On Sunday, Sept. 14th 2014, at approximately 2 pm, one of my climbing partners fell approximately 300 feet down a loose gully after the rock he was climbing on near Capitol peak in the Elk mountains crumbled underneath him.

When I found out that he was hurt (broken arm and severe lacerations), my first step was to activate my ACR beacon. After activating the beacon, I found a safe route to get to him without setting off any addition rockfall, and moved him to the side of the gully where it was safer. Once in the safer zone, I used my WFR skills to stop the heavy bleeding from his head (his helmet was crushed), splint his broken left arm with my trekking poles, and bandage up his bleeding right hand and his legs.

After stopping most of the bleeding, another responder and I helped him move out of the gully to the ridge top. The other responder had communicated via cell phone with SAR, and in less than 2.5 hours from the initial fall, a Blackhawk helicopter from the HAATS base in gypsum, Colorado was able to pick him up and transport him to the hospital, where he underwent 3 hours of surgery on his wounds.