avalanche situations, with multiple victims (buried beacons). The team
members who were acting as the panicky, confused & disoriented members 
of which ever group was in trouble did a superb job - even down to 
language barriers. Eventually all beacons were rescued, despite the help of the
victims "friends", and the lack of actual avalanche features, such as
crown, bed, flanks, run outs, debris fields and terrain traps.

The 3rd rescue involved an injured skier,(Mike Kinnett) who was wrapped around a
tree with some serious and gruesome looking injuries, and someone named
"Fred" who was missing. Mikey was found quickly and swarmed with 
rescuers, so myself & 2 others went on the hunt for "Fred" - this also allowed me 
to unload that big orange thing strapped on my pack since pavement. (Russ
carried the other half of the sled) - Now, with a much lighter pack,
myself, Doug and (Forest?) worked our way up in this hill, towards some
tracks we could see above. We were told "Fred" was wearing a beacon so 
we were on receive. He didn't answer our calls and we didn't pick up 
anything on the beacons. We got to the highest point where there were tracks, 
then worked back down covering the flanks outside our ascent. No Fred.

Back to the Mikey scene where the sled was now assembled and Mikey was 
wrapped & strapped. We found out that Fred was very close, but was unplugged.
Megan dug up the plastic wrapped beacon. With the Fred recovery 
finished, now all we had to do was get Mikey in the sled back to the hut - mostly
downhill. Plenty of helpers kept the descent slow and safe, and the 
flats and slight uphill manageable.  A late lunch and relax back at the hut,
then skins off and the gloppy slalom run through snowshoers back to 89. 

An all around good training with lots of practical applications, and
everybody came away with something they would/could do different/better
next time - Thanks Doug for organizing it, and skiing down from the hut
Saturday morning to the trailhead to show us the way back up.

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