I’m lying on a police station floor. Backlit helmeted silhouettes encircle me. I feel the straps tighten around my legs, then my arms. “That feel OK?” someone asks. I try to make a joke about have to use the restroom. I’m not being arrested. I’m practicing packaging patients in a litter with my fellow Albuquerque Mountain Rescue Council trainees, and it’s my turn to play an injured hiker. I following along mentally as…
Our Blog Spot
Becoming – Part I
An inside look at one individual’s journey to becoming a member of AMRC. I’m dangling helplessly from a rope 100 feet above the canyon floor with a shattered hip and plummeting blood pressure. My consciousness is fading when I hear a voice from the canyon floor: “We’re from the Albuquerque Mountain Rescue Council and help is on the way!” I’ve volunteered to play a patient for a high-angle rescue training exercise for AMRC. The hanging…
What Goes Up Must Come Down
Unlike many mountains of the Rocky Mountain terrain, the Sandias look playful and small. At 10,000ft at their highest, the warm glow of the sun against the reddish granite make them pale in comparison to their stark, grand sisters to the north. Gently snow capped–if at all in the winter–and centered in the desert, they are often mistaken for docile and easily surmountable. As the weather warms in the city of Albuquerque below, occupants regularly…
– Rescue Training in a Vertical World –
In our first blog spot, we are going to walk you through how we develop a specific set skills necessary to respond to highly technical missions as a professional organization. Before we can start a rescue we have to make sure we have the ability to get there. While our home mountain is right there in our backyard, the Sandias have rugged and wild terrain with steep gully’s and sheer rock faces. Assuring that we…