ulna of her left arm. The next day a 55 year-old park visitor slid on ice and suffered a fractured
collarbone and other minor injuries. During the ensuing rescue, Ranger Bob Martin slipped and
slid 60 feet, striking a tree. He suffered injuries to his back and ankle.
The Park later reviewed its rescue procedures to improve safety measures.
xxix
Asleep at the Wheel
On May 2, 1994, Lisa Hannon was working as Incident Commander for the State of Virginia. She
was leading a massive search for a missing five year-old boy lost in the mountains. She worked
all day and throughout the night.
On a "bright, clear morning" on May 3, Lisa left to drive home. Less than an hour after she left, she
fell asleep behind the wheel, struck a tree and was killed.
Lisa Hannon was posthumously awarded the NASAR State Award for Virginia that year.
Search, Recovery, RESCUE!
Early in the morning of December 15, 1997, Alex Toubia headed out in the Tahquitz Peak area of
California to try out some new in-step crampons he had just purchased.
After a few short hours of searching, two different Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit (RMRU) teams
had located a set of in-step crampon tracks. From there, they ultimately found the subject, who
had fallen 250 feet, coming to rest against a large pine tree. His injuries were fatal.
As the search transitioned into a body recovery, rescuers from San Gorgonio Search and Rescue
Team joined the RMRU members. Early the next morning, a Riverside County Sheriff's office
Hughes 500E helicopter was called on to assist, and four rescuers were flown to the scene to
effect the recovery.
As the recovery was complete and the rescuers were assembling their gear, Tom Rutledge from
Gorgonia Search and Rescue suddenly fell. Before he could self-arrest, Rutledge was traveling at
a high rate of speed down a 50-degree ice chute.
"I paused to catch my breath and check on the progress of those behind me, when I heard
someone yell. As I looked back at the recovery site, Tom Rutledge from the San Gorgonio
team had fallen and was sliding feet first on his stomach down the steep snow chute we
had just recovered Mr. Toubia from. I yelled for him to self arrest with his ice axe, but within
a matter of seconds he must have accelerated to 40 mph. Tom was heading straight for a
large Ponderosa Pine which I thought might stop his fall. When he hit the tree, it knocked
him completely out of control. Now, with or without his ice axe there was nothing he could
do. He continued to pin-ball off of trees and rocks for about 1,000' until I lost sight of him.
xxx
The rescuer "had come to rest face down in some tree branches about three feet off the ground.
He was unconscious and bleeding from the mouth." Having just transported the fatally injured
subject, the Riverside Sheriff's helicopter returned to the scene with a Stokes litter, and the subject
was packaged and loaded in a difficult one-skid maneuver.
