Thunder on the upper circuit: an ankle, a storm and two missing walkers
Late June, 14:20, Adršpach-Teplice Rocks. You are guiding 22 hikers on the upper circuit, about 40 minutes' walking from the main exit. You are on a stretch of narrow wooden stairways and one steep ladder with chains; the sandstone is still slick from an earlier shower. The sky to the west is black, and you have heard thunder twice in three minutes. There is no real shelter on this stretch. A woman of 68 has just slipped on the stairs: she is sitting on the boardwalk, conscious and talking, pale, her right ankle is visibly swollen and she cannot put weight on it. She mentions she takes a blood thinner. Two members of the group are about 15 minutes behind you. Your phone is at 27 % with one bar of signal, your kit has no splint, and one group member is a nurse. The park closes at 18:00.
1. Set out your first ten minutes, in order, and justify the order.
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The order is driven by one judgement: the storm is the fastest-moving hazard, but the casualty is the most vulnerable person. Both are handled in parallel by splitting roles, not by doing one first and the other later.
- Stop the group and make the scene safe (0–1 min). Get everyone off the ladder and the narrow stair edge onto the widest platform available, and keep them there. A second slip is now the most likely next event.
- Headcount (1 min). 20 of 22 present - the two laggards are a known, tracked problem, not a surprise later.
- Go to her, kneel to her level, introduce yourself and ask consent to help (1–2 min). Consent is not a formality; it is how she stays cooperative during a painful next hour.
- Assess (2–5 min). She fell on stairs - ask about her head and whether she hit it, check for other injuries, check circulation and sensation in the foot. Swollen, unable to bear weight: treat as a possible fracture until proven otherwise. The blood thinner matters: bruising and internal bleeding are more likely, and it is a fact the rescue service will need.
- Delegate the storm to a competent adult while you stay with her. Move the group down off exposed rock, away from chains and isolated trees, spread out, crouching low. Do not shelter under an overhang for lightning; do shelter from wind and rain.
- Call 112 (5–7 min). It works on any network and returns your location. Give: the trail name, the nearest numbered marker, what happened, her age, the medication, the weather and the direction the storm is coming from. Then put the phone in airplane mode - 27 % is your only battery and the nurse may need the light.
Justification: safety of the many and the position of the one are handled simultaneously because a serial approach loses the ten minutes in which the storm arrives.
2. Evacuation: what are the options for getting her out, what do you decide, and how do you handle the group and the two walkers still behind you?
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Options, and why most of them are wrong here.
- Walk her out with two supporters. She cannot bear weight, the stairs are wet, the chains are wet, and there is a ladder. This converts one casualty into two or three in the worst place on the route. No.
- Carry her. Improvised carries on technical sandstone stairways are how guides become casualties themselves. No.
- Professional evacuation. This is exactly what the call was for: the park's rescue capability or the mountain rescue service, with a stretcher and people who train on this rock. Yes - and your job is to hold the position, keep her warm and keep the landing site clear.
What you do while waiting: immobilise in the position found - do not wrestle a boot off a rapidly swelling ankle, loosen laces, support with a walking pole or a pack frame if that genuinely reduces movement; elevate; cold pack improvised from a wet cloth; she is pale, so treat for shock - layers over and under her, a group shelter if there is one, keep her talking, small sips of water. Keep the nurse with her, and let the nurse be the nurse.
The group. Move them to a single assembly point with a clear instruction and a time, not a vague “wait here”. Do not fragment them into small uncontrolled pieces on wet rock. If the storm is minutes away and the descent to the assembly point is exposed, everyone waits together under cover - a professional rescue team can manage a group of 19 as easily as a group of 1.
The two walkers behind. Send one named, capable adult back to meet them with a precise message: “stop where you are, or come to the wide platform, the woman ahead is injured, we are not moving.” You do not leave the casualty to fetch them yourself, and you do not send a pair who might also slip.
3. What happens after the rescue team arrives - documentation, the rest of the itinerary, and what you change for the next booking?
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Documentation (same day, not next week, while detail is recall not reconstruction):
- Time, exact location with the marker number or GPS, weather at the time, who was present.
- What happened, what you observed, what you decided and why, in sequence, including the options you rejected.
- Who you called and at what time; who took over.
- Witness names and contact details; photographs of the location and the ankle only with her consent.
- Delivered to the agency within 24 hours. Notify your insurer if there is any hint of a claim.
Tone with the casualty. Be kind, be present, do not speculate about fault, and do not discuss insurance, liability or “what we should have done” with her. Give her the report reference and the agency's contact. Anything you say at the scene is heard by 20 people and repeated.
The itinerary. Cut the day's remaining programme without apology and without drama: one clear announcement to the group - what happened, that she is being cared for, and what happens next to them. Re-plan the following day around her departure home and around the group's remaining energy; a group that has just watched an evacuation is not a group for a second technical walk.
What changes for the next booking - the honest list:
- A written risk assessment for this route, done before selling it, not after.
- Pre-tour briefing that actually asks about anticoagulants, recent injuries, mobility and who takes medication - and a route chosen to match the answers.
- A proper kit for technical terrain: splint, group shelter, power bank, second charged phone.
- Check the forecast at the trailhead at the start of the day, and set a turnaround time for the exposed upper circuit before you go up.
- Two sweeps, not one, and a rule that the group never strings out more than sight distance on this terrain.