On April 24 Inyo County SAR was dispatched to assist a 66-year-old male with a dislocated shoulder at Upper Boy Scout Lake in the north fork of Lone Pine Creek. The patient had taken a fall traversing around Iceberg Lake the previous afternoon after summiting Mt. Whitney. A hasty team consisting of two SAR members was on the trail by 6:30 am; SAR members assumed the patient would not have slept well and would have started his descent at first light. The two members met up with the patient just below Upper Boy Scout Lake. The patient’s guide, a Wilderness First Responder, had attempted to reduce the dislocation per his training, but had been unsuccessful. After assessing the patient the medical lead decided not to delay the evacuation by making further attempts to put the shoulder back in place. The SAR members readjusted the patient’s arm sling and guided him slowly down the trail, using their packs as handles for the patient to hold onto. Two additional SAR members arrived to help set up a technical descent of the Ebersbacher Ledges. A rescue member performed a Panorama pick-off technique to lower himself and the patient safely down to the trail again, while another rescue member ran a safety belay. The group assisted the patient down to the trailhead, where he was escorted to the hospital.
Panorama pick-off technique
Belayed from above