Some Tough Rescue-ees in the News

The odds may have been against these folks, but they survived. Here are some search and rescue stories—some recent, some not—with rather surprising happy endings. These are great examples of why searchers should never assume that a subject is definitely deceased, even if the likelihood seems high.

Former Marine Found After 2 Days in the Oregon Snow

Thirty-seven-year-old Jason Cooper had been involved in a minor, low-speed fender-bender on Highway 138D, which cuts through Umpqua National Forest, when he was seen by the other driver run off through the snow into the woods. Cooper was wearing shorts and sandals.

Law enforcement followed the man's tracks in snow that was 2 feet deep, but they had to suspend the search at dark.  Police became more concerned when they learned that Cooper suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.  

Read the whole article on PoliceBlogger.co

 

Swedish Man Survives Two Months in Snow-Buried Car

The 45-year-old from southern Sweden was found emaciated and too weak to utter more than a few words.  The temperature in the area had recently dropped to -22F (-30C).  He was located not far from the city of Umea in the north of Sweden by snowmobilers who thought they had come across a car wreck until they dug their way to a window and saw movement inside.

Read the story on MSNBC.

Swiss National Survives Three Cold Nights Stuck in an Arizona Canyon

He'd heard about Waterholes Canyon, which leads down to the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, from someone on a tour the previous day and thought he'd give it a try. Being an experienced climber, he apparently wasn't concerned about getting back up after going down. And when he found ropes already set up at the first couple of rappels, left behind by other canyoneers, he figured (he later said) the ropes would continue all the way to the bottom. They did not. And whether he knew about the 400-foot rappel along the way, I don't know.

Well, things didn't go as expected. The man ended up stranded deep in the canyon, with an ankle injury and rope burns on both hands, through a wet winter storm, wearing shorts, missing his socks, and without food and water.

Read more about the mission on my blog, Deb's Search and Rescue Stories.

 

Hiker Missing for Almost a Month Found in New Mexico

A female hiker and her cat had been reported missing more than two weeks before the search actually began. She was eventually found, emaciated and malnourished, in her sleeping bag in a rugged National Forest. (The cat survived, too.)

Read the story on USA Today.

Two Hikers Survived Seven Weeks in South American Jungle

The hike was supposed to last for ten days. Instead, two 34-year-old Frenchmen survived on seeds, frogs, turtles, beetles and tarantulas for seven weeks. The search had been suspended after three.

Read the story on Journal Peru.

Woman Survives 7 Weeks in Remote Area of Nevada

You probably heard about this one. The woman and her husband were driving from British Columbia to Las Vegas, following the directions of a GPS ... blindly so it seems. The husband left the stranded van after a few days in an attempt to get help. He has not been seen since, but he wife miraculously survived.

Read the story on Reuters.

Injured British Hiker Survives Week-Long Ordeal Stranded in New Zealand Wilderness

A 33-year-old man spends 8 days in the backcountry after a fall down a 15-foot cliff, with a broken ankle and gash in his thigh.

Read the story on Mail Online.

Severely Injured Woman Survives Four Days and Nights in The Sierras

Amy Racina was hiking in a remote part of King's Canyon National Park in California when she lost the trail and suddenly fell sixty feet, breaking both legs. She battled pain, fear and exhaustion, pulling herself along with her hands and refusing to give up. Amy was saved when her calls heard by a man who was partially deaf.

Read the full story in Amy's book, Angels in the Wilderness, available in hard cover, paperback and on Kindle.

Have you ever been involved with or know of a search for someone who'd been missing for an extended period of time but was found alive? If so, please share it here in the guestbook.

Rescuers Consider Amputation to Save a Trapped Victim

Imagine as a rescuer that you might actually have to cut off a victim's limb in the field to potentially save that person's life.

That was what rescuers considered on New Year's Day, as they were trying to free 15-year-old Dion Latta, who was hanging upside down in a waterfall in Wanaka's Motatapu Gorge in New Zealand. His foot was stuck and twisted in a narrow crack, and he'd been sucking air from a pocket behind the water for more than three hours when the amputation was considered. Dion was also hypothermic.

Wanaka-based search and rescue volunteers, police, and others weighed all their options as they desperately tried to extricate Dion. Regarding amputation, however, the general medical opinion was that the shock involved with such a procedure under those conditions could itself prove fatal. 

Breaking the flow of the icy water with their bodies, rescuers on rappel were finally able to free Dion, and he was then short-hauled out by helicopter. Unconscious, he was stabilized on scene and flown to Dunedin Hospital. Sadly, though, after the heroic effort to save him, the boy later died.

Read the story and view photos on Stuff.co.nz.

Related article:

Field Limb Amputations Used as an Extrication Option in Complicated Entrapments or Disaster Events

Search & Rescue Reading and Writing

These are the latest SAR blogs and books to come my way. 

Seeking The Lost

 Author Dale Matson is a volunteer for the Fresno County Mountaineering Unit of the Sheriff's Department, who recently published a book about nine of the searches he's been involved with over the last seven years:  Seeking The Lost: Stories of Search and Rescue. Father Dale is also an Anglican Priest, a retired licensed plumber and heavy equipment operator, and a psychologist. These SAR stories are told as seen through Dale Matson's eyes as he worked with fellow volunteers and law enforcement personnel. The book begins with an overview of the search process, then tells the stories of specific searches, from call outs to conclusions. The stories include gear selection, navigation, and even the humor that can emerge in serious and sometimes dangerous conditions. Not every story describes a successful outcome but every search is treated as a learning experience.

Mountain Rescue Association Blog

The MRA published their first blog post on June 30, 2011, with What is MRA's Position on Charging for Search and Rescue? and then followed up with posts about the ten essentials and hyperthermia and heat-related illnesses. The Mountain Rescue Association (MRA), the oldest SAR association in the U.S., was established in 1959 at Timberline Lodge at Mount Hood, Oregon, and now is comprised of more than 90 government authorized units. Read the MRA blog.


Mountain Rescue Blog

The purpose of Mountain Rescue Blog is to share mountain search and rescue techniques, tools, news and opinions with others who are in the field or are interested in mountain SAR.

Author Ethan Zook, a rock climber, hiker, caver and river paddler, has been exploring the outdoors since he was a child. During college, Ethan wanted to put his interests and skills to good use, so he joined the local mountain search and rescue team. He's also a firefighter/EMT-B with Hose Company #4 in Harrisonburg, Virginia, a Wilderness EMT, and he holds certifications in lifeguarding and CPR. Rounding out his outdoor resume, Ethan is a professional climbing guide and instructor.

As a volunteer with  the Rockingham-Augusta Search and Rescue Team (RASAR), he helps provide mountain SAR services to Rockingham and Augusta Counties and the larger Commonwealth of Virginia. 

Ethan and his wife, Melissa, are now also members of Old Rag Mountain Stewards, a volunteer group providing outdoor education and rescue services to hikers on Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park. Read Mountain Rescue Blog

The Shortest Route Was a Tragic Route

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons/CC

In March 2011, Rita and Albert Chretien were driving from Canada to Las Vegas with guidance from their new GPS.  But their trip came to a sudden, unexpected stop on the 19th in the wilderness of Nevada's Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, when their two-wheel-drive van became stuck in the mud on washed-out forest service roads deep in the high country.

According to the Associated Press, the Chretiens had consulted their GPS "to find the shortest route to Jackpot, nestled in Nevada's northeastern corner. If they had typed in the town's name into their GPS from anywhere in the area, the shortest route would have led them off-highway and along possibly a half-dozen different forest service roads only named with numbers. They apparently followed the route into the mountains without question."

Yes, we've heard similar stories before—people following the directions given by a piece of technology without consulting a map or using common sense in the process, allowing themselves to be led into danger and, sometimes, even death. Remember the Nevada couple who got stranded for three days in the Oregon desert after they followed directions from their GPS device? Soon after that, an Oregon couple spent about 12 hours stranded in the Northwest's Cascade Mountains with their 11-month-old daughter. Lucky for them, those stories had happy endings. For the Chretiens, though, theirs appears to be a tragedy.

On Friday, May 6th, 56-year-old Rita Chretien was found barely alive—yes, seven weeks after getting stuck—by a group of hunters on ATVs who themselves had made a wrong turn on the confusing network of Forest Service roads. Her husband, however, is still missing, having set out on foot on March 22nd to walk more than 20 miles to find help, hoping to make it to Mountain City.

Two of the men who found Rita rode nearly ten miles on their ATVs to get cell service and called Elko County dispatchers.

Rita Chretian survived by rationing trail mix and hard candy and drinking from a nearby creek. She lost as much as 30 pounds during that time and would not have survived much longer.

Sgt. Kevin McKinney of the Elko County Sheriff's Department, which is leading the continuing search for Albert Chretian said, "Many of the roads are just washed out, covered from rock slides, and there are deep pockets of drifting snow." 

For more on this story and the continuing search, read:

Canadian Woman Found Alive, Husband Still Missing
Woman Who Was Stranded for Weeks Leaves Hospital
Teams Seek Man Whose Wife Survived Seven Weeks in Bush

Two New Firsthand Search & Rescue Stories

Now featured on SARStories: 

Devil's Dues by Bruce Hansen....

An AirMed Skycare helicopter crashes into the ocean off the coast of Maine with a burn patient, nurse, paramedic and pilot aboard. Coast Guard rescue vessels had to turn back before reaching the search area, due to all hands being ill from rough seas. Then, members of the Cape Elizabeth Water Extrication Team (WET) were called out.

Author Bruce Hansen was one of the WET team members who fought exhaustion and hypothermia that night to rescue the surviving victim of the crash. He writes, "We were out there and insanely focused.  At 0130 hours, the Coast Guard Duty Commander radioed to our handheld, duct-taped to the helm. The WET Team had completed its assigned search pattern and was advised to stand down.  After all this? The Coast Guard classified the crash victims as missing and presumed dead. We did not think they had to be dead men."

Read the full story on Bruce Hansen's blog, A Voice Cries Out in the Wilderness. 

Rescue on Rosalie Peak by Maverick

Maverick (a.k.a Prakesh), Alyson, Kevin and a black lab named J.B. started up Colorado's Rosalie Peak on the morning of February 11, 2011, under blue skies. Just before they reached the summit five hours later, the forecasted snowstorm and high winds moved in. And, on the way down, Alyson fell, breaking her leg and pelvis and, as was later discovered, suffering from internal bleeding. 

Fortunately, there was cell phone service on the mountain, and a call for help was made. Unfortunately, the rescue helicopter that was initially dispatched and landed at the victim's location had to suddenly take off without her, due to the storm. Long, cold hours would pass before a ground unit from the Alpine Rescue Team could reach Alyson and her friends, and then would come the "descent from hell," as Maverick puts it.

He writes, "I stood and watched the chopper take off in abject dismay. I had had barely enough time to digest the fact that they were leaving her. I admit I was afraid to turn and look at Alyson’s face as the chopper took off… for two reasons: (1) I was plain chicken to witness her disappointment which I knew was far greater than mine and (2) I did not want her to see in my face that I lost hope for a quick second; it would have killed the overall mood I was hoping to create during this day… a positive mindset was the biggest weapon we had at this point since we could be in for a long wait." 

Read the full story on SummitPost.org.

SAR News: Conferences, Tracking Classes, A Katie Kim Interview, and SAR Reading

Here are two more SAR conferences you might be interested in...

The IDHS Search and Rescue conference will be June 2 - 5, 2011, at the IDHS SAR Training Center at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. See the conference agenda here.

Little Egypt Search and Rescue will be holding its 4th Annual SAREX at Dixon Springs State Park in Southern Illinois, April 15–17, 2011. Sign up on their website at lesar.org

You can find other 2011 SAR Conferences in my earlier post here.

Universal Tracking Services has posted some 2011 tracking classes on their site at UTSTrackingServices.com. There are currently two in April (in Wamic, OR, and Duncan, B.C.), two in May (in Colorado Springs, CO, and Cache County, UT), and two in September (in Wamic, OR, and Daggit County, UT).

Tonight on ABC's 20/20, there will be a two-hour interview with Kati Kim, who will discuss her family's disappearance in Oregon, when they were stranded for nine freezing cold days in 2006. Her husband, James Kim, attempted to go for help and succumbed to hypothermia. See: '20/20' Exclusive: Kati Kim on Her Family's Harrowing Ordeal

And here's a book that was recommended to me by another SAR volunteer. It's called Playing for Real: Stories from Rocky Mountain Rescue and is about the founding of the Rocky Mountain Rescue Team in the 1940s and subsequent rescues and recoveries from that time onward, mostly in the general vicinity of Boulder, CO.

What's New On SARStories.com

I thought I'd highlight some of the new content that's been added to SARStories.com in the past couple of months.

First, thanks to Steve Hilts, a member of the Urban Search & Rescue California Task Force 3, for submitting his journal from his 2005 trip to New Orleans, where he and his K-9, Daisy, assisted with Search & Rescue efforts following Hurricane Katrina. Steve and Daisy's story is now posted on our website, since Steve doesn't have one of his own.

We also have another new featured story link to Crisis on Half Dome, brought to our attention by the Friends of YOSAR (Yosemite Search & Rescue), about a near-fatal fall and the risky rescue that followed. (Photo above-left courtesy of Friends of YOSAR)

And in our own search for new SAR stories, we came across Expecting Surprises: The Hasty Team Strikes Again by California's Santa Clara County Hasty Team, whose technical training outing in Tenaya Canyon turns into a real rescue when another hiker becomes stuck, immobile and scared on a wet slab.

Under the SAR Articles category, we've added a new find, a short article called Humans Walk in Circles But We Think We're Going Straight, about a study done by researches at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany.

And there's also a new non-team SAR site page, where we're compiling a list of links, including a new website called SAR Responder, developed by Kim Ringeisen. Kim is a member of Central North Carolina Search & Rescue, and SARResponder.com is his new social network, connecting Search & Rescue volunteers and professionals. You can also find out about upcoming events, read recent SAR news, and post your own SAR articles.

As always, if you come across any good firsthand SAR stories, articles, team websites that are not currently in our directories, or non-team SAR sites we should add to our list, please email us at contact@sarstories.com and let us know.

Featured Blog: Hiker Hell

Want to read daily snippets of SAR stories from around the globe, accompanied by great photos and links to the news articles? Then check out HikerHell.com. I've been following this blog by magazine editor and avid outdoorsman, Brian Quines, since it began more than 1,000 posts ago.

Brian, also known as B-Real, writes in his profile, "Over four years ago, I read Touching the Void, and I was always intrigued by situations hikers find themselves in and the incredible things they do to stay alive. This blog is about learning from other people's mistakes, so you don't make the same ones."

Stories from just this past week include:

"Skier Falls 150 meters" from Austria’s Brobglockner

"Hiker Survives 6 Days in Wilderness" near Big Sur, California

"Lost Backcountry Snowboarder Found" in Garibaldi Provincial Park, near Whistler, Canada

"Boy Dies in 1,900-Foot Fall" in California's San Emigdio Mountains

"Hiker Rescued From Steep Slope" on Cave Rock, near Lake Tahoe

"Three Young Brothers Rescued From Canyon" in Rock Canyon, Utah

If you have a SAR story for Brian, you can e-mail it to him at brianquines@gmail.com.

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24HourPack.com--Hike Smart, Be Safe
Pre-equipped backpacks for hikers and SAR personnel

Featured Story: The Rescue of Michael Tunney

Recently, I added a new story to the SARstories website, including not only a firsthand account by the man who was rescued but also mission reviews by some of the Search & Rescue volunteers who saved his life.

In November, 2006, Michael Tunney and his 16 year-old son were climbing Scotland's Beinn a’Cheachain, when a great day turned into a near-fatal experience. Michael slipped on a patch of ice and fell 200 feet, breaking his neck, right hip and arm, seven ribs and punctured a lung. Luckily, he'd put on some extra, insulating layers before the accident which helped protect him from the bitter cold during the hours he lay waiting for help, wedged against the rocks. The rest of his gear had been lost in the fall.

Fortunately for both Michael and his son, who'd scrambled, slid and fell down the mountainside to help his father, also sustaining injuries in the process, they had two cell phones on two different networks and both were able to obtain signals. As always, they'd kept their phones in their pockets rather than their packs. Calls were made to "999" for help.

After what seemed an eternity, the Arrochar and Oban Mountain Rescue teams came to the aid of the injured climbers. They were flown to the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, where Michael was critical throughout the night.

Michael Tunney is now undertaking a fundraising effort to benefit both rescue teams as well as the Northern Police Treatment Centre, where he received physiotherapy after being released from the hospital.

For this fundraising campaign, the challenge that Michael has set for himself is to complete the nine Scottish 4,000-foot peaks and 14 "Munros" along the way, with a total elevation gain of just under 30,000 feet. You can find out more about this challenge at http://mtunney.wordpress.com.

Michael's personal story begins...

"It has been almost two years since I so nearly paid the ultimate price for my passion for the mountains and the outdoors in general. While I was very lucky to survive a fall that on another day would have proved fatal, it is still very difficult to comprehend how I did manage to survive. What I do know is that, not only am I fortunate to be alive, but that I am extremely fortunate to be physically able to type this at all." Read more....

(Photos courtesy of the Oban Mountain Rescue Team)

A Message from the SARstories Webmaster

I have to snicker at the "master" part. As if I really know what I'm doing. So far, though, the SARstories website seems to be holding together well enough, but I half expect to log on one day and find everything all topsy-turvy. Hopefully, as time goes on, I'll figure out how to implement more of my ideas, as well as some that have been suggested by others in the SAR community, not to mention improve on what's already there. So keep the suggestions coming!

Anyhow, as you may be able to tell, the tone of this entry is a little different than what's come before. Given that this is only post #17, I figured it's not too late to make an adjustment and, as traffic to the site and blog subscriptions have been going up recently, I thought I'd better do so sooner than later. So from hereon out, you'll probably see a few more I's, because, after all, it's just me doing the blogging and webMASTERing. (Which I'm sure is quite obvious, since I put my own blog front and center on the homepage. Subtle, I know.)

For those of you who just recently stumbled upon this blog and/or who may not have read Deb's Search & Rescue Stories (couldn't resist sticking a link in there, too), I wanted to be sure you know that I'm no expert at anything SAR. As of this writing, I've been involved with Search & Rescue only 15 months and 10 days, with, if I've tallied them correctly, 32 missions under my belt. That's not nothin', but I do have a lot to learn, which is part of what I love about it.

And that's really what this blog is about. If I come across a SAR-related topic, mission report or news story, a piece of technology or gear, or anything else SAR that makes me say, "Hmmm," I'll look into it and write about what I've learned. And I encourage anyone with more knowledge on a subject to post your comments, insights or even corrections if I've made a goof. Also, if you'd like to make a guest post, please email me at contact@sarstories.com. Feel free to tell us about your team, too! I personally find it really interesting to learn about other SAR teams, as well as how some of us do things differently. Also, if you've been the subject of a SAR mission, we ... uh, I (and I'm sure everyone else) would love to hear from you.

Which reminds me, I just added a story to the website about a rescue here in Coconino County, Arizona, with links to both my own mission report AND a firsthand account by one of the rescued hikers. (Click here, then scroll down a bit to "A Rescue on the Mogollon Rim.")

I also wanted to tell you about my plan to create forums on SARstories.com, to include topics on the many different types of Search & Rescue, SAR technology and gear, recommended SAR reading, skills, missions and so forth. I'll let you know when the forums are up and running and hope you'll stop by to join the discussion.

Okay, now back to anything and everything SAR. Happy holidays, everybody, and here's to more successful missions. *clink!* (That was a non-alcoholic toast, in case anyone gets a call-out.)

Featured SARstories Site: The Havasupai Flood

From time to time, we'll fill you in on one of SARstories' featured websites. Some, like Josh Kaggie's site about the 2008 flood in Havasupai, Grand Canyon, are occasionally updated with new material, and we'll let you know when we find it.

In August of this year, Josh was one of several hundred campers who were enjoying the blue-green waters and almost fantasy-like landscape in Havasu Canyon, part of the Havasupai Indian Reservation, when monsoon rains upstream and a subsequent dam break caused sudden and dramatic flashflooding. The heaviest flooding occurred during the dark, wee hours of the morning, and the severity of it took many people by surprise.

While, thankfully, there was no loss of human life, there were some close calls, and many of those visitors left the canyon with only the clothes (or swimsuits) on their backs. Both tourists and residents of Supai village were evacuated from the canyon by helicopter--Blackhawks, DPS and National Park Service machines--to Hualapai Hilltop. Some of those people were then taken to a Red Cross shelter in Peach Springs. Some had cars at the Hilltop but no longer the keys to start them.

Once back home in Utah, Josh put together a collection of links to first-hand accounts written both by flood survivors and rescuers, media reports, videos, photos and updates from the tribe. We've checked the site at http://www.havasupaiflood.com from time to time and have found new additions and, therefore, featured this website on the homepage of our own.