Mountain rescue teams the world over respond to missions in areas that are difficult to access, while also posing challenging operational conditions. Many of these missions present unique challenges due to terrain, weather, distance of ingress, and other inherent hazards. Properly managing time, oncoming darkness, and cold temperatures can be critical to the well being of both the patient and the rescuers. Mission success requires striking a proper balance between rescuer personal protective equipment (PPE), ropes and rigging gear, and patient packaging materials. How light can we go and still maintain “safe” systems?

The material presented will address some of the systems and approaches used by Denali National Park climbing rangers and Ouray Mountain Rescue Team personnel. Each of these organizations operate in remote, mountainous terrain that requires a lighter weight approach to their technical rescue systems. The systems and approaches to be discussed were developed through a collaborative effort of the Rigging for Rescue instructor cadre along with the Denali National Park climbing rangers.

As rescuers, we oftentimes spend a lot of time and energy discussing the risks of something in our system failing. This systems analysis style of approach has aided us in our abilities to be critical in our identification of “weak links” in the overall system design. However, this approach is largely a theoretical focus on the engineering of a given system; this is an important consideration to be sure, but it is only part of the story.

In remote, difficult to access terrain, the weight of your kit plays a very important role in the speed of your travel, rescuer fatigue, and the amount of PPE you can carry for both yourself and the patient. Used properly, lightweight systems with adequate safety margins can increase the overall safety of the operation.