Report
Saturday started well, with fine weather. The party of five (Alan Vidler, Ian Wright, Mark Batey, Peter Conroy and Linda Groom) left the car at Penance Grove at around 9 am and followed the route described in ‘It’ (the CBC magazine). At 3.45 pm we reached the creek junction at grid reference (from Google Earth) 55H 768340 6049575. The party had hoped to find a campsite there or in the ½ km downstream but we found the rare level ground was too stony. The party members were becoming tired but agreed to continue downstream to look for a campsite at the next major creek junction.
Mark Batey slipped and fell at approximately 55H 768120 6050285 (Google Earth). He fell about a metre into the creek. Ian Wright was closest to Mark and helped him out of the water and called out to the other party members that Mark had broken his wrist. We moved Mark a few metres to the nearest safe spot. His wrist was deformed but was not bleeding. He was clearly in pain but was able to talk coherently. We bandaged his arm using tent pegs as a splint and persuaded him to take 2 Panadol. We put his arm into a triangular bandage.
While we were treating Mark, Peter went looking for a way out of the creek to the nearest fire trail ‘No Name Mountain Road’. He reported that there were bluffs immediately above us. The creek downstream was unknown and at a glance looked very rough. We decided to go back up the creek to find the nearest exit. We divided up most of the contents of Mark’s pack among the party members. Peter and Ian escorted Mark and the others followed. Mark carried his lightened pack.
Peter found an exit about 200 metres up the creek. Since we had decided we would probably have to camp on the fire trail, which was on a ridge top, we decided to carry up water. Two party members carried 11 litres of water; that weight plus the shares of Mark’s gear meant the whole party slowed down but we thought it was better to keep everyone together. We took about an hour to get from the creek to the fire trail.
When we reached the ridge top, we found that Peter’s mobile (Telstra) had reception. We called 000 and gave them our position in latitude and longitude as well as a verbal description. They phoned back to say a 4WD ambulance was coming from Braidwood.
We made Mark comfortable and kept him warm. We also phoned Sue Vidler and asked her to let Keith Thomas as check-in officer know what was happening.
The ambulance arrived around 8 pm, which we thought was a good response time. They re-splinted Mark’s arm and took him and his pack away. The rest of the party then had dinner and went to bed. Since we were tired, we chose to walk out the easier route of the Corn Trail, instead of continuing the walk as planned.
On Sunday evening Peter and I visited Mark in Royal Canberra Hospital, where he seemed comfortable and cheerful. He confirmed that the surgeon said he had broken and displaced a bone in his left wrist. He was awaiting surgery – a metal plate to be inserted the following day. We took his pack home with us to wash and air his gear.
At the time, the contributing factors to the incident seemed to be tiredness at the end of the day, and as Mark mentioned, the lack of grip on his leather boots and possibly his heavy pack. Some time after the incident Mark speculated that he may have fainted, as he had fainted at home once recently.
Lessons learnt
We had considered putting Mark in his tent for the night on the first flat ground and trying to get help in the morning. The ambulance people however commented that it had been better to reach the fire trail and to call as we did, because he would not have slept because of the pain, and we would not have slept well because of the need to check on him.
Confirmed that it is really good to carry a mobile phone.
Confirmed when talking to the ambulance driver and paramedic that they prefer positions in latitude and longitude.
22 October 2011
