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Backcountry Rangers - Ranger Chuck

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Search and Rescue stats
1996 (so far)250 rescues, 8 fatalities
1995380 rescues, 23 fatalities, 66 total EMS personell

1305 total responses, including medical calls, searches, and rescues

1994474 rescues, 11 fatalities
1993404 rescues, unknown fatalities
Reason 1995 SARs were down was due to the closure of main trails due to washouts for most of the year.

Most of the Search and Rescue calls are for day hikers.

Personal details
Chuck is a backcountry ranger and is also part of the Search & Rescue team at Grand Canyon National Park. It is he and his team that is responsible for helping people that get themselves into trouble in the Canyon. He views some of the information on these pages as a way to communicate to the general public the many dangers that exist within the Canyon. He feels that the information should be available to people before they plan a trip into the inner Canyon so that they don't try to take more more then they personally are able to handle.

I recently asked Chuck to send me some info on what has been going on as far as Search & Rescue and he sent the following info which is through July of 1996:

I believe that that there have been 8 deaths this year, 3 to 4 are heat related.

1 did jump, other illness, like cardiac.

This summer is very strange - record number of calls for SARS [Search and Rescues] so far. 250 that we have responded to. Things like:

7/23 [July 23, 1996] :

Report of overdue hiker, in Nankoweap area, work to 12:30 [am] at night then up at 4:30 [am] in the morning to fly personnel in to walk the trails and beaches to find the guy. At 10:30 [am] we find him. Flying the people back, and by 1:00 [pm] everyone is back. The guy looses his pack over the ledge. In the process of getting together technical rescue equipment to get the pack when we get call at Phantom Ranch - 10 year old male with CPR in progress. Fly in on a young male that has heat stroke. Fly him to the clinic, full ACLS in progress to try and save the boy. At the clinic he dies, and another call heat stroke on the South Kaibab trail, again we go. We fly out another person 52 yo [year-old] female with heat stroke. She almost dies, but we save her. 2 more requests for help on South Kaibab trail. (day time temps 114) - We are going non-stop from 5:00 am to 9:30 pm. Then to debriefings for the death.

To avoid problems on your hike check out these tips


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