The deep cave search and rescue exercise (SAREX for short) happens every two years on the South Island. By simulating a real deep cave search and rescue it offers a very important opportunity to learn what works well and what does not, so that the caving community, search & rescue personnel and the police are better prepared to respond to a real rescue. This year's exercise involved over 70 cavers (including about 40 underground), as well as search and rescue volunteers and the local police- an incredible amount of man hours crammed into three busy days.
This year's scenario is quite a believable one: reportedly a group of four cavers exploring the Middle Earth Cave System in Takaka Hill missed their call-out time and are presumed to still be in the cave. While a hasty team (initial response team) of three went into the cave to look for signs of the cavers, the rest of us assembled at the police station in Motueka on Friday morning for the debrief. We then headed to the caver's hut on Takaka Hill which formed the staging base for assembling groups to go into the cave. A "forward base" was set up near the cave entrance, which had a communications tent and a gear tent. Another communications base was the Motueka search and rescue base. So communications had to be relayed between three above ground bases and the cavers underground.
The hasty team worked their way into the cave, carrying a Hey phone (radio-type device) that allows them to communicate with the surface. They would relay evidence back to the surface to try and piece together what happened in the cave (a headtorch and an unopened pack of batteries accidentally left at a snack stop seemed to suggest one of the cavers may have been out of batteries). They also found a broken handline with a note left below. It said that Dave had injured his leg further into the cave and that the other two cavers (the forth person canceled at the last minute) were trying to find their way out the old entrance since the handline was damaged on the route they took into the cave. As the hasty team made their way further into the cave to find and stabilize the patient Dave, other teams began to mobilize on the surface. It becomes very clear on these types of rescues that communication is extremely important. The next team to head into the cave laid out wires on spools from the surface all the way into the cave. A small handheld device called a Micki phone can then be clipped into the wire to relay communication back and forth between the cave and the surface.
By mid afternoon on the first day I was called into action with a team of four others. The patient had been found. Our sizable task was to bring a stretcher to the patient, begin rigging the drops back towards the entrance and start working the stretcher towards the surface. This meant carrying about a hundred meters of rope, the stretcher (which takes up two packs), drilling/bolting/rigging gear and a leg brace for the patient. I was the "doctor," which meant my job would be to look after the patient and remain with the stretcher at all times. After spending considerable time sorting our gear at the forward base, we went in the Hobbit Hole entrance. After a series of entrance squeezes and then some nice galleries of pretties, we reached the impressive Lighthouse Pitch series. Here multiple ropes are rebelays dropped us a further 100m below the surface. Halfway down the series, surrounded by a black gaping void it is necessary to do a giant pendulum to get to the next rope- very sporty! On the way into the cave we put a new rope where the broken handline was. Unfortunately the map we had ended at Kanga's House, so we had to follow our nose the rest of the way to reach Dave. After 4 hours in the cave, I was the first to reach him. I wanted to take my job as doctor very seriously (as the exercise could have involved hiding extra illnesses or injuries), but as soon as I reached Dave he was his usual super cheerful self and more interested in catching up as we had not seen each other in over a year. I decided a thorough pat down and psych evaluation was not necessary! I told him to rest assured as he was in good hands, I just passed my doctorate defense in geology less than a week before...
I assembled the stretcher and worked to get Dave into it as the rest of my team began rigging the drop nearby. Slowly we made progress up this drop, through a narrow, bouldery passage and then down the Balcony pitch. I attended the stretcher on the Balcony pitch which basically meant I was strapped to the side of the stretcher and guided it away from loose rocks and snagging hazards. This was all hard work and its necessary to strike a cautious balance between safety and efficiency in real life scenarios. We then hauled the stretcher across a breakdown chamber, which I found to be a very awkward thing to do. By the time we reached the bottom of the Gloom Pitch the next team was almost done rigging it. Here things got a bit cold as we waited for the stretcher and the rest of the team to get up the pitch.
Eventually we were up the Gloom Pitch. We helped move the stretcher a bit further, then headed to the hot spot (primitive camp) about 20 minutes further up the passage to rest and recover (while fresher teams continued to work). A hot drink and a hot meal worked wonders. By the time I was ready to sleep the stretcher had reached camp. Unfortunately the hot spot was already very crowded so I had a pretty miserable spot to try to sleep for 4 or 5 hours. I basically tried to sleep on a steep slope half the length of my body with a large rock at the bottom. I was basically in a half fetal position with my lower legs resting on the rock to keep me from sliding down the slope. It was cold, I did not feel great, and the hot spot was buzzing with activity, but I still managed to sleep a little. The little sleep had was key to remaining functional once I got up.
Eventually it was "morning." Most of us were feeling pretty good for some more work. We radio-ed the surface to find out what our task was and where progress was. We were all disappointed to hear progress had slowed considerably. The stretcher was only about 20-30 minutes walk away from the hot spot- not much progress had occurred during the night. These teams were not the strongest and it is hard to work so early in the morning. We were tasked to move the hot spot about 10 minutes up the passage. This seemed like a ridiculous task as this was the only suitable site within about an hour's radius and it was only 10 minutes out of the way. There was much discussion and reluctance to listen to the orders- sometimes the planners on the surface cannot understand the nature of a cave and the wisdom in a decision...
Eventually we moved the hot spot and waited !!!2 hours!!! for orders. Every 15 minutes they would trickle a new order to us. Communication seemed to be breaking down. In the end too much time was lost and we all realized we were getting tired again and would be best suited to exit the cave. To avoid the back up of getting cavers up the Lighthouse Series, we headed out via the original Middle Earth entrance, a much longer route through several rockfalls, up several pitches and through some wet squeezes. Reasonably shattered we exited the cave and stumbled into forward base as the sun set. We exited the cave 28 hours after we entered. We were instantly handed some pizza bread and warm soup which really hit the spot. I slept well that night.
The next morning everyone assembled at the hut for the post-exercise debrief. All the team leaders and coordinators had their say, discussing what worked well and what did not as a scribe carefully recorded all the comments. There were certainly many things that worked well and certainly many that worked poorly. However everyone left feeling the exercise was successful and that we now had a better idea of what worked well (and what to avoid) in a real rescue. It was really an amazing thing to be apart of. An amazing amount of effort by all involved.
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