Actually, Bill, I believe, according to Don Fig's reports subsequent to his retirement and mine to the KY Div of Emergency Mgmt, there have been 94 deaths and well over 1640 SAR missions since 1960. This is in the combined land of the Red River Gorge Geological Area and Clifty Wilderness that most regard as "The Gorge."captain static wrote:Found some RRG statistics while searching for something else: 1960 to 2004 - 1,575 SAR missions, 55 deaths, many of the deaths attributed to falls from cliffs.
Not sure how to stay clear of the "rock climber" definition debate, but there have been only three deaths since 1960 involving... uh let's say persons climbing on rock in the "Gorge" who carried with them gear for leading trad climbs and who possessed technical rock climbing skills - the two from the 11/08 Lady Slipper accident and one back in the eighties.
After Don Fig's retirement as head of the RRGMRT for 45 years, the reorganized team made up of volunteers from the SAR and Fire/Rescue teams of the Wolfe/Powell/Menifee/Lee County areas within the "Gorge - continued with the SAR responsibility. The team has responded to dozens of SAR incidents in the Gorge since Nov '08, including eight deaths - 5 due to falls off cliffs.
Don Fig's charts and stats for SAR operations up through '05 can be seen at the website for the Red River Gorge Mountain Rescue Team: www.rrgmrt.org and a little more info at www.wcsart.org
Rick
