Thank you Penticton Search and Rescue
Dear Editor:
Two years ago, I was mountain biking alone on a trail in Upper Wiltse that I had ridden many times when suddenly everything went wrong. I went over my handlebars and broke my neck as a result. Accidents can, and do, happen very quickly and unexpectedly.
I found myself unable to move with the only option being to yell repeatedly for help. After several hours, an alert resident up Carmi, across the Ellis Canyon, heard my calls and thankfully phoned 911.
Queue the PENSAR team.
I'm sure we have all seen them in the parade and maybe even out training, but the following is what this group of women and men actually do (to the best of my recollection)
10:45 p.m.: PENSAR receives call from 911 dispatch, mobilizes a team and sends a vehicle up Carmi to attempt to hear my cries for themselves and determine my approximate location.
11:15 p.m.: Approximate location determined the team sets up base at the Wiltse trails, gain access to the gate and begins a ground search
Midnight: I am successfully located by two searchers (cannot begin to describe the relief). At this point, initial first aid applied, responder with additional medical training called in, spinal immobilization, contact made with my wife, communication update to 911 dispatch, BC ambulance and likely RCMP
12:30 a.m.: High-angle rope rescue team assembles at accident site and begins route plan for extraction
1:30 a.m.: Incident manager makes the judgement call that the visibility and terrain is too risky and switches to a helicopter extraction (to this day I credit this call with my now being able to walk). Contact is somehow made with Eclipse Helicopters and a plan is made for an extraction at first light
2-5 a.m.: Ground meticulously cleaned for helicopter touchdown, additional communication with my wife as to exactly what the plan is, one unlucky PENSAR member gets the unenviable job of keeping we awake for the night (I will never forget this individual, or the stories we shared on that unbelievably long night).
Between 10 and 15 members spent the entire night on the mountain, ensuring the basket load and extraction all goes well. (These are all volunteers sacrificing not only that night, but also likely whatever commitments they had the following day.)
4:45 a.m.: Loaded in extraction basket, moved to extraction point
5 a.m.: Team discusses everyone’s role in the extraction
5:10 a.m.: Incredible sound heard on a silent morning, rotors turning at the Penticton airport
5:15 a.m.: I am carefully loaded into a hovering helicopter, given a thumbs up from a super-cool pilot, and flown to Kelowna ICU
The PENSAR team already knows how thankful I am for all they did that night, but I still felt the need to thank them publicly.
Thank you PENSAR!
Troy Schalm
Penticton