A visitor arrived at the park trailhead contact station on the afternoon of July 26th and reported that the three members of his party – all local medical professionals – had found and were treating a young male backpacker with a severally broken ankle and restricted circulation below the break about ten miles inside the Gila Wilderness. Park staff contacted the New Mexico State Police to organize a rescue. Within 15 minutes, a local EMT was on scene, interviewing the reporting party and preparing to hike to his location. Grant County SAR began contacting volunteer horseback riders and setting up a command center at the Gila Visitor Center. Park and USFS staff manned the VC, with the superintendent acting as IC until the county incident team arrived on site. Meanwhile, the EMT arrived reported that the injured backpacker was suffering critical circulation problems, and asked that a helicopter be brought in to evacuate him. The county team arranged for an Army National Guard Blackhawk helicopter to fly in from Santa Fe. The backpacker was winched aboard and the helicopter headed for the regional hospital in Silver City, New Mexico. The helicopter had to land at the Grant County airport, though, due to shortage of fuel and the limited capacity of the hospital’s landing pad. A three-person equestrian team that arrived after the county ICP was established was not sent in due to darkness, lack of familiarity with the trails, and the fact that they could not have reached the scene before the helicopter. The rescue was complicated by poor radio communication due to terrain and lack of ability of the county and local EMT/fire department to communicate directly, even with a portable radio repeater established on a nearby peak, as well as darkness and rugged trails and terrain which made equestrian access during darkness extremely hazardous. The injured party was in stable condition on Friday morning and scheduled for surgery in the afternoon.
