When the Crag Rats Mountain Rescue beeper goes off, the call may take the elite team of Gorge residents racing up a mountain peak to rescue an injured hiker, scaling a rocky ledge to revive a hiker who has fallen over a cliff, into a blizzard to search for missing skiers, or to a mountain airplane crash scene for body recovery. Established in 1926, the Hood River Crag Rats are the oldest mountain rescue group in the nation, and were a charter member of the Mountain Rescue Association, established in 1955. Join Gorge Owned as we welcome Christopher Van Tilburg to recount the colorful history and thrilling rescues of the Hood River Crag Rats mountain rescue team. Along with nine decades of tradition and lore, Van Tilburg will show images and tells stories of rescues that span Oregon’s iconoclastic, dangerous Mount Hood and the deep, dark canyons of the Columbia Gorge. Along with rescues, Van Tilburg highlights the underlying theme of risk and responsibility in mountain rescue: why risk is important and how we can mitigate risk when recreating in the Columbia Gorge.
Van Tilburg will speak on Dec. 14, at Columbia Center for the Arts. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the lecture begins at 7 p.m. Cost is a $5 to $10 suggested donation
Sense of Place is an annual lecture series that seeks to foster a deeper understanding of and connection to our landscape and to one another.
Van Tilburg is medical director of Occupational and Travel Medicine and staff physician in the Emergency Department at Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital. He is a member of Crag Rats, the oldest mountain rescue unit in the U.S., serves on the Mountain Rescue Association Medical Committee, and works for International Society of Travel Medicine as editor of Travel Medicine News.
He is author of 11 books, including “Mountain Rescue Doctor: Wilderness Medicine in the Extremes of Nature” (St. Martins, 2007) and “Adrenaline Junkie’s Bucket List: 100 Extreme Outdoor Adventures to do Before You Die” (St. Martins, 2013). He has taught wilderness medicine, served as an expedition doctor, worked as a medical relief physician, served as a cruise ship doctor, and adventured in 70 countries in five continents.
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