Around 7.15 pm I received a call asking for the SES NW Search and Rescue (SAR) team to assist the Police SAR with a stretcher carry on the Cradle Plateau. A busy few hours later and a team of eight members arrived at Dove Lake at 10.45 pm to meet the Police team. The low cloud and windy conditions meant the rescue helicopter could not be used.
We set off at 11 pm with enough gear to camp out if necessary but planning to go in and out that night. A team of two police and a paramedic had left about an hour before us, so our job was to get in as quickly as we could, bringing the stretcher and wheel that sits under it, and to assist with the carry out.
The shortest way was straight up Marions Lookout, so with everyone lifting, pushing or towing we got up in good time: a surge of adrenalin made the job that much easier. From Marions we went south past Cradle and towards the junction of the Lake Rodway Track where at about 2 am we met the
paramedic and two police who had gone ahead. They have our patient, a middle aged women from Hobart, wrapped in a sleeping bag and bivvy bag but she’s not in a good way after suffering from a heart attack late in the afternoon.
Our options are to go to Waterfall Valley and hope that the chopper can get in the next day, but with the heavy mist and no guarantee of the weather lifting it’s decided that we need to head for Dove Lake. We turned north, back on the OLT. The track is narrow - about the width of the stretcher - and with three on a rope at the front to tow the stretcher up the hills, 6-7 around the stretcher, and two on a rope at the back, teamwork is essential to avoid the worst of the obstacles.
It was tough going but we pushed on to Kitchen Hut to get our patient out of the mist and wind that has enveloped the mountain. We arrived around 4 am and our paramedic worked hard to get a drip into the patient to
Descent from Marions Lookout, 6.30 am Cynthia Schaap