The Falling Season

The Falling Season

The journey of Hal Clifford the author turned member of the Mountain Rescue Team-Aspen who starts out as an author writing about these special people, only to become one of them. This book is about the life and death drama of this elite team who puts strangers safety first. The team told the author Hal Clifford “If your going to write about us, then you must become one of us.” This assignment was the most challenging of his career and rewarding. All the members are volunteers made up of hikers, skiers, police officers, firefighters, medical professionals, and mountain climbers. Many of them are rated at the top of their fields making up one of America’s most premier mountain rescue teams. Hal Clifford talks about what motivates these brave and thoughtful individuals to risk their own safety to save others without pay.

The Mountain Rescue Team responds to 40 to 60 emergency calls per year. These calls range from lost hunters, injured skiers, and mountain climbers to plane crashes and body recoveries. First responder’s abilities are taken into consideration when responding to calls. The rescuers are from many different professions but share a love for the outdoors and being fit. Unlike many other rescue teams, The Aspen team is not ran by law enforcement and members are not that friendly with officials and tend to have a rouge attitude towards law enforcement. The members do not enjoy getting recognition for their efforts and don’t encourage the victims to give thanks, the team members enjoy doing this and view their position as a calling and humbleness is a character trait they want their members to have. A popular slogan that is used my the teams leaders is to “leave the egos outside.”

The Mountain Rescue-Aspen was founded by a German gentleman named Fred Braun who immigrated to the United States in 1928 after learning how to climb in Europe. After retiring from an engineering business in Chicago, he moved his family to Aspen, Fred and his wife Renate opened the Holiday House lodge in the 1950’s. The rescue team was then formed in 1965 eventually running the team out of a cabin he leased for $ 2.00 per year. Fred’s leadership, passion, and dedication to the team lasted until he had to retire in 1980. Fred died in 1988 but his Mountain Rescue team lives on saving many long after his death. Fred’s European philosophy of neighbor helping neighbors and bringing the sport of mountaineering to many mountain towns. The team endured some growing pains. After Fred retired he gave the leadership to his best friend Greg who loved the team as much as Fred did. Fred did. Greg’s leadership would not last very long though due to a training mission that went very wrong. Greg died climbing with his team, the team was practicing self-arrests when Greg’s hands slipped off his axe and his crampons caused him to tumble and fall onto rocks. He lived on the ledge for a couple of hours without his broken radio to call for help. They also chose to climb without ropes. Greg’s death would stress to the team the importance of safety and proper training.

Now the team is in its third generation of leadership after his death a power struggle happened amongst members and veterans of the team who did not like all the new training commitments and left the team. In 1992 a leader emerged in the group through Chris Myers who joined the team after Greg had died. He now represents the third wave of leadership. He enforced training, standards, and cooperated with sheriff personnel. The hard difficult life of being on the team and his personal life caused him to get burned out and Chris wanted more time with his family. Making the president position open again.

Greg’s widow had gone into seclusion after his death managing ski huts in the backcountry but wanted to get involved with the group again. She ended up meeting Scott who was very much like Greg. They both became members and married, Scott gained more respect from other members many of them wanting him to take the position of President. Then it was done Scott became the president and Greg’s widow would endure another challenge and worry. Julie Mace would not be the only one on the team to have bad memories; many of the rescuers endure nightmares due to the many body recoveries that have been done.

Many of the team members have become very close but some have had disagreements or power trips. Despite these problems they all stick together because they all share a bond that some may never understand, these people drop everything at a moments notice to help others who are in need. They do so with pride and sacrifice as being volunteers who can and have paid the ultimate price. Some team members have marriages that did not last because of the unpredictable schedule