In August Montana River Guides invited former students and friends from our Swiftwater Rescue Courses to the Alberton Gorge for a series of riverboard trips. Led by WRI Instructor Mike Johnston, the trips were an attempt to get rescuers from different agencies together for a fun day of surfing and running the river. On the afternoon trip Sunday August 9th, Johnston and several riverboarders from Missoula County and Sanders County Search & Rescue Teams had just run Tumbleweed Rapid when they saw several rafts and kayaks pulled over on river right with some of the boaters performing CPR on a kayaker. Everyone on the trip helped with the evacuation of the patient to a rendezvous point with the Alberton and Missoula EMS crews . Special thanks to Mike Bedick of Sanders Co S&R, Joe Blattner, Shane Stack, Scott Nash and RJ Nelson of Missoula County S&R, private boaters Kevin & Danielle along with Yael and the crew at Montana River Guides for helping out in pretty tough circumstances. We felt fortunate to have so many experienced, capable rescue people on scene on riverboards ready to lend a hand. More info at--http://www.missoulian.com/news/local/article_a137c312-8636-11de-8037-001cc4c002e0.html
