EWLS Officers attend NCRC Orientation to Cave Rescue South Western Region

By Tabitha Rossman, Edited by Lisa Bauman & Karla Zajac

Karla Zajac and I attended the NCRC Orientation to Cave Rescue South Western Region, a weekend course that took place in the southwestern region in Carlsbad, New Mexico this year. This Introductory level program consists of classroom and field work showing all the phases of cave rescue. It involves underground environment, extrication techniques, communication systems, medical management, and organization and management of cave rescue. The basic orientation course material is presented for students that typically include cavers, emergency services personnel and rescue management personnel. The second day of the class is designed for both cave explorers who have the desire to learn the basics of rescues and personnel who want to expand the knowledge as well as the experiences that are involved in cave rescues. For the orientation you do not need to have any prior caving experience however it does help.

“I feel like everyone in caving should take an orientation at least once. Its such a risky sport that anything can happen and being prepared always helps,” said Karla Zajac.

I find that the mock rescue is the most important part of the training. It puts everything you just learned to the test and you get to work together as a team. You get to carefully and quickly work though a mission while protecting the cave. That is also important to keep in mind when doing a rescue. You also do not want to injure the patient more or cause any infections on the way out that can be prevented.

It’s also good to find out what you are good at and stick with that. I learned that the communications aspect of the rescue is one of the more important roles when I helped out during the mock training with the entrance communications. I really enjoyed it. There is a lot that is involved in making sure you effectively relay the message back and forth to the rescue team and EMT waiting outside, so that everyone will know how to treat the patient and how long they need to wait until the patient is safely outside the cave. I learned a lot in the mock rescues and about different scenarios. Each role is important to learn. I highly recommend people to take the orientation class.

I wanted to give a special mention to Patricia Sieser. She is an excellent cave sketching and cave rescue teacher. She got me interested in caving when I first met her when I was volunteering with the Forest Service bat workshop. Anyone who gets a chance to learn from her will be very lucky. She is just great at what she does and is an excellent teacher. I find her very inspirational.   

Special thanks to all the instructors teaching the class in the southwestern region. You all did such a great job. I look forward to taking more cave rescue training classes with you guys in the future!

This article was featured in the 2016 EWLS Publication, Extraordinary Women Cavers Guidebook and Magazine. Order your copy here.