The Force of Water: Rescues, recoveries, and their toll on SAR members. Featuring Moose Mutlow

Written By Megan Wimberley

Moose Mutlow’s bio reads like an adventure novel, with outdoor experiences around the world, and over 2000 days of field instruction in wilderness settings. Since 2002 Mutlow has been a member and senior trainer of Yosemite Search and Rescue, working as a technician and within Incident Command. He is an impressively knowledgeable and experienced outdoorsman, the author of When Accidents Happen, and a genuinely kind person. His approach to people, life, and death are thoughtful and nuanced. In response to experiences with tragedy he cultivates more empathy.  We interviewed Mutlow to talk about his experience with Swiftwater rescue and his time in Yosemite. Mutlow’s interview was so insightful and expansive that we will release the resulting article in several parts. This is part 1.

(Warning: this article discusses death and drowning and may be upsetting for some readers.) 


There is something about water that draws us humans in; something in the sound, and the feel, and the movement that we find mesmerizing. “Indeed the fascination engendered by water, especially dramatically moving water, can act on us humans much the way a flame attracts a moth. And at times with similar finality.” 
(Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite; Michael P. Ghiglieri and Charles R. “Butch Farabee, Jr.)


Water can be a deadly force, and drowning is a leading cause of death in the park. The sad irony is that, by Mutlow’s estimation, 99% of drownings could be avoided. He suggests that most people are just having a really good time and they don’t have the trigger to acknowledge the danger. “They just don’t understand how powerful the water is. It’s a question of education.”


Think of it this way, would you stand on an interstate just on the edge of the pull off lane, as huge trucks come barreling inches from you? Would you stand between the lanes or try to cross? Probably not, but that’s often what people are doing around rivers and waterfalls. “When you are on the shore you feel safe and dry, you’re breathing, and warm, you have no idea.”


It only takes a second to get swept away by a strong current. Suddenly you're being forced down the river at “20 plus miles per hour, faster than you can run. You’re gone, people on the bank are watching you whip down. Unless you’ve been out there with all the gear, you don’t know how powerless you are.” In flood water helical flow pushes all the debris to the middle of the river. It reduces the eddies and creates a buffer zone on the sides. People get trapped in the middle and are carried a long way-- miles even.


A rescue is unlikely. “You’re very lucky if you get rescued. You’ve fought really hard, the current has been in your favor, someone spotted you before you got knocked over by a wave. You’ve had all these things line up; and it isn’t just one, it’s multiple things that allowed you to survive. One of those fails and you don’t survive.”


Mutlow approximates that 2/3rds of all the calls he’s been on have been recoveries-- not rescues. “I can think of a handful of times I’ve gone out and got somebody alive.” This usually happens because the person was lucky enough to be stable (on a rock or log) or they’ve washed through into an eddy. “But if they’re trapped in the water halfway up the Mist trail you’re not getting to them in time.” 


Recoveries (finding and removing the body of a victim) are challenging too. Once a person stops breathing they “become this floppy sack and bounce along the bottom or if the victim is a kid their head goes down and bounces along the bottom and it’s just down to where the body snags...” In cold water bodies stay submerged longer, but even in lakes, with sideband sonar finding bodies can be difficult. This process is without a doubt challenging for the family and friends of the victim, and responding to events like this can take its toll on SAR team members as well.

Mutlow came from a facilitation and  processing background so he is well versed in talking about feelings. He says he doesn’t have any ego about it-- “really bad stuff happens and you have to talk about it.” He goes on to say, “I had training, but the level of trauma that I was exposed to in this job required a little more conscious processing.” Laura McGladry’s Stress Continuum has been an incredible tool for first responders,  but you can’t fix a mental health issue in a day. You have to have professional help. “I think there is a real role for peers to be able to recognize in themselves and the people they work with when someone is struggling. To create the space to talk about it and then refer them to professional care.”

https://www.responderalliance.com/stress-continuum

When starting the conversation about mental health with someone, Mutlow takes a direct approach like, “It looks like you are struggling.” or “How’s it going? How’d you sleep last night?” He acknowledges though, that he’s outside the loop, he’s not another ranger, and that can make it easier for people to talk to him. “When people are worried about losing their commission, they’re not going to talk about mental health. And then we end up in these tragedies of people taking their lives.”


“This mental health crisis is all about connection, and feeling safe, and getting in a position where when you’re broken, there’s an acknowledgement to that. When I say ‘broken’- you have an injury. What’s happening here is trauma. We have to figure out how to help you… If you twist an ankle we would do R.I.C.E (rest, ice, compression, elevation), and we’d sort of sit back and let this healing happen, and that’s what we need to do with traumatic injury.” There is no shame in having a traumatic stress injury. There is nothing wrong with you. Traumatic stress injuries can be confusing and frightening to say the least, but healing can happen.

To all SAR members and first responders world-wide we thank you for all that you do. If you are struggling today, know that there is help and there are resources available.

Megan Wimberley
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The Most Powerful Thing Featuring Moose Mutlow (Pt 2)
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