{"id":39560,"date":"2018-10-25T08:17:13","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T15:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=39560"},"modified":"2020-05-22T13:05:04","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T20:05:04","slug":"the-rescuer-in-need-of-saving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/hike\/the-rescuer-in-need-of-saving","title":{"rendered":"The Rescuer In Need of Saving"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jacob Urban\u2019s depression started after the helicopter crash. It was February 15, 2012, and a helicopter carrying rescue workers from Wyoming\u2019s Teton County Search and Rescue to aid an injured snowmobiler went down in the Tetons. The pilot and two rescuers were badly injured. Urban was among the additional volunteers from Teton County Search and Rescue dispatched to the crash, but due to incorrect coordinates, <\/span>the helicopter and his crew couldn\u2019t locate<\/span> the downed one. They flew around fruitlessly and eventually had to stop to refuel. While they were refueling at the airport, they got word that <\/span>Ray Shriver<\/span>, a founding member of Teton County Search and Rescue, had died at the scene of the crash. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact on our team was crushing,\u201d Urban said. \u201cIt affected everyone. That tragedy impacted our team holistically. It changed everything about how we operate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It also changed Urban himself. He grew depressed, started having trouble sleeping and couldn\u2019t stop asking himself the same question: W<\/span>ould Ray have survived had we been able to find the scene quicker? <\/span>\u201cI was trying to deal with it all myself. But I didn\u2019t actually fix anything,\u201d he said. \u201cOn rescues, that was the one place I felt like myself, because that is where I had a higher purpose.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Although they were the source of much of his personal pain, the rescues themselves created a temporary diversion.<\/span> \u201cI\u2019d go on a rescue and be so amped. That\u2019s when I did my best job. But in my own mind, I was not happy,\u201d Urban said. \u201c<\/span>The rescue work was a distraction, but the work would cause even more trauma.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the spring of 2015, Urban responded to a backcountry avalanche on Mount Moran, located in Grand Teton National Park, where one skier had been killed and another seriously injured (they evacuated the wounded skier, but he later died of his injuries). Urban had plans to ski that same mountain later in the day and the four skiers involved in the slide were well-respected locals who Urban knew. The incident hit him hard. More trouble sleeping, more <\/span>preoccupation with rescues. <\/span>That summer, he found himself out in the mountains, rock climbing by himself, taking unnecessary risks. \u201cI was taking risks that weren\u2019t right. I was trying to prove to myself that I could take risks in the outdoors and still live,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually, the pressure got so intense, he snapped, lashing out at his search and rescue teammates in one particularly volatile outburst. In February 2017, Teton County Search and Rescue issued Urban a disciplinary notice for his behavior. \u201c<\/span>I was pretty much constantly crying unless I was on a rescue,\u201d Urban said. \u201cI was unable to take care of myself, let alone lead a team.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Urban didn\u2019t realize it at the time, but around a year later, in spring 2018, he was diagnosed with long-term depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition well-known among veterans but less associated with rescue workers. <\/span>The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs<\/span> estimates<\/span><\/a> that up to 34 percent of rescue workers and first responders experience PTSD and between 21 and 53 percent suffer from depression. So Urban wasn\u2019t alone. But that\u2019s exactly how he felt.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Urban with his trainees at the Jackson Hole Outdoor Leadership Institute. (Photo Courtesy of Jacob Urban)<\/p><\/div>\n

Urban worked as a ski patroller <\/span>and outdoor education teacher at Lyndon State College in<\/span> Vermont before moving to Jackson, Wyoming, in 2006, for a change of lifestyle. He couldn\u2019t find a teaching job in Jackson, so he tuned skis and carried golf bags. <\/span>He eventually started teaching<\/span> undergraduate wilderness courses for Central Wyoming College <\/span>and by <\/span>2009, he and his then-wife launched the <\/span>Jackson Hole Outdoor Leadership Institute<\/span><\/a>, now one of the premier wilderness education schools in the country, focusing on avalanche education and wilderness first aid.<\/span><\/p>\n

He joined <\/span>Teton County Search and Rescue<\/span><\/a>, a volunteer organization that works with the Teton County Sheriff\u2019s Office to respond to backcountry emergencies in a vast section of the southern Teton range, roughly the size of Delaware. Urban quickly became one of the organization\u2019s most trusted and hard-working volunteers. He was on nearly every serious rescue, started leading trainings for other volunteers and became deputy director of the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJake was a great rescuer. He could get there, he knew how to use the equipment, he had the skills, the fitness, the intensity,\u201d said Cody Lockhart, <\/span>chief advisor of Teton County Search and Rescue<\/span> and a longtime peer of Urban\u2019s. \u201cWhen a rescue was happening, Jake was able to lock in on it and solve the problem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For many emergency workers, the task of saving someone can feel empowering and rewarding\u2014especially when the outcome is good; but even then, there\u2019s the let-down afterward. \u201cYou\u2019re in these frantic, adrenaline-filled moments. You\u2019re hooked on it,\u201d said Lockhart. \u201cBut then you have to come off of it. Everything else turns some version of grey compared to those euphoric moments of rescuing someone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When an operation isn\u2019t successful, the aftermath can feel devastating. Lockhart says he has felt anxiety after a rescue, too, but he has a support system of family and friends to help him process it. Urban, who separated from his wife in 2017, didn\u2019t have that. \u201cEveryone who does emergency work is one trauma away from depression, away from PTSD, away from the bottom,\u201d Urban said. \u201cWhat I mean by that is if you perceive that your support system doesn\u2019t exist, everything around you falls apart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Plus, as Urban and Lockhart both say, the people they\u2019re saving are sometimes individuals they know personally, friends out there doing activities\u2014skiing, climbing\u2014of which the rescuers themselves are avid participants. \u201cYou dig enough dead people out of avalanches and then when you go backcountry skiing, you\u2019re not thinking of face shots and blower powder. You think, \u2018Am I going to die?\u2019\u201d Lockhart said. \u201cYou carry that around with you. What used to be your happy place all of a sudden has this really ugly side.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Urban, a longtime search and rescue volunteer, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder last year. (Photo Credit: Dirk Collins)<\/p><\/div>\n

Unlike professional rescuers\u2014say, firefighters or EMTs\u2014most search and rescue crews rely primarily on volunteers. They\u2019re often women and men who hold other jobs and intermittently get called in to help a climber who\u2019s fallen off a cliff in the middle of nowhere. They receive rescue skills training and are armed with the latest equipment, but it wasn\u2019t until recently that search and rescue organizations around the country say they began offering varying levels of mental health support for their volunteers.<\/p>\n

Most search and rescue organizations are nonprofits funded by donations, so budgeting constraints often haven\u2019t allowed for expenses like an on-call therapist. But nowadays, due to an increasing focus on mental health and some reorganized budgeting and fundraising specifically for mental health, many crews conduct something called a critical incident stress debriefing after a rescue, offering support ranging from anonymous help hotlines to access to a psychiatrist to peer-to-peer therapy. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just PTSD, either. At the International Commission on Alpine Rescue, or ICAR, a convention for professional and volunteer rescuers held in Chamonix, France, in mid-October, a workshop focused on the mental health of rescuers covered the various stress injuries that can occur\u2014issues like anxiety, depression, substance abuse, strained social relationships, PTSD and suicidal thoughts. Those stresses, according to the conference, are more likely to occur when rescuers are overworked, resources and staffing are tight or the victims are people they know. <\/span><\/p>\n

A longtime rescue professional and ski patroller from Aspen, Colorado, named Michael Ferrara, who was diagnosed with cumulative <\/span>post-traumatic stress disorder from decades on the job, <\/span>has made it his mission in recent years to educate fellow rescuers about the risks of not addressing mental health issues. He gives talks to first responder groups around the country. \u201cOne thing I tell first responders is that one of the most dangerous things you\u2019ll face is the word hero,\u201d Ferrara said. \u201cBecause how can you tell everyone how damaged you are when they think you\u2019re a hero?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Justin Hood, president of Mountain Rescue Aspen, the nonprofit search and rescue organization in Colorado\u2019s Pitkin County, said they treat mental health issues as seriously as they do physical injuries sustained on the job. Mental health counselors from local agencies provide a range of services to their volunteers<\/span>.<\/span> \u201c<\/span>We\u2019re trying to make it not taboo to talk about your feelings,\u201d Hood said. \u201cI see a psychologist once a month. I talk about it openly because I want people to feel comfortable seeking that kind of help.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Wyoming\u2019s Teton County Search and Rescue recently brought in a speaker named Tania Glenn, who specializes in first-responder PTSD. More than 400 people\u2014ski patrollers, national park rangers, the sheriff\u2019s office\u2014showed up. About a year ago, the Teton County Search and Rescue Foundation started paying for mindfulness and meditation classes, began offering resilience tips at meetings, and set up a peer support network, all in an effort to provide preventative services and support networks to treat issues like PTSD.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

\u201cAre the pain and flashbacks still there? Yes. They\u2019re just more tolerable now,\u201d Urban said.\u00a0(Photo Credit: Dirk Collins)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re dealing with is a culture where mental health is not really talked about,\u201d said Stephanie Thomas, executive director of the <\/span>Teton County Search and Rescue Foundation<\/span>. \u201cCowboy culture has always been that after a bad call, you go to the bar and deal with it. <\/span>Our team, foundation and volunteers are dedicated to teaching people how to reenter the real world after being in crisis mode.<\/span> Together, we have to train them for that and give them tools to handle it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Exactly one year ago, in October 2017, Urban quit search and rescue work for good. He knew he couldn\u2019t recover while continuing to see traumas in the mountains. After his last rescue, he felt immense relief. \u201cIt was as if there was a weight off my back. Like, \u2018OK, the ghost has left,\u2019\u201d said Urban, who\u2019s now 48. He still owns and serves as the lead teacher at<\/span> Jackson Hole Outdoor Leadership Institute but, he says, teaching causes fewer triggers.<\/span> \u201cAre the pain and flashbacks still there? Yes. They\u2019re just more tolerable now,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s since undergone extensive therapy and now relies heavily on journaling, diet and exercise to keep him stable. He quit drinking and has started running every day. \u201cI\u2019m not supposed to solve my life\u2019s problems by saving other people,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to be a happy individual who\u2019s good to people, who doesn\u2019t owe anyone anything <\/span>other than what I owe myself<\/span>.\u201d He\u2019s learned to find highs not from saving people\u2019s lives, but from living his own.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jacob Urban\u2019s depression started after the helicopter crash. It was February 15, 2012, and a helicopter carrying rescue workers from Wyoming\u2019s Teton County Search and Rescue to aid an injured snowmobiler went down in the Tetons. The pilot and two rescuers were badly injured. Urban was among the additional volunteers from Teton County Search and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":39571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,387],"tags":[734,707,727,1540,424],"internal-tag":[1679,1678],"class_list":["post-39560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climb","category-hike","tag-climbing","tag-hiking","tag-latest-posts","tag-mountain-west","tag-rei-stewardship","internal-tag-pre-redirect-climbing","internal-tag-pre-redirect-hiking"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/hike\/the-rescuer-in-need-of-saving","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"The Rescuer In Need of Saving","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/hike\/the-rescuer-in-need-of-saving","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/hike\/the-rescuer-in-need-of-saving"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/10\/IMG_6824_DirkColins.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/10\/IMG_6824_DirkColins.jpg?fit=1500%2C623"},"articleSection":"Climb","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Flandreau"}],"creator":["Michelle Flandreau"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["climbing","hiking","latest posts","mountain west","philanthropy"],"dateCreated":"2018-10-25T15:17:13Z","datePublished":"2018-10-25T15:17:13Z","dateModified":"2020-05-22T20:05:04Z"},"rendered":"