Preventative Search and Rescue for Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) Phase 1 Report

Reynolds, Stephen; Beseler, Cheryl; Stallones, Lorann

The responsibility for promoting safety in our national parks and recreational areas is shared by those who visit the parks and by the National Park Service, which should provide information about risks and exposures to those who are unfamiliar with the park environment. Collecting and analyzing search and rescue and injury data in our national park system can provide information about what activities visitors engage in that are most likely to lead to injuries, illness, and rescue. The risks and exposures are different depending on the park’s location, elevation and natural characteristics making the collection of park-specific data important to making the information relevant to those who need it. Although natural events such as cold, heat, visibility, lightning, rock slides, snow and ice all may cause a search and rescue to be required, most of the reasons for a search and rescue at the Rocky Mountain National Park were reportedly due to a lack of preparation on the part of the park visitor and insufficient information about the conditions they encountered during their visit and activity in the park. However, as can be seen in this report, data not presently collected could be very useful in planning how to reduce injuries, illnesses and the need for a search and rescue. For the years 2009-2011, the overall rate of fatal injuries was 0.145 per 100,000 visitors (13 deaths in 8,955,087 recreational visitors) and the overall non-fatal injury/illness rate was 1.8 injuries per 100,000 visitors (161 in 8,955,087 recreational visitors). The fatal injury rate is slightly higher than that reported in a 2002 report, but the non-fatal injury rate is notably lower than previously reported. More men than women were involved in a search and rescue, but it may be that more men engage in activities that put them at risk of requiring a search and rescue. The 20 to 29 age group were over-represented in the reports. Visitor data was not broken down by gender or age group so interpretation of the risk in these groups cannot be determined. The overall picture suggested in this report is that park visitors between 20 and 29 are likely to initiate more incident reports, but are less likely to do so as a result of an injury or illness. Those over 50 years of age are more likely to experience an injury or illness requiring a search and rescue. In both cases, the primary contributing causes reported are poor judgment and insufficient preparation. The primary activity in both search and rescue and injury/illness was day hiking. These findings could aid in interventions targeting these age groups and providing greater information to assist them in preparations for their activities, but cannot be accepted with confidence due to the lack of critical pieces of information in the incident reports. First, the incident report does not report whether an injury or illness necessitated the search and rescue operation or whether the injury was a result of first becoming lost. This information by age group would be important in understanding whether those over 50 are experiencing falls, developing altitude sickness or are injured as a result of getting off a maintained trail, especially as darkness sets in. Additionally, it is likely that the use of alcohol and drugs as a contributing factor is underreported; few reports of drugs were cited as a contributing cause, but it is likely to be a cause in the under 30 age group. The primary contributing causes given in this report, poor judgment and insufficient preparation, could be the focus of future safety programs in the park, but more information is needed to target the messages. The Rocky Mountain National Park would benefit from more complete reporting on the disposition and duration of searches. Adding a response category for whether the incident report was initiated from inside the park or outside the park would aid in determining how much information was available at the time the search was undertaken. Greate