Trauma Nurse Turns Near Deadly Fall Into Fundraiser For Napa Search And Rescue

NAPA VALLEY, CA — Trauma nurse Nichole Doane spent months in a wheelchair after falling while rappelling down a waterfall in 2017. She turned her recovery and rescue into a documentary about the volunteers who saved her.

Now, Where the Rope Ends will help Napa County’s search and rescue team raise money for equipment and uniforms at a screening in St. Helena.

The documentary follows Doane, a Seattle nurse who fell while rappelling down a 265-foot waterfall in the Pacific Northwest, and the team that rescued her.

Doane had completed several rappels that day without trouble. “We were feeling confident,” she said by phone from Washington.

But the rocky, slippery terrain made it difficult for the group to stop her fall from below. Doane spent several months in a wheelchair recovering.

During a yoga training she met the woman, Baylee Sinner, who would help her turn a life-threatening and life-changing experience into a documentary that could help others.

What began as an idea for a five-minute search and rescue video became a 70-minute documentary and an eight-year project.

Napa Search and Rescue

Doane said she had not understood that search and rescue members were volunteers, even though she encountered them through her work at a Level 1 trauma center.

Since its release, the film has helped more than 50 search and rescue organizations raise money and awareness, according to Doane.

The money that people pay to see the film goes to the search and rescue team.

Napa’s search and rescue team contacted her about using it for a fundraiser.

The Napa County Sheriff’s Volunteer Search and Rescue team has 36 volunteers. The Sheriff’s Office supplies shared gear, including ropes and vehicles, but members pay for much of their own field equipment.

Equipment and training have evolved since Doane’s accident. Canyoneering and other backcountry activities have grown more popular, and rescuers are called into remote areas to help people who venture there.

Sometimes the people in danger are not adventurers but, like a teen with autism found by the Napa search and rescue team, just lost in a formidable place and unable to help themselves to safety.

Napa Search and Rescue volunteers train regularly to maintain their skills and learn new ones, team member Kirk Grace said. They also travel outside Napa County to support other agencies and may deploy by vehicle, helicopter, or on foot.

Grace said the fundraiser would help maintain the team’s ATVs, e-bikes, and utility vehicle, as well as replace rope rescue equipment. The team also hopes to help members pay for courses and certifications, including Wilderness First Aid and Low Angle Rope Rescue, and replace uniforms last issued in 2019.

Grace hopes the screening will introduce more residents to the team before its next round of recruiting begins in January.

Napa County Sheriff’s Volunteer Search and Rescue will show Where the Rope Ends on Oct. 26 at the Cameo Cinema in St. Helena. More information about the event, joining, or donating is available at napasar.org.