Volunteer help needed Saturday to build rescue facility

[weber]

We are going to be building a new Emergency Building in Muir Valley to house a litter, backboard, medical and rescue gear and would like ask those of you who will be climbing in Muir Saturday who would like to donate 15 minutes of your time mixing concrete to stop by on your way to the crags at the base of the access road. The pay is crummy - just a bottle of Gatoraide and our gratitude. But we really would appreciate some help.

As much as we would like to believe there will be little need for this type of facility, actual experience has shown, it will be very important in the future. There will be about 24,000 visitor days this year in Muir. With that many people participating in the rock climbing sport, accidents are inevitable. We would like injured persons receive the absolute best care and response time.

The four serious accidents that have occurred this year in the Valley have had quick responses with good gear and trained, certified first responders on scene in minutes. The new building should shave off a few more minutes of response times. It is hoped that there will always be someone from the Muir Valley Rescue (MVR) group in the Valley at any time. But, of course, there are no guarantees. So, we want to make emergency first aid supplies, and rescue gear available to anyone who needs it for responding to an accident at Miur and has appropriate medical training and experience, whether or not Liz and I or members of MVR are present.

Last Saturday's accident is an example of how important a quick response can be. With appropriate preparation, a critical patient can be transported to the UK Trauma Center in far less time than the typical Red River Gorge accident response time (often 4 to 5 hours), significantly improving his chance of survival.

Why not let the local county emergency services take care of accidents instead of Muir Valley Rescue?

The Wolfe County ambulance service has neither a litter system nor personnel trained and physically able to hike up trails to respond to a climbing accident scene. They have only one member who is trained in wilderness medicine who works less than one day per week. Their job has been to transport a patient 4 miles to Pine Ridge and an awaiting helicopter. Response time for the WC rescue team will add at least a half hour to the mission time. And, at last Saturday's incident, the WC team showed up under-manned and with no medically-trained personnel. As they are volunteers, and good ones at that, the team is often short-handed.

A huge THANK YOU to those climber volunteers who, in the best spirit of Good Samaritanism, helped in last Saturday's operation!

Those of you who are interested in being a part of the Muir Valley Rescue group, please email me at richardhweber <at> gmail <dot> com

Rick

[caribe]

I am in as long as help is needed. See you Saturday.

[ChadW]

I am 90% about being down there this weekend and will volunteer for a few hours on Saturday.
I will drop you an email Rick to confirm.

[jamlawyer]

I'm so sorry I won't be down there to help this weekend. But, thank you so very much for offering this to our community!