EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLAN
We anticipate three kinds of incidents. Borrowing from the CAA we will use:
Type 5
An incident that can be handled by the group in the field (with assistance of the Field Team).
Examples: Overdue call-in or minor medical incident.
A minor medical incident would be low impact fall:
with minimal injury, no momentary loss of consciousness, no blood (or other fluids) loss. The patient is capable of moving and the party can self extract to safety.
Type 4
An incident that can be handled by the group in the field (with assistance of the Field Team) although require outside assistance for evacuation.
Example: Partial burial avalanche event, incapacitating or complex injury on simple terrain, minor medical incident in complex terrain. Lost or Hypothermic party member
This would include broken lower limbs, injuries to upper body, any incident with bleeding (or other fluids), momentary loss of consciousness from impact or other occurrences of similar severity.
Type 3
The incident cannot be handled by the group on site and requires immediate assistance
Example: Serious falls and crashes involving more than one person or complete avalanche burial. Underlying medical event such as heart attack, stroke or seizure. Any incident rendering any or many party members in need of immediate medical assistance.
Type 5 response
Radio immediately for assistance from your Field Team.
Field team conducts assessment with patients consent. Party to stabilise victim and commence rudimentary first aid if required. Field Team instructs party on best course of action, completes Incident Report. Incident is reviewed by VBCF. If in any doubt (or if field team is not responding), party leader to escalate to type 4
Type 4 response
Immediately call Hotham Ski Patrol on 03 5759 4038 and follow instruction. Razorback and Mt Loch need to call 000 as they are Parks Vic areas. Call Field team on radio for assistance using first the ‘area channel’ or a fall back channel (alt channel below). Party to find and stabilise victim following DRABCD protocol. Field Team instructs party on best course of action consistent with Ski Patrol instruction. Field team WFA member administers relevant first aid. Party prepares a flat level area, below victim, for the Field Team to prepare hypo wrap. Field Team assistant records vitals and interventions at 10 minute intervals on the Incident Management form in preparation for evacuation. Party commences extraction measures.
Type 3 response.
Immediately call 000, and follow instruction. Call Hotham Ski Patrol on 03 5759 4038 as an FYI. Then call field team for assistance on area channel or fall back (alt channel below). Party to find and stabilise victim following DRABCD protocol. Field Team instructs party on best course of action consistent with Ski Patrol instruction. Field team WFA member administers relevant first aid. Party prepares a flat level area, below victim, for the Field Team to prepare hypo wrap. Field Team assistant records vitals and interventions at 10 minute intervals on the Incident Management form in preparation for evacuation. Party commences extraction measures.
AVALANCHE INCIDENT: Response
In the event of an avalanche complete burial, the party leader is the nominated search leader and will assess safety for the search to commence. Or mitigate any hazards such that a search can commence. Confirm missing person/peoples number. Instruct all members to switch avalanche beacons to search mode. Then proceed to define search area with the commencement of signal search.
Party ‘Tail’ will call Ski patrol and then the field team for immediate assistance, followed by 000, before instructing the readying of probes and shovels for the extraction (at least 3 others in the group) and then join the signal search with leader. The party can follow the search and ready to start extraction.
On recovery of the victim’s, patient care will be administered by the Field team WFA ready to stand aside for Ski Patrol. An Incident Management form should be filled from the start of patient care.
Hypothermia mitigation as standard response.
For aType 3 and 4 incidents, once the patient is found, and as a step to stabilisation we will need to ‘hypo-wrap’ the patient in all instances.
The field teams are equipped with large and small space blankets, sleeping bags, foil covered foam cell mats, hand warmers and 30m of rope. This is deployed as a ‘hypo wrap’ around the patient. Importantly for the safety of the patient we need to also make a flat area to prepare the wrap. This needs to be at least 2m x 2m. And consideration for the patient not falling off the flat spot is a key concern. The flat area should be created down hill from the victim such that they can be slid down to it, without having to stand. The vigilant monitoring of vitals signs is crucial to patient care throughout the process and the WFA Field Team member will nominate someone to this duty.
Type 3 & 4 responses
Next Steps: Extraction.
Having stabilised the patient and with them ‘packed and ready to send’, the party must now take steps (literally) to create rescue access. A consistent strategy for this is to make a boot pack trench, the width of the rescue sled (60cm) in a direct ascent to the closest high point. Be that for helicopter evacuation or over snow. If this incident is on a ‘no-fly’ day (cloudy and or windy) then under the instruction of ski patrol or the field team, it may be required to establish a trench to the trail head. This is hard work but at least it keep everyone warm.
Standing Down.
The Field Team will instruct you to stand down at some stage either at the completion of the rescue or when you are becoming a risk of over exertion or hypothermia. If you are feeling tired, sore or cold please let them know. They will organise for you to return to safety accordingly.
Forms Galore: To keep you all in the loop these are the forms we will be using for the event, we will get a copy of the policy up too. Shows you that we are thoroughly not leaving anyone exposed if we check all the boxes everyone is neatly under the umbrella of the indemnity.
We need to check that Gravbrots is truely an intro full day.
Festival Schedule
These are all the tours, set out so that you can see them in a glance and we know we have the numbers of participants. TYhe idea is that each tour may only be used once a day and this we wont get trashed or tracked out too quick… who knows. The blue on the left are the full day tours on the Dippers, then the Summit full days in red, then half day tours (the bulk of the participants) which we will need to change allocations for across the leaders on a rotation across Hamburg/Eagle and Higgi. Then the long all day tours out at Loch etc. I doubt we will want to fill all the roster… we will all be knckered. Once we have visibility on the weather on around the Monday before, you can start to nominate where you want to go.