Kodiak Island Search & Rescue

For our April training, KISAR partnered with the USCG Air Station Kodiak to perform a SAR response to a mock bear mauling incident. The scenario was that an individual had been mauled by a bear on the South End trails of Near Island, rendering the subject immobile and unresponsive. KISAR performed a line-abreast visual sweep search until the subject was located, and then developed a patient assessment, treatment, packaging, and evacuation plan. After moving the patient to the south end of Near Island, KISAR members practiced vectoring the responding USCG helicopter to the scene followed by a series of litter hoists.

KISAR would like to thank the Kodiak Air Station for helping us make this training possible and increase the understanding of the capabilities of the two agencies. We would especially like to thank LT Catherine Cantu, H-60 pilot and KISAR ex officio board member, for helping plan and coordinate the event. The H-60 crew participating in the training were Pilot in Command LT Kyle Jackson, Copilot LCDR Ian Erickson, Flight Mechanic Johnny Vo, and Rescue Swimmer Gabe Davila. KISAR is incredibly grateful for their time and expertise in making the training successful.

This link will take you to a 5-minute video of the training on Philip’s Vimeo channel.

Just as we were starting the search portion of the training, Don Zimmerman came down the trail. He was mauled by a bear on Pillar Mountain in 2020, and in this image Philip is pointing across the channel to the location on Pillar.

We used an eggplant as a proxy for a human limb for the wound-cleaning portion of the training. It seemed to work pretty well.

This map shows most of the searchers’ tracks until we located the subject near the tip of the peninsula. The helicopter hoist location is shown near the tip of the island.

The rescue subject with puncture wounds bound and an unstable lower limb injury splinted and ready to be moved.

We used a rescue dummy for the litter hoist training portion.

For KISAR’s March training, we partnered with Casey and Bryan of the Kodiak Survival School to work on bushcraft, emergency shelter building, and signaling. It was an intensive 2.5 day course starting with indoor presentations and practical skill building at Bayside Fire Hall on Friday. On Saturday we drove out to White Sands in Monashka Bay and explored different shelter construction techniques starting with minimalist tarps we had brought and then moving up through more robust improvised structures with better weather resistance and longevity. We practiced fire fuel collection on the landscape and worked on our fire starting. KISAR members spent the night in the structure we had constructed with no additional gear than our clothing and a ground cloth, maintaining a small fire through the night for modest warmth. The next day we build ‘smoke generators’ for rapid visual smoke signaling, and then deconstructed the shelters to minimize our impact on the area before heading back to town.

We had meant to do a December ice safety and rescue training, but with the warm winter we had to wait until January for favorable conditions to develop. KISAR conducted a joint training with Bayside Fire Hall where they focused on the materials and equipment they would use to respond, and KISAR focused on self- and companion-rescue techniques for solo or small groups with minimal gear. Cold water rescue immersion suits, marine ‘survival’ suits, and dry suits were used with PFDs for those going onto the ice. Using the small dock on Lake Gertrude in Ft Abercrombie State Park as a platform, KISAR cut holes in the ice to practice self-extraction with and without ice picks. We also practiced with rescue throw bags including rapid redeployment after a failed throw, using ice screws as a rope-force redirect, and related companion rescue techniques.

For KISAR’s December training, we brought Deb Ajango of Safety Ed to Kodiak to teach a custom wilderness first aid (WFA) refresher course that following a review of major body systems focused on performing medical evaluations for less common injuries and conditions than found in core WFA coursework.

For KISAR’s November general membership training, Philip set a course of clues in Fort Abercrombie State Park between Lake Gertrude and the wildflower meadow. The search area was bounded on the east side by Abercrombie Drive and by trails on the other 3 sides. 40 ‘clues’ were deposited in the search area in the form of squares of orange and green paper with numbers written on them. After a briefing, 7 KISAR members formed a critical separation line-abreast team and methodically swept the search area in 6 passes, recovering 30 of the 40 clues (75%), which was slightly higher than the goal of 65%. The purpose of the training was to become familiar with factors influencing the probability of detection of clues and to practice doing a critical separation sweep search with group situational awareness and good communication.

For KISAR’s May training we headed into Fort Abercrombie State Park and constructed a dual capability two-tensioned rope system to perform a ‘pick-off’ rescue of a subject in complicated high-angle terrain. The group explored building anchors using the trees at the top of the cliff, assembled a twin rope lowering system with one rope passing through a high redirect near the cliff top to assist with the edge transition, and then lowered a rescuer to where the subject was located at the base of the cliff. The rescuer then placed the subject in a Cobra buckle ‘quick-release’ harness. The team at the top converted the rope systems to a raise configuration and brought the rescuer and subject back up the cliff. We performed 4 repetitions of the exercise to allow KISAR members to experience multiple tasks in the scenario such as directing the overall operation, acting as rescuer, subject, edge attendant, prusik minder, or brake operator, etc.

The dual capability two-tensioned rope system was constructed based on the rigging manual Philip put together for KISAR which is available as a printable pdf booklet.

For our second April training, KISAR was joined by two instructors (Mark Stigar and Brent Taylor) and a K9 (Lyra) from Matanuska Search and Rescue (matsaralaska.org/) who provided a 4-day, Alaska-focused, search and rescue course they developed called called SAR Academy. It was a broad and thorough introduction to SAR operations and skills based on ASTM standards (astm.org). Mark and Brent brought decades of professional SAR and medical experience which added context and color to the excellent course materials. The K9, Lyra, was a joy to work with and impressed us with her training and excellent nose. The KISAR members in attendance were a mix of new folks and old hands and everyone gained valuable knowledge in all aspects of search theory, management, field deployment, and medical response in both urban and wildland environments.

A huge thanks to Trooper Josh Boyle for organizing the training on KISAR’s end, and to Mark, Brent, and Lyra for giving us so much of their time and expertise to make KISAR a more effective organization in emergency response for the Kodiak community.

For the first of KISAR’s April trainings, Blaine Smith provided a morning lecture on avalanche accident rescue management followed by a day on Pyramid Mtn demonstrating avy accident response techniques. We also practiced safe mountain snow travel strategies plus crampon and ice ax use. Blaine has over 30 years experience guiding alpine climbs throughout Alaska and overseas and is an instructor at the Alaska Avalanche School. He has also worked as an avalanche forecaster in Alaska and on the mountain west coast of the US. His extensive professional and personal experience guiding mountain expeditions and studying snow science makes him an invaluable resource for KISAR.

KISAR will hold its February training at Termination Point on Saturday February 24. The focus of the training will be on orienteering, area search, small hasty team, and radio comms. Depending on the number of participants, we will break into as many as 3 groups. The routes, polygons, and waypoints for the training will be emailed to participants as kmz documents that can be opened in the Gaia GPS phone app.

For KISAR’s January training we brought Deb Ajango back to Kodiak to teach a full Wilderness First Aid (WFA) certification course. We always enjoy Deb’s charismatic delivery and experience-fueled knowledge of the subject. We invited the Alaska State Troopers and Bayside Fire Hall to participate in the training.