Larimer County Search and Rescue
Mission Reports 2010
July 21 & 22, 2010 - Mission Calls
July 12, 2010 (Monday) - Overdue Father and Son Fishermen - Chambers Lake
July 7, 2010 (Wednesday) - Missing 85 YOA Female - West Loveland, Namaqua Area
July 3, 2010 (Saturday) - Overdue ATV's - Storm Mountain near Drake, CO
July 1, 2010 (Thursday) - Carry Out Assist - Rocky Mountain National Park
July 1, 2010 (Thursday) - SARDOC Water Dog Request - Stanley Resevoir, El Paso County
Monday 28 June 2010 – Zimmerman Trail – Search for missing hiker
June 27, 2010 (Sunday) - Trapped Male - Horsetooth Falls
June 27, 2010 (Sunday) - Male Subject with Broken Ankle - Rawah Wilderness
June 16, 2010 (Wednesday) - Missing Girl & ??Grandpa?? - Grey Rock
June 9, 2010 - Grey Rock - 5 Missing Girls
May 30 & 31, 2010 (Saturday) - Assist LC Dive Lower Poudre River - Missing Male Fell Off Inner Tube
May 22, 2010 (Saturday) - Tunnel #1 Highway 6, Golden, CO. Missing Male - Assist Alpine Rescue Team
May 16, 2010 (Sunday) - Rocky Mountain National Park Standbye - Wild Basin Carry Out
May 16, 2010 (Sunday) - Pole Hill - MVA Runaway
May 5, 2010 (Wednesday) - Boulder County Assist in Allenspark - Missing Male
May 2, 2010 (Sunday) - Horsetooth Mountain Park - Injured Bicyclist
April 20, 2010 (Tuesday) - Flowers Road - Injured Horse Rider
April 7, 2010 (Wednesday) - Estes Park - Missing Male
March 6, 2010 (Saturday) - Boulder County - Assist with Grid Search at Plane Crash Site<
February 18, 2010 (Thursday) - Horsetooth Mountain Park - Lost Hiker
January 9, 2010(Saturday) - Horsetooth Mountain Park - Assist with Subject Having Heart Attack
July 21 & 22, 2010 - Mission Calls by Don Davis
Wednesday, 7/21/10 2335 hours - SAR Manager paged by Emergency Services
LCSO Deputy Sheriff contacted Emergency Services reference a missing person in Fort Collins.
An adult male was last seen on Friday, 7/16/10 and last heard from on Saturday, 7/17/10. His bicycle and some personal belongings were found in an industrial area near Mulberry and I-25. The employees of the business and the adult male's Father removed the bicycle and personal belongings.
The adult male is an alcoholic and frequently goes on drinking binges. He lives in Fort Collins
The Deputy was asking if LCSAR could be of assistance in locating the person. If we were needed, Emergency Service was going to notify LCSAR in the morning around 0900 hours on Thursday, 7/22/10. Emergency Services asked if a dog handler team would be of benefit.
I consulted with a dog handler about the possibility of using a SAR dog to help find the person. Given the amount of elapsed time and not knowing how long the belongings were at the site, it was determined that a trailing dog would not be helpful. If there were indications of the person still being in the area of where the items were found an airscent dog may have been helpful.
LCSAR's resources were not requested the next morning.
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Thursday, 7/22/10 0634 hours - SAR Manager paged by Emergency Services
Report of a missing 18 year old female with the mental capacity of a 13 year old was found missing from her home by her foster family around 0530 hours. Her bicycle and red back pack were missing. She was missing from her residence located up the Buckhorn Canyon.
She was last seen by the family around 0000 hours on 7/22/10 when the family went to bed.
LCSO Deputy Sheriff's were investigating the case. They requested LCSAR's help. It was later determined by the LCSO Deputies that this was a planned runaway by the female. She was planning the runaway for two days.
Given the circumstances and with no other last seen point other than the home, LCSAR was stood down at 0725 hours.
July 12, 2010 (Monday) - Overdue Father and Son Fishermen - Chambers Lake
18:37 - - Page to Sar Manager for heads up on a possible search for Father and his 5 year-old son from Parker, CO who were overdue from a fishing trip to the Chambers Lake area. Ocean 2 (Dave Mosier) was the Emergency Services Specialist on call and was going to head up to locate the vehicle and wanted to give us a heads up in case he needed to activate Search and Rescue if he located the vehicle. The subjects were only a couple hours overdue so I decided not to page the team with the heads up just yet. While on his way up to Chambers Lake O2 located the vehicle at Ted’s Place fueling up and contacted the subject. SAR managers were notified that the mission was resolved.
Duration: 30 min.
SAR miles: 0
1 LCSAR ITC: Mike Fink
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Mosier
1 LCSAR SAR manager: Dave Hake
July 7, 2010 (Wednesday) - Missing 85 YOA Female - West Loveland, Namaqua Area
08:46 received a SAR manager page for L-1 to contact O2 for the SAR team to assist with the search for a missing 85 year old woman that was last seen around 5 am. She was most recently known to be wearing white shorts, Depends, and a white shirt. The woman was reported to not be wearing any shoes. Weather in the area is drizzling rain and temperature 52F with 8 mph winds. It is not known whether she walked away from a care facility or a residence. SAR team would respond direct to staging located at a local area elementary school.
It is unknown exactly when subject was reported missing to law enforcement. Initially Loveland PD began the search then also activated Loveland Fire. Loveland Fire subsequently urged the immediate call for SAR resources. SAR team activation was in progress when radio traffic was overheard that the subject had been located. Subject’s identity was verified by O2 prior arranging a stand-down page be sent to the SAR team. Stand-down 09:14.
Duration: 28 mins
Miles to Base: 16 miles
SAR miles: 0
1 LCSAR ITC: Dan F.
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Mosier
1 LCSAR SAR manager: Robin A.
July 5, 2010 (Monday) - Male from Arkansas Church Group Stuck in Rock Crack - Old Man Mountain, Estes Park
14:46 received a Direct Response page from 900 for the SAR team to assist with the rescue of a 16 year old male stuck in the rock crevice of Old Man Mountain. Male was part of a church group from Arkansas visiting the Estes Park area. Male had become stuck about 11 am and his friends from the group worked to free him for nearly 4 hours before calling Estes 911.
O5 and O2 were enroute. The SAR team responded and assisted with the extraction of the youth. This involved rigging rescue systems to pull the youth from the crack of the rock. The youth was fully extracted at 19:10 placed in a litter and then lowered down the rock face by the SAR team to an ambulance. He was then taken to the local hospital for observation.
SAR team was debriefed and departed the area by 21:15
Duration: 7.5 hours
Miles to Base: 46 miles
SAR miles: 2300
29 LCSAR members
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Whitesell, Simons
1 LCSAR SAR manager: Robin A.
AFTER THE MISSION...
My first thought was, "what could happen on our travels to and from missions?" and then I remembered what happened to me last week coming down from Old Man Mountain! I had the driver side window down driving through the canyon and something came flying in, grazed my head, and landed in the backseat. I thought it was a piece of gravel, but after a minute, that thing came to life and started flapping all over back there - it was a bat! So then I about ran off the road trying to get it out - I had to drive about two miles before I could find a place to pull off, and then I had to open the hatchback so it could go out the back. Gross! Had I put the car in the river, people probably would have thought I fell asleep at the wheel - and of course the bat would have just flown away. -Marc S.
July 3, 2010 (Saturday) - Overdue ATV's - Storm Mountain near Drake, CO
21:57 received a SAR Manager page from 900 to call O5 reference an overdue 15 yr male, and a 20 yr male. Both young men had gone out on ATV’s approximately 16:30 to ride the area and had not yet returned. Neither was reported to be familiar with the Storm Mountain area.
O5 responded to picked up the side by sides from the cache and would page the support team for another driver. L1 requested 14 SAR members to meet at the Loveland Safeway at 23:00. However, the ITC was having problems with his phone and several members left voice messages responding to the search. An outstanding turnout on a holiday weekend, 26 SAR members responded. At 23:00 the team received a Stand-down page stating that the young men had returned home.
Duration: 1.5 hours
Miles to Base: N/A
SAR miles: 125
25 LCSAR members
1 LCSAR ITC: Dan F.
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Whitesell
1 LCSAR SAR manager: Robin A.
July 1, 2010 (Thursday) - Carry Out Assist - Rocky Mountain National Park
18:28 SAR manager page to contact O3 regarding the Park requesting10 SAR member to assist with the carry out of an injured male from the Rock Pile. Male reportedly had a broken hip and hand. Plans for a short haul were in progress but may only be accomplished to the Rock Pile, off Longs Peak.
L1 contacted the ITC to send an all team page requesting for 10 members to meet at Loveland Safeway by 19:30. Once at the Safeway O2 would be able to relay more information including the staging location in Rocky Mountain National Park. 11 team members responded. Jeff G. would act as team contact at Safeway and then he and next veteran member would act as team leads for LCSAR to Rocky.
19:32 received an “All Team Standdown” page. L1 verified that Jeff. had also received the standdown.
Duration: 1 hour
Miles to Base: N/A
SAR miles: 60
11 LCSAR members
1 LCSAR ITC: Dan F.
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Simons
1 LCSAR SAR manager: Robin A.
July 1, 2010 (Thursday) - SARDOC Water Dog Request - Stanley Resevoir, El Paso County
June 27, 2010 Jaynie left a message on S17’s voice mail stating a SARDOC request for a water dog resource had been received from El Paso County. The subject is a male, missing since April 9th and may be in the Stanley Reservoir. The area had been searched previously by EPCSAR teams. LCSAR Dog Team left Larimer early in the morning July 1, 2010 for an 8 am meet time in Woodland Park. Team fielded and returned to Larimer sometime that same afternoon. Jaynie, contacted L1 the following morning at 7am to say that the team had returned.
Duration: 8 hours
Miles to Base: 163
SAR miles: 324
2 LCSAR members, Jaynie/Lakota, Dave F.
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Johnston
1 LCSAR SAR manager: Robin A.
June 30, 2010 (Saturday) - SARDOC Assist / Missing Male - Bailey, Colorado - The Colorado Trail, assist Park County SAR
Request for a SAR Dog resource through the Colorado Search and Rescue Board, to assist Park County SAR in the search for missing male. Missing: White Male, 6’1”, 250 Lbs. recently moved to Colorado from Oklahoma. Described as having no experience with the outdoors. Subject went of REI and purchased hiking and camping supplies and decided to hike the Colorado Trail. Physical condition: described by wife as poor.
Subject began hiking the Colorado Trail on Sunday, June 27, 2010 and was considered missing Monday June 28. The subject was reported to have gone hiking on the Colorado trail and phoned his wife on Monday to meet him in Bailey, Co. The subject was tired and ready to be picked up.
On Tuesday, June 29. The subject was in contact with an individual, who was unaware of the search. This individual was informed by the subject that he was headed to Breckenridge, Co. on the Colorado, Trail.
A team much further west on the trail made contact with the subject approximately 08:30 June 30. Subject’s description of poor physical condition and lack of outdoor experience had been inaccurate possibly due to reports that this search was instigated by a disagreement between the wife and the subject.
Duration: 12.5 hours
Miles to Base: 192
SAR miles: 245
2 LCSAR members
1 LCSAR ITC: Amy H.
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Mosier
1 LCSAR SAR manager: George J.
June 27, 2010 (Sunday) - Trapped Male - Horsetooth Falls
MISSION REPORT PENDING
Monday 28 June 2010 – Zimmerman Trail – Search for missing hiker
“In her own words”
Tisha’s recollection of the event, as told to friend and LCSAR member Ryan Peters:
Tisha decided, Friday night, to go hiking on Saturday. She doesn't like the crowds of hikers that can accumulate at public parks so she often ventures out to more remote hiking trails. No stranger to hiking alone, she had a tough choice between Little Beaver Creek Trail and Zimmerman Trail. She mentioned to her good friend, Jason, that she was going to hike one of the two trails in question but hadn't decided at that time. On Saturday morning, wanting a 6+ mile hike in and back from the trailhead, she decided on Zimmerman Trail, which extends from the trailhead in 2 directions and is known for its scenery. She brought along water, a handful of power bars (they happened to be on sale at the store she stopped at on her way to the trailhead), and toiletries. Not realizing the drive to Zimmerman Trail was so long, she almost turned back but decided if she'd come that far, why not go all the way. Upon arriving at the trailhead, there was one other car with a lone man inside, Tisha didn't think anything seemed amiss, so she proceeded to get ready to hike. Realizing it was chillier than she expected at the new elevation, she opted to put on her sweatshirt and sweatpants she had brought along (originally she was wearing just a t-shirt and shorts). She read all the trail signs at the trailhead and ultimately made the decision to go in the 'up' trail direction for the first part of her hike (to get better exercise) and planned to go 'down' the other trail direction upon returning to her car. So off she went...
A beautiful trail with lots of picture taking opportunities gave Tisha a great hiking experience. She reached the intersection of Zimmerman and Flowers Trails and turned right. She realized she had service at the intersection of the trails, so she tried to send a picture to Jason; the picture did not send because she kept hiking and lost the signal. Around 3pm, it began to get cloudy, and chillier, and the Flowers Trail was hard to discern in some places, so Tisha decided to turn around and head back to her car. As she reached the Zimmerman and Flowers Trails intersection, she did something out of the ordinary. Typically, she hikes alone and doesn't make any calls or send pictures. That Saturday, she called Jason and left a message that it was starting to storm and that she was headed back down Zimmerman Trail to her car which was about 30 minutes away and then in another hour she would be back in phone service. Then the skies opened. In the torrential downpour, Tisha ran as fast as she could down the muddy trail. Around the midpoint between the trail intersection and the trailhead, there is a rocky, flat area that makes the trail hard to follow in perfect conditions, and impossible in a storm producing bucketfuls of rain, lightning, and thunder. After a short time, Tisha realized that she had gone off trail. She wandered around for about 20 minutes trying to recognize her surroundings, and the way she came from, but could not discern any tracks or obvious signs of travel. Her first thought was, "Ok, you're lost. Now what?".
Tisha thought about the area she had just hiked. From where she imagined she left the trail, and subsequently ended up, she felt that walking in a particular direction and downward would lead her to the dirt road she had driven up to the trailhead on and then she could walk the road to her car. However, the sun was gone, she was soaking wet, and the trees were so dense she could not get a handle on where she was. She kept hiking, however, until she hit a creek that she knew she had not crossed while hiking that day. So she stopped. The time was around 6pm and she thought to herself, "Ok, I am sleeping here tonight." She knew that she would need water, her leg was hurting and she felt she could not hike any farther that day, and she felt that she could get some orientation in the morning from the creek. Knowing many people can follow creeks downhill until they hit a road or other public area, Tisha felt some reassurance about hiking out the following day (Sunday). She searched around for a long time for a place to sleep, yet only found swampish high brush. Her pants were soaked but she wanted to be in a clearing in case rescuers flew over so, after feeling like she hiked 15+ miles that day, she followed the creek down to an area where another creek merged with 'her' creek and produced a waterfall and killer view. She had no idea how far off trail she was and she was tired, hungry, and wet, so she bedded down for the night and tried to sleep. Already chilled, she was downright cold through the night and figured she got about 30 minutes of uninterrupted sleep, and dozed off and on throughout the night. By 1am, she was cold throughout, and the mosquitoes had done their damage.
Sunday morning dawned brightly and Tisha laid out her pants, shoes, and socks to dry (which they mostly did by the afternoon), and then decided to hike back up the creek and retrace her steps. However, her leg was hurting worse than the day before and she found that after about 20 minutes, the pain was unbearable. She returned to her clearing and enjoyed the view. She spent the day thinking the view was beautiful but she wished she was not there, praying for rescuers to find her, thinking about her life, dozing in the sun, drinking water but saving her power bars, called 911 but did not get through, and wondering about search and rescue operations. Tisha wondered if anyone was searching for her, wondered if her car had been stolen from the trailhead which would prevent anyone from knowing she was lost, wondered if Jason was looking for her when she did not call him when she returned to cell service, wondered when air searches could be started, and wondered if there were timelines that were followed on missing persons reports. She saw a helicopter fly over from S to N and when it kept flying, she was mentally devastated. Realizing that she would be staying another night, she was determined to self-rescue or at least make it easier for rescuers to find her. She looked at the pictures on her phone and, seeing two snow-capped mountains both on her phone and from her vantage point, she began to get oriented. She drew out a map of her imagined location in the mud and determined that walking east would put her in the correct direction to locate the Flowers Trail. With a renewed sense of determination, she faced the afternoon storms and then, wet again, bedded down Sunday night and was cold enough by 10pm to start worrying about frostbite. Another sleepless night gave way to a sunny Monday morning.
Tisha started hiking east in an effort to locate the Flowers Trail but, with her leg hurting fiercely, it was slow going. She ate 1/3 of a power bar and filled her water bottle for the hike and hiked for 4-5 hours to reach her previous location upstream. At 2:30pm she called 911 but did not get service, so turned off her phone and put it in her pack. At 3:30pm she went to pull out her phone to try calling 911 and realized it had dropped out of her pack over the last hour of hiking. Exhausted and deeply saddened, she felt like a "sitting duck" and no longer felt the drive to reach Flowers Trail as she would not have her phone to call for help when she reached an area of service and her leg was hurting so badly she believed she could not hike out by herself. Tisha returned to 'her' clearing at about 4pm and proceeded to count the planes and helicopters that flew over; some were close and some she could only hear, but she counted at least 15 flyovers throughout the afternoon. She tried waving to some of them and around 5pm she started planning to spend her third night in the wilderness. She was mentally exhausted, praying that she would last another night, and started to get chilly at 5pm. She hated the sound of airplanes by this time, as she felt they made her wishful for nothing, so she placed her t-shirt across her face to prevent mosquito bites and tried to get warm in the faltering sunshine. She thought about her plan to hike down the river and planned that she would start the trek if rescuers did not come by Wednesday. Then, she heard an airplane; it was closer than any of the others!
Tisha looked up to see an airplane crossing the clearing so she jumped up and down waving the white shirt until the pilot saw her. She jumped up and down out of excitement for at least 10 minutes and packed her bag so that she'd be ready and waiting when rescuers arrived. Not knowing how the process of search and rescue works, or even if the pilot had truly seen her and whether he was civilian or search and rescue, she realized she may be waiting for a while but that because someone saw her, she was sure to be rescued. She had not cried during her entire ordeal for fear of dehydration, but when she saw the plane, she finally broke down into tears of joy. Not long after, she could hear her name being yelled and then she saw two orange shirts and a black shirt. She started running towards rescuers and thought she'd never been so happy to see three men in her entire life! She said her feelings at the time were indescribable and that Steve, Dan, and Matt (a friend) gave her water, a Milky Way, and bug spray. They waited for other search teams to arrive and then began hiking down the trail. She was shoeless by this time, as her shoes were soaked and her adrenaline was high, so she hoped, skipped, and jogged her way down the trail as much as possible. Finally, the group reached the trailhead and she was greeted by search and rescue and friend Jason. She declined medical treatment at the time, just being elated that she was alive, and headed home with her friends. She ate, drank, and tried to sleep but it was a struggle. Her leg began to hurt even more than before, she couldn't sleep as every noise would awaken her, and she was feeling a little under the weather. After calling family, friends, and colleagues, she visited Urgent Care and was treated for dehydration. The past week has made for tough sleeping, and a bout with Giardia led to another trip to Urgent Care for antibiotics but Tisha is back to work, back to life, and has a whole new perspective on life, and hiking! She plans to stick closer to home when hiking alone and is overwhelmed with gratitude to all search and rescue members, everywhere, that help people like her. Thank you to search and rescue!
Summary and photos from the Civil Air Patrol aircrew:
Summary report from Colorado Civil Air Patrol’s IC for this mission, Mike McDonald:
“Mission 10-M-0488A opened at 14:07 local today to assist the Larimer County Sheriff's Office on a search for a missing person. The 25 year old woman was last heard from Saturday when she told a friend she was going hiking. The search started after her vehicle was located near Brown’s Lake Trailhead in the Pingree Park area of Roosevelt National Forest.
The CAP aircrew spotted the subject in the Comanche Peak Wilderness when she began waving a white object at the aircraft. The crew then vectored Larimer County SAR ground teams to her. AFRCC credited Colorado Wing with a mission SAVE.
The mission closed with AFRCC at 22:50 local.”
And now the boring stuff:
Mission timetable with commentary:
13:31 LCSAR first on-call George Janson (L-1\Ops) paged to call Justin Whitesell (IC).
13:33 Justin gives George the briefing about the mission – missing hiker, Tisha, age 25, hiking the Zimmerman Trail on Saturday – she had left a voice mail message on a friend’s phone that it was raining and she was returning to her vehicle – the friends had recently gotten the message and had located her vehicle at the Zimmerman Trailhead and would meet Justin there – Justin and George discuss resource needs (searchers, trackers, dogs) and air support, due to the potential size of the search area, plus the clear weather would make it do-able.
13:49 Contact AFRCC to task CAP for assist to LCSO – gave them Justin as IC and that he was already enroute, so gave them the Sheriff’s Dispatch phone number as contact for him.
13:55 Task LCSAR In-town Coordinator (ITC) for Team resources.
14:05 Contact LCSO Dispatch to advise them that AFRCC would call them.
16:30~ L-1 arrival at trailhead -- IC Justin is hiking the trail, looking for footprints -- he'd met the RPs, her friends Matt and Jason, who subsequently went back to town for pictures of Tisha -- gave Ops time to locate best 800DTR signal area to park the command and communication trailer -- good 800DTR coverage, though fringe for VHF to Dispatch -- cordon off the vehicle, and get maps out.
17:00~ Team arrives, they get trailer situated and in service, get themselves ready.
17:10 Justin has found footprints at 13T 0438706 4494020 continues to follow but soon loses them.
17:20~ Ops asks Dispatch to check on ETA of CAP airplane (we're burnin' daylight).
17:25 Justin sees something 'unusual' on NW side of Crown Point, moving to better position to view it.
17:30 Dispatch radios ETE of CAP aircraft is 30 minutes.
17:30~ gather Team for briefing.
18:00~ RPs return with photos but no scent article -- while waiting for assignments Team members begin asking them questions.
17:50-18:20 field assignments given out and teams depart (7 teams of 2; 4 having dogs, and Team 6 having Matt accompany them).
18:06 CAP569 reports on scene – IC Justin gives them initial tasking to circle vicinity of Crown Point (we hear the airplane, but no one sees it yet).
18:25 Justin discerns the 'unusual item' to be a solo elk basking in the swath of sunlight; he begins his return to ICP.
18:25 Ops gives CAP569 their search area boundaries [west Big South drainage; south North Fork drainage\RMNP boundary; east Stove Prairie road; north Crown Point road] -- crew uses Gazetteer to locate these boundaries and in the process discovers they are orbiting Comanche Peak not Crown Point.
18:40~ Ops gives CAP569 lat-lon coordinates for ICP: N40d 36.591m W105d 45.414m 10,660ft elevation
18:55 CAP569 flies over ICP and begins expanding circle\spiral search pattern.
18:58 CAP569 reports seeing single person in a small clearing waving something white -- subsequent orbiting determines person is female, and ultimately we get coordinates N40d 35.72m W105d 45.17m -- Ops converts them to UTM and radios to all teams -- Justin and Team 6 are the closest with Team 3 also enroute there.
19:35 Team 6 arrival at Tisha's location -- she's OK, in good spirits and very happy to see the field teams.
19:38 CAP569 departs area to return to airport
19:58 group (T6,T3,IC) with Tisha heads out for the ICP.
20:23 group plus Tisha have regained the Zimmerman Trail.
20:38 sunset
20:45 group plus Tisha are arrival at ICP -- last of field teams also arrival at ICP.
20:50 Ops advises Dispatch that subject and all teams are back at ICP and that base is shutting down.
21:00~ last of vehicles departs for home.
Mission duration: 9 hours
Larimer County SAR members: 16
Larimer County SAR hours: 150
Larimer County SAR miles: 1200
LCSO-ES Specialist: Justin Whitesell
LCSAR ITC: Amy Ho
LCSAR SAR Manager: George Janson
CAP members: 4
Definitions:
AFRCC – Air Force Rescue Coordination Center – resource tasking for inland SAR missions
Ops – Operations Section Chief – part of the national Incident Command System (ICS)
IC – Incident Commander – has overall responsibility for managing the SAR mission
800DTR – digital trunked radio system
VHF – very high frequency radio system
ETA – estimated time of arrival (actual time on a clock)
ETE – estimated time enroute (travel duration)
local – local time zone, in this case Mountain Daylight Time
RP – reporting party
June 27, 2010 (Sunday) - Male Subject with Broken Ankle - Rawah Wilderness
Rawah Lake #2, Grassy Pass, CO. Male with a Broken Ankle
17:10: While the team was active on the Horsetooth Falls Rescue, S-17 received notification of another mission in the Rawahs from dispatch. Dispatch had been notified by the initial reporting party (RP), calling from Minnesota, that a 20 year old male had broken his ankle in the Rawahs. The initial RP provided a satellite phone number to a subsequent RP that was in the area of Grassy Pass. Dispatch was able to make contact with the RP at Grassy Pass and learned that the injured party was actually located at the southern end of Rawah Lake #2. Later attempts by dispatch to reach the RP at Grassy Pass failed.
Mission was passed from S-17 and L-1, to O-2 and L-2.
It was estimated that it would take SAR resources 5 to 6 hours to arrive on scene at the location of the subject. Due to this estimate and approaching darkness O-2 began calling for a medical helicopter to fly in and transport the injured male. However, each of the local area medical helicopters declined, unable to land without ground contact at the scene. The other option considered was ridding the subject out on horseback to the trailhead. Yet, both of these options would require the injured man to remain at his location overnight.
Arrangements were made for six SAR team members to respond and hike-in once the Horsetooth Falls rescue was complete. Truck 11 would be used since Truck 10 was on scene at Horsetooth and would need to wait for all rescue equipment to be reloaded. Emergency Services also made available for team use the Suburban. It was projected that the team would arrive at the lake between midnight and 1 am and set up an landing zone for a helicopter in the morning. Meanwhile, O-2 was able to reach Saint Anthony’s Hospital in Denver and their helicopter was willing to fly and land at the coordinates provided earlier by S-17 without the aid of ground support. The St. Anthony’s helicopter picked up the patient about 19:55 and transported him back to Poudre Valley Hospital by 20:30. An all team priority page was sent through dispatch at 20:25 to the six responding team members to stand-down.
Duration: 3.5 hours
Miles to Base: 80
SAR miles: 60
6 LCSAR Resources
2 Larimer Emergency Services: Johnston, & Moiser
2 LCSAR SAR managers: George J. & Robin A.
June 16, 2010 (Wednesday) - Missing Girl & ??Grandpa?? - Grey Rock
VERIZON saves the day again!
15:17 we received a SAR manager page to call O-2 (Dave Mosier) reference a search on Grey Rock. I took the call to cover for the Sar manager on duty that did not receive the page. O-2 and myself gathered information about a Girl and her “Grandfather” that were up on top of Grey rock and on the way down, they got off trail and walked around for 2 hours before finding cell coverage and calling 911. The call came in to Ft. Collins PD and it plotted them near Grey Rock on the NE side. Ft. Collins PD turned it over to the Sheriff Dispatch. Often calls from up in the mountains are routed to the nearest cell site and it will send it to the nearest dispatch center. Sometimes they hit Ft. Collins PD, Loveland PD, Sheriff Dispatch or even Cheyenne or Greeley! The subjects had very limited cell coverage so the conversation was garbled and limited information was gathered from the call. They were told to stay put and we would come and find them. They were not able to contact them again.
We just worked a mission on Grey Rock last week with 5 girls that were lost up there. The 911 plot was way off and not even close to Grey Rock. This happens often when the cell phones are from “certain providers” and only have access to one cell tower. Many providers rely on triangulation from multiple cell towers to calculate the “approximate” location of the phone. When they can only hit one tower they can’t triangulate so they are way off, and it serves very little purpose on a search. This being said, when we get a plot that’s close to where we “think” they might be, we get suspicious as to whether it’s right or not. In research we’ve found that VERIZON PHONES usually transmit GPS (Global Positioning System) data from the phone itself and sends it along with the 911 call. This means we have a much better chance of it being accurate or at least telling us a ball park area of where the phone might be.
I decided to text the subject, asking what phone carrier they had. I’m sure this seemed odd to them since they were lost, tired and wondering if they were going to have to spend the night… and we’re asking what cell phone provider they had?! Well, it paid off because they text back confirming that they had VERIZON and this helped us focus more on the plotted location and less on the rest of the area around Grey Rock. We simply plotted it on the map and told our first few teams the area of focus.
We had 7 teams in all covering the main area and the other trails going up Grey Rock. We had 2 dog teams, 4 hasty teams, a Radio Relay team and a back up team heading up to get in the area for assignments if the plot ended up not being right.
We text more information to the subjects and answered questions from them. They were down to 1 bar of power on their cell phone battery. Texting was the best way to communicate because it takes less battery and it will send or receive text when they finally get coverage instead of attempting voice calls every 5 minutes only to have no coverage. This eats up battery power fast.
The first team was in the field at 16:45 and the last team arrived and fielded at 17:29. All teams were using horns and whistles for attraction of the subject.
We received a text from the subject asking, “What happens if it gets dark?” We replied saying, “We search all night long! Listen for Horns, yelling and whistles”. At around 18:00 we received a text from them saying, “Do they know how to find us? Our side of the Mountain is shady, we just heard a horn!” Team 1 report hearing them screaming back at their horn blast! Team 1, 2 and Dog team 1 zoom in on the screams and are in contact with them at 18:14 and they were in good shape.
All teams were contacted and told to return to base or wait to assist in the walk out of the subjects. Everyone was back in base around 19:45. See attached photos of subjects, rescuers, and subject's dog.
SAR manager Dave Hake
Resources:
LCSAR members: 17 including ITC
ES personnel: 1
Miles driven: 640
Hours: 96
June 9, 2010 - Grey Rock - 5 Missing Females
14:51 Paged for 5 lost females, ages in the 19 to 20 year old range.
They made a cell phone call to 911 stating that they were hiking the Grey Rock Meadows Trail and were lost. They had gotten off trail and did not know where they were. Due to the older cell phones used, we were not able to establish a location via that method. Cell phone contact with them was intermittant.
Hasty teams were sent up the Meadows Trail and summit trail. They were found on the west side off of the trail.
Everyone was OK.
May 30 & 31, 2010 (Saturday) - Assist LC Dive Lower Poudre River - Missing Male Fell Off Inner Tube
Assist to Larimer County Dive Team in search for missing person who fell off inner tube in Cache La Poudre River
14:57, We were requested to assist the Dive Team in locating a 25 to 26 year old male who was last seen floating unconscious in the river near “Picnic Rock” along the Cache La Poudre River. The Dive team had already been on scene searching in, and alongside the river. They requested our team to search the shorelines downstream. We deployed 10 teams made up of two and three person teams. The teams searched 6 miles of river downstream from where he was last seen. Many sections were covered multiple times by multiple teams. The search was suspended around 20:00 and resources were ordered for 2nd operational period that will start in the morning.
Second Operational period:
May 31, 2010 Continued assist to Dive team.
08:30, 20 SAR members and 3 search dogs (one water certified) were deployed to search the shorelines from the Point Last Seen to an extended search area now reaching over 9 miles downstream. Some high potential areas were covered multiple times without any luck in finding the subject. Clues were called in and documented for follow up by the dive team members. The river is running extremely high this time of year.
16:20 the search was suspended until more clues are uncovered.
SAR manager Dave Hake
Resources:
LCSAR members: 44 (total both days including SARM and ITC)
ES personnel: 4 each day
Other LCSO deputies: 3 (est.)
Miles driven: 400
Hours: 290
May 22, 2010 (Saturday) - Tunnel #1 Highway 6, Golden, CO. Missing Male - Assist Alpine Rescue Team
Friday, May 21, 2010 – Tunnel #1 Highway 6, Golden, CO. Missing Male - Assist Alpine Rescue Team 17:00 Colorado Search and Rescue Board, (CSRB) requested additional resources to assist Alpine Rescue Team, on May 22, in a technical search of the vertical cliffs adjacent to tunnel number one for a mission 20 year old male. LCSAR tech team located the missing male about 1 pm. According to Jefferson County Sheriff's Office the young man died from a fall. LCSAR team was released and returned to the county about 15:00.
Duration: 22 hours
Miles to Location: 75
SAR miles: 165
4 LCSAR Lee L., Todd W., Mike E., Denise A.
ITC: Dan F.
Larimer Emergency Services: Simons
LCSAR SAR managers: Robin A
Detailed Report from Lee L.
4 LCSAR members were sent to aid Alpine Rescue for a missing hiker in Clear Creek Canyon, near Tunnel 1. The request was for searchers that could perform technical vertical search.
Arrived on scene at ~8:40, briefing was to start at 9 AM. The subject was last seen the evening of May 20th around 6 PM scrambling in an area near Tunnel 1. Alpine had performed a night search on Thursday and the second operational period search on Friday for a live subject. During Friday's search a SARDOC dog had repeated indications in the area where Saturday's search was to occur. The area had mixed cliff bands and very heavy brush. During Friday's search operations a helicopter searched the area upwards to 20x's, they had said.
Saturday's search area was to be a steep/cliffy area approximately 1000 feet wide by 400 vertical feet. The area was to be searched by approximately 40 searchers from Alpine, RMR, El Paso, Arapahoe, Summit, and LCSAR. The area was divided into 3 divisions. The East division contained the large cliffs and some steep terrain. The Central Division (where LCSAR) was placed contained mostly small rock bands and thick scrub brush. The West Division was steep non-technical terrain. The Central Division was where the SARDOC dog had indicated that the subject mostly was.The Central Division was divided into 3 teams, LCSAR was assigned the least technical terrain below the PLS. All teams moved through the area with no sign of the subject. The area was heavily "infested" with rattlesnakes. LCSAR members observed at least 5 snakes, one being stepped on. Throughout the search snake sightings occurred every 15 minutes or so.
At the base of the initial search area was an aqueduct. The area from the aqueduct to the river was to be searched using a line search, with people spaced every 10 feet. The line would move from the aqueduct to the river, climb back up, and move west and repeat. After the first 2 line searches, the group moved below a large cliff band, and into the area where the SARDOC dog had shown the greatest interest. The area was very thick with underbrush was steep enough that Operations thought rappelling would simplify the searching.
While rapping down, Todd Westfall found a shoe that was new and matched the subjects shoe size. Immediately after, Todd located the subjects green shirt that he had been carrying. A team that had circled into the area then indicated they had found the subject approximately 40 linear feet from Todd, in Todd's fall line in heavy brush.
Looking at Todd's fall line, I estimated that the subject fell upwards to 150 feet vertical feet (free) before impacting approximately where Todd fond the shoe and shirt.
LCSAR was released at approximately 1:30 and returned to County with all 4 members participating in the BASART final.
May 16, 2010 (Sunday) - Rocky Mountain National Park Standbye - Wild Basin Carry Out
This is an update regarding the "non-mission" at RMNP today. The initial info did not go out by page, but many of the BASARTS were on standby to go assist with a carryout. Some info was aired on the radio. So this e-mail will give all of you a little more info.
ES paged the SAR manager about 1645 hours, and said that RMNP was inquiring about a minimum of 15 SAR to help with a carryout of about 4-5 miles from the Wild Basin area, for a subject a compression back fracture. Our team had just returned from a field session with the BASARTS, most of whom were at the cache. So the BASARTS were put on standby for a response, until we confirmed that RMNP wanted us to respond. ES was still waiting for RMNP to confirm. An hour later, RMNP had not called back to confirm whether they wanted LCSAR to respond (and that is why a page was not sent out team-wide).
When RMNP did call back, they said they had conflicting info that the subject was now ambulatory, up, and walking out. So RMNP did not want us to respond until they could get a ranger in to the subject to confirm the status. RMNP said they might task us for the morning, if indeed a carryout was required.
About 2000 hours, ES contacted me and said he heard back from RMNP. They reported that the subject was out of the field, and no response would be needed. ES did not confirm the subject's condition. But given the rather expedited return to the trailhead by the subject, I am guessing there was no back fracture.
A big thanks to the BASART members who expressed a willingness to help RMNP after spending a day at practice! This was their last field session, and I think they are ready to GO!
Allen W. - - SAR manager
May 16, 2010 (Sunday) - Pole Hill - MVA Runaway
"You can run, but you can't hide".
About 1330 hours on May 16, 2010, a male rolled his vehicle near Estes Park, between Pole Hill and Hell's Canyon. It is reported he was drunk. Rather than get caught, he decided to run---into the woods. Deputies searched for the subject, and after about 90 minutes contacted ES to inquire about SAR dogs trailing the subject.
About 1500 hours ES contacted the SAR manager, who began making initial contacts for a dog, handler and navigator to respond to the scene of the MVA. The subject left the scene injured, bleeding from the head and neck. There was a concern the subject might get into the woods, and collapse, thus requiring a carryout by the SAR team. Initially, however, the dog team would be accompanied by a deputy, and try to locate the subject, before asking the rest of the SAR team to respond.
While the dog team was en route, the subject was located by deputies and arrested about 1600 hours. No other LCSAR resources were needed.
Allen W. - - SAR manager
Resources:
LCSAR members: 4 (including SARM and ITC)
ES personnel: 1
Other LCSO deputies: 3 (est.)
Miles driven: 10
Hours: 4
May 5, 2010 (Wednesday) - Boulder County Assist in Allenspark - Missing Male
Boulder County requested SAR resources to assist in searching for a missing 42 year old male, last seen in the Allenspark area. Missing male may be suffering from seizures. Subject had been hiking with a group but choose to stop and rest while the group hiked on. When the group returned to his location later he was not there. They searched the area for a while then returned to Golden and called for help around 22:00. Firefighters and members of Rocky Mountain Rescue Group responded and searched through the night. Around 02:00 Boulder County ES requested assistance from LCSAR for that morning. LCSAR resources arrived to on scene at 07:00. While teams were being briefed for the days search the subject made his way to the trailhead. Teams were stood down and back in route to Larimer short after.
Duration: hours 6 hours
Miles to Location: 60
SAR miles: 600
10 LCSAR Resources: Including 2 SARDOC, 2 SARDOC Support and 2 RMT
3 Larimer Emergency services: Whitesell
ITC: Jake U.
1 LCSAR SAR managers: Robin A.
May 2, 2010 (Sunday) - Horsetooth Mountain Park - Injured Bicyclist
The following is a brief summary of the mission of May 2, 2010 at Horsetooth Mountain Park:
May 2, 2010, 1451 hours: page was received by the SAR team to respond to "Towers Gate off of Shoreline" for an injured bicyclist. Coincidentally, at that moment, many of the SAR members (and rescue rated members in particular) were at a training at the SAR cache, working with our new incoming group of SAR member recruits. Therefore, this resulted in a prompt response of personnel as well as the SAR team truck.
While en route, the SAR team was advised to respond to Horsetooth Mountain Park, instead of Shoreline. (For future reference for the SAR team, Shoreline is the road about 1/2 mile East of the Horsetooth Mountain Park parking area....and requests to respond to Shoreline have been more frequent, so now would a good time for SAR members to look it up on their maps). Upon arrival at Horsetooth, the park rangers advised a mountain biker, in his 30's, had fallen and broken his leg. The exact location was not immediately known, but other park rangers were able to drive SAR personnel to the scene.
The park ranger served as Incident Commander and the SAR manager was to serve as Operations. ES personnel were available to serve as Logistics if needed. SAR members and equipment were loaded in the back of pickups of the park rangers and shuttled to the location nearest the cyclist---approximate 1/4 miles from the road. The patient was conscious and responsive and stable. Patient was packaged into the litter and trail carried to the park ranger vehicle for transport to the trailhead to the waiting ambulance.
As a side note, the cyclist apparently routinely biked with several doctors. But ironically on this occasion, the doctors were not with him. It is reported that a passing hiker located the fallen cyclist and called 911.
After the patient was transported to the hospital, a debriefing occurred. The new incoming seasonal rangers for the park were at Horsetooth at this same time, and therefore were present at incident base during the rescue and participated in the debriefing.
1709 hours, all SAR units and other agencies were clear of the scene.
Allen W., SAR Manager
Agencies responding:
LCSAR - 23 members
ES - 2
PFA - 3
Parks units - 6
PVH ambulance - 3
April 20, 2010 (Tuesday) - Flowers Road - Injured Horse Rider
At 15:41 we received a page to respond direct to Flowers Road to assist in a carry out of an injured horse rider. We were stood down on the way up because they had enough folks on scene to move the subject to a location for Northern Colorado Med Evac to pick the subject up.
LCSAR Members: 10
SAR Manager: 1 - Dave Hake
ES member: 1 - Kevin Johnston
Hours: 10
Miles: 150
April 7, 2010 (Wednesday) - Estes Park - Missing Male
Tom and Sue had traveled from their home in Colorado Springs to the Fawn Valley Inn in Estes Park to spend several days celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. The night before they were due to leave they had a bit of a tiff; she went upstairs and he went for a walk -- it was approximately 22:00 on Tuesday. About an hour later Sue came downstairs and was unable to find Tom either in their unit or anywhere in the Inn's public areas. She walked and drove around the local area for a few hours without success in finding Tom. Ultimately, as the weather was shifting to worse she called 911. EPPD dispatched an officer to meet with Sue, and subsequently asked that LCSO-ES be notified. At 02:31 Wednesday LCSO Dispatch received the call, and first-on-call Tony Simons took the report. After talking with Sue, Tony had Tom's physical description, knew that their vehicle was still at the Inn, that Tom does not go to bars, did not have his cell phone or wallet or glasses, was dressed in a bright Seattle Seahawks jacket, blue jeans and tan hiking boots and was not carrying anything when he left. Tony also confirmed that a BOLO had been sent to the surrounding agencies, that an LCSO deputy was responding (who was diverted to a different 911 call and was unable to assist us), that Victim's Advocates had been requested, that the area hospitals had been checked and at 03:07 he had the LCSAR Duty SAR Manager, George Janson, paged.
In addition to the usual lost person information that Tony and George discussed, Tony added that Tom had a medical condition -- electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome (EHS)
Tony and I agreed upon an all-Team response of searchers, trackers and dogs, and to have a non-emergent direct response to a staging area in the parking lot of the Fall River Visitor's Center, which was near the Fawn Valley Inn (which has a very small parking area). While I was on the phone with Tony, a page from SARM trainee Brian Walsh reminded me that, as part of his learning, Brian was supposed to make the initial contact with ES -- oops! Fortunately, Brian was at that moment covering for the on-duty ITC, who was unavailable that evening, and with work commitments for the day precluding him from responding to the scene as SARM trainee, we agreed that he should remain as the ITC for this mission. The Team page went out at 03:56, also requesting that responders keep an eye out for the subject during their drive to the staging area. By now, weather reports from Dispatch and EPPD told of wind-blown snowfall and icy roads throughout the canyon and in the Estes area, ultimately dropping approximately an inch of snow. Springtime in the Rockies, land of one season -- ya' gotta' love it!
Eleven members with two dogs responded: Robin Anderson with Toss, Robyn Bond, Scott Evans, Dave Followill, Jeff Grotenhuis, Jose Negron, Estelle Purvis with Thunder, Larry Sanders, Marc Smith, Todd Westfall with Truck 10 and trailer, and Gilbert Yoh. Due to a morning battle with Montezuma the SAR Manager was a tad behind schedule, arriving at the staging area at 06:04. Our assignment was to search the countryside from the Inn upstream toward RMNP, while EPPD officers and EPFD personnel were driving the area roads. At about 06:30, just as we were getting ready to relocate to a parking area closer to our starting point, we heard radio traffic indicating that the morning patrol at RMNP might have encountered our missing subject. The investigating EPPD officer drove to the find site to meet with the RMNP ranger and confirmed that yes, this person was Tom, our missing subject. Fortunately, other than being chill, Tom was none the worse for his night out, though the EPPD officer did take Tom to the hospital for a checkup. Once Tony knew that our subject had been found and was OK, at 06:50 he had Dispatch send out the stand-down page. The snow had stopped, the wind was moderating, the Sun was peeking through the clouds and the ice had begun to melt off the roads as we loaded up and headed for home.
As of the time of writing this report we have no other information about Tom's journey, nor if he kept walking or huddled under some sort of shelter, etc. Shown below is a Google Earth map depicting a possible path Tom could have taken -- no lights, no electricity, no developments, no electromagnetic fields -- about 2.7 miles and 1000 feet of elevation gain during the snowy 8 hours he was away from the Inn.
Mission duration: 5 hours
Larimer County SAR members: 13
Larimer County SAR hours: 65
Larimer County SAR miles: 900
LCSO-ES Specialist: Tony Simons
LCSAR ITC: Brian Walsh
LCSAR SAR Manager: George Janson
EPPD officers: at least 3
EPFD personnel: at least 10
RMNP rangers: at least 1
Saturday, April 3, 2010 – Tuesday, April 6, 2010 -- Wednesday, April 7, 2010 Greeley, CO. Missing Child
Dog resources initially requested by the city of Greeley’s Emergency Manager to assist with the search for Kayleah Wilson.
Duration: 32 hours
Miles to Location: 75
SAR miles: 750
5 LCSAR (SARDOC) Search dog teams; Estelle P./Thunder, Robin A./Toss, Jaynie Z./Lakota, Dan F./Trace, Mike E./Merlin
Weld County Emergency manager: Mr. Roudisill
Center for missing & Exploited Children: Mr. Schmictt & Mr. Baca
Greeley K9 officer: Kenney
FBI agent Kleckner
3 Larimer Emergency services: Johnston, Whitesell, Simons
2 LCSAR SAR managers: Robin A. & George J.
March 6, 2010 (Saturday) - Boulder County - Assist with Grid Search at Plane Crash Site
2025 3/4/2120 LCSAR team was paged: "RMRG (Boulder) is requesting grid searchers for Saturday morning. See email and reply to it if available. Dave H.".
This mission was a coordinated effort by multiple organizations to clear a Boulder County open space of debris from the plane collision that occurred on February 6, 2010.
Additional details reported by 9NEWS
Crash sites were separated from each other by a ridge line. The debris field was initially suspected to be scattered over several miles. NTSB authorities were needing further information on how and why the collision occurred. The recovery of missing aircraft electronics and controls would be critical information to the on-going investigation by NTSB. The most important aircraft item to be located was a 12x12 "TV screen" from the Cirrus SR20 plane. This is considered the "black box" for that type of aircraft. It was also important that any remaining bio-hazard in the search area be recovered from the open space. The Boulder County open space was closed to the public since the accident. The recovery of the human remains and aircraft debris would allow the Boulder County open space to be re-opened to the public.
Most of the human remains and aircraft debris were recovered from the search area. Although the "TV screen" was not one of those items, some important electronics were located. One item was the altimeter from one of the aircraft. This would potentially provide the altitude at which the collision occurred. Many other fiberglass pieces were recovered. Due to paint transfer on some of these items, the NTSB may be able to better determine the specifics of the accident. Multiple bio-hazard articles were recovered from the search area. Any suspected bio-hazard was identified and confirmed by the Boulder County Coroner.
All north facing slopes still contained approximately 8-12 inches of snow. After the snow has melted, it is possible that further searching of this area may result in additional debris recovered.
Hours: 19 hours
Miles driven: 90 miles
LCSAR Members: 3 (2 in field)
Emergency Services personnel: 1
Other agencies involved (~75 total personnel): NTSB, RMRG, LEU, Boulder County Coroner Office, Boulder count Sheriff Office, Fire Management (Sheriff's office of Boulder County), City of Boulder Open Space Mountain Park Rangers, Front Range Rescue Dogs, Arapaho Rescue Patrol, and the Boulder County Jail.
February 21, 2010 (Sunday) - Somewhere in Larimer County - Lost Keys
12:10 contacted by one of our team members (John Lee) who reported a missing set of keys. The keys were last seen entering his pocket as he walked towards a field of snow. They were discovered missing when he approached his vehicle. He conducted a hasty search by following his tracks. Thank goodness he paid attention during Tracking training or I don't think he would have been able to see his tracks in the 8 inches of new snow that we just received. With multiple attempts he was unable to locate them. He started gathering resources of his own from local friends and they begun a grid search of the area. He finally decided to contact Dave Hake (a SAR Manager) to get more resources. He was requesting a metal detector and I suggested I put a page out to the team with his request. I also requested a Search Dog team that had experience in conducting "Evidence Searches" for articles in an area. Two Dog teams contacted John. Robyn Bond was responding with her dog Taiya Code 1 (without Lights and Siren... although it was important to find those keys I didn't feel it needed to be an Emergency response) and Jayne Zmijewski and Lakota were on stand-by if the weather cleared up. Jayne told the RP that he should minimize the number of people walking around the PLS to give the Dogs a better chance of finding the keys. When John called in his grid searchers one of them stepped on his keys while returning to base. All resources were stood down.
Mission duration: 2 hours
Larimer County SAR members: 4
Larimer County SAR hours: 3
Larimer County SAR miles: 10
LCSAR ITC: John Lee (also Reporting Party)
LCSAR SAR Manager (L1): Dave Hake
PS: This search was not sanctioned or approved by Larimer County Sheriff Department. Zero tax dollars were spent on this search. No, we don't normally do call outs for lost keys... Since John is one of our members we like helping our fellow members and it's good practice for the Dog teams.... but you can bet we'll never let him live it down ;-)
February 18, 2010 (Thursday) - Horsetooth Mountain Park - Lost Hiker
17:18 the SAR manager group received a page for the on call sar manager to call O-3 reference a search for a lost individual in Horsetooth Reservoir/Horsetooth Mountain Park area. Larimer 1 (L1) called and found out that the Parks units had been working on the mission for a couple hours and wanted to incorporate the SAR team since it was going to be dark soon. We did not have the name, age or sex of the individual yet but O-3 thought it would be best to get the team rolling as soon as possible to take advantage of daylight that was left. We would collect more information at staging. L-1 paged out for the In Town Coordinator to contact him to get resources started. By the time the page was ready to go out to the team, we heard radio traffic that the Rangers had located the subject and we could stand down. A stand down page was sent at 17:30.
Reported By Dave Hake L-1
January 9, 2010 (Saturday) - Horsetooth Mountain Park - Assist with Subject Having Heart Attack
LCSAR was paged to respond Code 3 to assist with a subject who was having a heart attack somewhere on the trail to Horsetooth Mountain. As members were arriving on scene, medical personnel already on-scene, who had been performing CPR, pronounced the subject deceased. A medi-vac helicopter had also just landed. LCSAR Personnel, as well as other agencies who responded, packaged the body and carried it to the helicopter to be flown to the trailhead parking area where the coroner was waiting. Great multi-agency cooperation including Larimer County Parks, Poudre Fire Authority, Poudre Valley Ambulance, and Larimer County Sheriff's Emergency Services. -Fink
Mission Report - Horsetooth Mountain Park/Cardiac Arrest
1240 Hours: The SAR team was paged to respond to Horsetooth Mountain Park for a 52 yoa male who was having an apparent heart attack. The subject was on the Horsetooth Trail, approximately 1/2 the distance from the trailhead to Horsetooth Rock. The first SAR units and emergency services arrived at the trailhead at approximately 1255 hours. PFA Brush 9 and Parks units were already at the trailhead and were starting up the service road with some gear. It was confirmed with Brush 9 they had a litter onboard. As of this time, no SAR member was responding with the SAR truck, and therefore it decided to have all SAR units respond direct and not divert anyone to pick up the SAR truck.
ES (S17) was the SAR Group Supervisor and a PFA personnel was Incident Command. Due to low initial SAR member response, the SAR manager on scene went into the field with other members that initially responded.
Park Rangers were the first personnel to arrive on scene with the subject. The subject had been hiking with his daughter, and was visiting from Indiana. Reports are the subject began to experience chest pain, the daughter called 911, and the subject collapsed. The daughter was performing CPR on the subject when Parks Rangers arrived. Parks Rangers and EMS personnel continued CPR until they were advised to discontinue ALS. The subject was then carried out approximately 1/2 mile, by Parks, EMS, PFA and SAR members, to a waiting med evac helicopter. The helicopter flew the subject to the trailhead where the helicopter was met by the coroner who pronounced the subject dead.
Additional information is reported by the Coloradoan newspaper, at the following link: Heart Attack Horsetooth - Coloradoan
Multiple pages were sent to the SAR team for additional resources, due to initial low response. By the time the team was stood down, 13 SAR members had responded to the park.
As a side note, while the SAR team was finishing up the recovery, information was relayed to the team through sheriff dispatch, that there had been an avalanche on Cameron Pass. However, it was reported that Diamond Peaks Ski Patrol was on scene or near the slide, and were going to assess whether anyone was caught in the slide before the SAR team would be asked to respond, and therefore LCSAR remained on standby.
1520 hours: SAR units cleared the scene at Horsetooth Mountain Park.
Hours: 36.40 hours
Miles: 200 miles
LCSAR Members: 14 (13 in field plus ITC)
Emergency Services personnel: 2
Other agencies involved:
County Park Rangers & personnel: 5+
PFA: 6+
PVH ambulance service: 3+
Med Evac helicopter: 2+
Allen W., SAR Manager
