On Sunday, July 30th, 2000 the Montrose Search and Rescue team joined forces with members of the Altadena Mountain Rescue Team and the Sierra Madre Search and Rescue Team for a joint training in Eaton Canyon. Eaton Canyon is in Altadena's territory, so the primary purpose of the training was to familiarize Montrose and Sierra Madre with the area in the event either team was called to assist Altadena. Altadena has had a great deal of experience in setting up the highline and has developed a very efficient method for quickly deploying the highline and putting it into operation.
In order to rig the upper anchor of the highline, it is necessary to climb above the waterfall along a route called "Acrophobia Ridge". The ridgeline is very narrow and has steep drops on either side. The Altadena team is very familiar with this terrain and acted as guides to lead members from both Montrose and Sierra Madre up the hazardous ridgeline.	Deputies Struble, Paneno and Karapetian stop for a photo op. In the world of digital photography, this is called "a jpeg moment".
This is the upper ridgeline of "Acrophobia Ridge".	Once we crested "Acrophobia Ridge", it was just a matter of traversing this rock face, and then a short rappel to the top of the waterfall.
Members of the Sierra Madre and Altadena teams prepare the litter to be lowered to the floor of the canyon.	"Wake me when I'm on the bottom."
Lowering the patient over the falls.	The patient safely arrives at the bottom.
	After we practiced evacuating a few team members using the litter, several others came down the highline by attaching the pulley directly to our rescue harness. All in all, it was an extremely valuable learning experience for everyone involved. Thanks go out to everyone on the Montrose, Altadena and Sierra Madre teams who participated in this worthwhile joint training exercise.
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