Inside Search & Rescue: Stranded on a Cliff with a Broken Leg

When rockfall takes its toll, things get serious. Late in the day on an alpine climb in the Sierra, a microwave sized block fell and broke the leg of a climber as she stood at a belay 1,500 ft up Mt Emerson. As Inyo County Search and Rescue launched into the mission, they quickly realized that helicopter evacuation would not be possible given the weather. With freezing temperatures setting in and darkness falling, the ground team sprung into action—ultimately climbing hundreds of feet to the patient, and rigging hundreds of feet of a static lowering system to ultimately get her to a hospital 24 hours later, dodging inclement weather and rockfall hazards along the way. In this episode, we sat down with Todd Vogel, one of the team leads for the mission, to learn about the nitty gritty details of the rescue, what happens when the weather is too bad for helicopters, and how SAR teams deal with the emotional roller-coaster of their work. *** Inyo County Search and Rescue is a winner of this year's Rocky Talkie Search and Rescue Award. Hear the other finalists' stories and vote for the most inspiring story among them at Americanalpineclub.org/sar-awards-2023