A group of about 75 people from a four-state region of the National Cave Rescue Commission gathered for a hands-on crash course on cave and crevice rescue.
Rod Dennision, coordinator of the classes, said the event was less an intense, in-depth learning experience and more an orientation to give cavers and rescue personnel from Texas, Louisiana, Kansas and Oklahoma a taste of what cave and crevice rescue is all about.
Sessions in the classes ranged from basic knot tying to the practical application of hauling classmates posing as victims out of caves and vertical crevices.
On Sunday after an indoor knot-tying session, Denn-ison watched as a group comprised of amateur and professional spelunkers and search and rescue professionals practiced assembling rigging outside the park’s conference center near the top of Gorman Falls.
Class participants used the rigging to pull litters loaded down with volunteers across level ground to demonstrate the power of pulleys to haul heavy weights.
Later in the day, they used the same techniques to pull people out of deep crevices located in out-of-the-way locations of the park.
Dennison, who lives in Morgan’s Point, has been involved in rescue since 1979 and has been a National Cave Rescue Commission instructor since 1989.
He said that after the two-day event, the participants would likely have a better idea if they wanted to participate in more advanced training offered by the NCRC.
The South Central Region of the NCRC, comprised of Texas, Louisiana, Kansas and Oklahoma, conducted the recent event.
“Yesterday, we were carrying (litters) horizontal and we had slopes of about 45 degrees to negotiate, so now we’re going vertical,” he said.
“Using this equipment, we’ll show them the hauling and lowering systems used to go up and down cracks and crevices.”
With the first day of the weekend spent in the more expansive Gorman Cave with walk-in access, preparation for Sunday’s session was more tense.
The participants were challenged with lowering in, then pulling out, one of their classmates from a narrow, 25-foot deep, limestone crevice using knots and rigging they assemble on the site.
For Gary Franklin, a caver from Austin, his perspective was different from the rest of his classmates.
Designated as “the victim,” his classmates first strapped him securely onto a litter, then slowly lowered him feet first into the narrow crevice under the careful eye of instructors and classmates at the bottom of the crevice.
With the rock wall barely 8 inches from his face at times, the trip into the crevice and back up again was slow, punctuated with commands of “slower on black,” or “faster on red,” relayed from the bottom of the crevice to the people at the top handling color-coded ropes.
About 15 minutes later, safely on the surface and released from his litter, Franklin said he was glad to be up, but that he had felt safe during his descent and ascent.
“I’d never done that before,” he said. “I felt secure, but I felt pretty helpless since the rock was less than a foot from my face and my toes were hanging out a little bit. But it builds your confidence in the people taking care of you.”
He said he has been involved in spelunking a relatively short time.
“I’ve been caving for almost two years,” he said. “I went caving once and pretty much haven’t stopped since.”
Toby Von Rembow of Arkansas said training for cave rescue will be valuable in his work. He has worked 3½ years for the Ozark Natural Science Center, a non-profit environmental education center.
“I think this training is valuable, obviously for caving, but also for a number of different outdoor activities we can apply this to,” he said.
He said that in the 14 years the center has been open there has never been a major accident, including one involving cave rescue.
“That’s the No. 1 priority for our organization - keeping the participants safe,” he said, explaining why he was taking the course. He added that participants in his organization are trained in wilderness first aid.
Chris Jenkins with the Cedar Park Fire Department assisted with the training at the camp and has been involved with cave rescue for five years.
“We’re all close-knit here because we attend training year after year,” he said, including both the cavers and the rescue workers.
“All these people are experts here,” he said of the instructors and others in the course, adding that the training helps create a natural network of rescue resources throughout the four-state region for when actual caving emergencies happen.
Dennison said the training was meant to give the participants just a taste of cave rescue techniques.
“It’s high speed, low drag,” he said.
“The class is not designed to build competency or proficiency, but just an introduction of the things that they would need,” he said, adding that the two-day course touched on organizing a rescue, communications, underground patient management, litter handling and vertical work.
He said that each year the NCRC puts on weekly seminars with three technical levels. This class was a precursor to those programs.
