Night time mountain casualty evacuation

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 During the Swiss Alps 100 race in August 2023 NSP patrollers Sienna Goebel and Taryn Bauerle were involved in a Search and Rescue operation to locate a missing and very tired runner in a thick alpine forest.

Just after midnight on the final leg of the 160km race their base got informed by other runners that a participant was failing to continue the race and was "lying down to have a sleep", the runner was off the race route, in the trees, after completing almost 140kms of the gruelling mountain ultra marathon.

Sienna and Taryn backtracked the race route and eventually found the weakened runner. They called in the REGA helicopter, equipped with Night Vision Goggles (NVG), who lowered a winchman down through the tress to where they had sent the GPS location and were marking the site with headtorches.

The victim was successfully winched into the helicopter and transferred to further medical care. The REGA flight crew complimented Sienna and Taryn on their professionalism in handling the situation and saving the runners life.

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