Winter SAR training in Baxter
Last weekend I had the opportunity to join Lincoln Search and Rescue (SAR) at Baxter State Park for a winter training. It was something I had wanted to do last year but was woefully under-equipped. After a couple of shopping sprees and borrowing some gear from various team mates, I was ready.
Baxter is one of my favorite places. I have yet to make it to the top of Katahdin but have visited Chimney Pond twice. The above tree line trails always look a little daunting and all the more in winter. Given the relative lack of winter along the coast, I was looking forward to playing in some snow.
Friday we met up at the Abol Bridge parking lot and were snowmobiled into the Roaring Brook. The temperature was perfect, in the mid-twenties. The 45 minutes ride was followed by a 3.3 mile snowshoe up to Chimney Pond. I'm pretty sure it was an easier climb on snow, but I was still struggling to get up some of the hills. Of course the 25 pound pack didn't help much.
Besides the transport of gear, the park also provided us with the use of the crew cabin. Having a warm dry place to sleep at night was a definite perk and greatly appreciated. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to tackle winter camping. Tackling a little mountaineering was going to be challenging enough.
On Saturday, we did a pretty intense hike up the gully below Pamola's Furry before traversing over to the base of the Chimney. Some of the group scouted the Chimney while the rest of us hung back below. It snowed all day Saturday. There was a small release from the false Chimney and a fracture in the snow in the Chimney. Just as we were getting ready to decide if we were going to hang out some more looking at the snow conditions or head down there were some pretty impressive releases over on the Cilley Barber trail. I'd never heard or seen an avalanche in person. It was both awe-inspiring and terrifying at the same time. Although just release of new snow, we still decided to head down out of the path of anything. Below we worked on snow shelters before headed back to the cabin to learn about snow anchors.
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On Sunday, we performed a mock rescue below the Pamola ice flows. The wind was howling but at least the snow had stopped. No one got blown off the slope, but a few of us got tipped over. It turned out to be a really smooth operation all things considered. I got to set two snow anchors for the second station belay and run the belay during the transition and lower. It was a lot of fun to be out in those conditions on that kind of a slope doing something that could help someone.
After a debrief and cabin clean up, we were ready to head home. I almost felt guilty as we walked down to Roaring Brook and passed numerous hikers and climbers hauling their gear up on sleds. Almost. I was pretty beat by the end of the weekend. It was definitely a lot tougher mountaineering than I've done before. I'm not sure I'd enjoy spending a day mountainerring in Saturday's conditions without the motivation of a rescue.
In all, it was a great learning experience and really challenging. More photos are posted on the MDI-SAR facebook page.
