Operator Error
As much as we focus on the proper use and limitations of technical rescue systems, the data for
rescue accidents shows conclusively that our greatest risk for failure is the failure of the human
element. This tells us we are doing an admirable job of evaluating our technical systems. In fact,
data from the National Park Service indicates that there has yet to be a rescuer death during a
mountain rescue caused by failure of the system itself.
Several examples of "operator error" follow below:
Rescuer dies on training
On January 11, 1964, Frederick C. Scheberies, a candidate member of the China Lake Mountain
Rescue Group (CLMRG), was participating in an ice-climbing training for the CLMRG at the frozen
cascade of the Middle Fork of Lone Pine Creek at Whitney Portal in the Sierra Nevada
Scheberies spent the morning session practicing various techniques including step-cutting and
crampon use on gentle ice. He then joined the group to practice belayed ice axe arrests.
Following that practice, he proceeded to the next station.
At 11:30 a.m., after reaching the area which was located directly below the second steep
pitch of the cascades, other members of the party set up the belays to be used in the ice
axe practice. Scheberies crossed the stream and delivered a rope to be carried farther up
the left bank by another person. He returned pausing before reaching the right bank, and
attempted a steeper portion of the slope. After taking a long step, he lost his balance and
fell forward, with his hands on the ice. His crampons slipped out and he fell, accelerating
slowly, but making no attempt to arrest with his ice axe. After reaching a steeper portion,
he lost the ice axe, and continued down the slope for 300 feet, somersaulting over the first
practice pitch.
Those reaching the victim found him unconscious, bleeding from the mouth and ears and
not breathing. A doctor was sent for, and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and first aid for
shock were administered, until the victim was pronounced dead (of a skull fracture) 40
minutes later, His crampons were found to be still tightly strapped and correctly positioned
on his boots.
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Analysis of the Accident provided by China Lakes Mountain Rescue Group follows:
The location of the victim's fall was on ice whose gradual slope led the other members of
the Group (who had practiced at this area on several previous years) to believe that a slip
there would be improbable. Although it was recognized that the consequences of such a
slip without a belay would be severe. The judgment of the situation by the trip leaders was
further influenced by the capable use of crampons demonstrated by the victim prior to his
fall. It must be recognized that gently sloping ice can appear to be deceptively easy, and
that beginners especially must be belayed if a fall could result in injury, however low the
probability of a slip might seem.
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