The 2020 RAT-SAR Cave Rescue Exercise consisted of packaging a training mannequin in a Sked in the parking lot of the Stephens Gap Cave Preserve, carrying the “patient” up to the cave, lowering him to the floor of the cave from the lip of the main pit, then hauling the patient up from the floor and completely through the multi-drop. A total of 4 raises were required. All of them were full dual-tension systems using natural anchors. Goal was to the keep the patient as dry as possible through the small waterfall raises and leave no impact on the cave system. A total of 19 rescuers were on this exercise and it took approximately 4 hours start to finish. The rescue technicians were from various agencies in North Carolina as well as members from RAT-SAR.
