I’ve always been the leader, and aside from some trips with Kevin Clark up here in the PNW, it’s all been us figuring it out on our own. I’ve been in Portland Mountain Rescue for 19 years now, so ropework isn’t a problem, but SAR is different from canyoneering. I can do things (relatively) safely, but not necessarily as fast as they need to get done.
Heaps threw far more obstacles at us, and while we were able to get through them, they all took time. Combine that with two leaky drysuits, and one of my guys getting exhausted part-way through the third narrows, and we had to move even slower to make sure that we could find the best way through every obstacle for the guy who was hurting.
