CoCo SAR News

Although our team actually passed the last of the three required field tests—wilderness search, technical rock rescue, and snow and ice—this past March, press releases are just now going out about Coconino County Sheriff's Search and Rescue team's accreditation.

From a recent media release from the office of Sheriff Bill Pribil:

During the June meeting of the International Mountain Rescue Association (MRA), held in Eagle Colorado, the Coconino County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Technical Rescue Team received full accreditation as a certified member of MRA. The MRA was established in 1959 at Timberline Lodge at Mount Hood, Oregon, making it the oldest Search and Rescue association in the United States.

The MRA is an organization of teams dedicated to saving lives through rescue and mountain safety education. The goal of MRA is to improve the quality, availability, and safety of mountain search and rescue. With over ninety government authorized units, the MRA has grown to become the critical mountain search and rescue resource in the United States.

The highly respected Mountain Rescue Association accredits teams involved in mountain rescue and has very high standards for performance in the areas of wilderness search, technical rock rescue, and snow and ice rescue. A team applying for full accreditation must pass an evaluation in each of those disciplines. Arizona lies within the Mountain Rescue Association’s Desert Mountain Region along with the state of Nevada. Within the Desert Mountain Region there are only three other fully accredited teams including the Southern Arizona Rescue Association, Central Arizona Mountain Rescue Association, and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Search and Rescue Unit.
 
On March 6th and 7th the Coconino County Sheriff’s Technical Rescue Team completed the Snow and Ice accreditation exam. The team was evaluated on winter rescue techniques. The evaluation included a field exercise in which an avalanche with three victims was simulated. The team was observed in the field by evaluators from the Southern Arizona Rescue Association, Central Arizona Mountain Rescue Association, and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The team's knowledge of over the snow travel, snow anchors, avalanche safety, winter survival techniques, winter rescue pre-plans, wilderness medical considerations and patient transport, and winter rescue equipment use was tested in the scenario.

With this last of three evaluations completed the Coconino County Sheriff’s Technical Rescue Team achieved accreditation in the three disciplines required for full accreditation.  The Wilderness Search accreditation was passed in August 2010 and the Technical Rock Rescue accreditation was passed in October 2010.  Coconino County Sheriff Bill Pribil said, “The Sheriff’s Office and the residents of Coconino County are truly blessed to have more than one hundred dedicated volunteers who spend countless hours training on an annual basis and who are willing to place themselves in harms way by venturing into hazardous terrain or inclement weather conditions to help there fellow man or woman.”

In other CoCo SAR news...

Yesterday, as I was listening to the scanner, I heard about an injured hiker on Mt. Elden. At first, SAR was put on standby by Flagstaff Fire Department, who were the first on scene and taking over incident command.

Once Flag Fire personnel and Guardian medics reached the patient, who'd suffered a head wound with loss of consciousness on the Elden Lookout Trail, and packaged her in a litter, they did request SAR assistance. Team members responded directly to the trailhead and hiked up to rendezvous with the evacuation team already on their way down, providing extra hands to relieve those who needed a break on the rugged carry-out. (I was unable to respond due to other commitments.)

Also, on July 27th, SAR volunteers, myself included, will be giving a P-SAR (preventative search and rescue) presentation at Pinewood Camp. We'll be working with kids ranging in age from 4 to 14 and will give them an introduction to SAR (what it's all about), teach them how to NOT get lost, what to do if they do get lost, basic map and compass use, and some hands-on show-and-tell about equipment (the ten essentials). We'll make the three-hour program as interactive as possible and are currently working on a plan for the afternoon.

Coconino County SAR members also gave a presentation on July 20th at a local church.

I'm told that interviews for prospective team members will begin shortly. Following interviews, new volunteers will take part in the Basic Search and Rescue Academy beginning this September, learning skills such as map and compass, GPS navigation, man-tracking, ATV operation, backcountry preparedness and safety, ICS (the Incident Command System) and more. Upon completion of the academy, new members will be put on the call-out roster and be able to respond to missions and ongoing training. If you're interested in becoming a search and rescue volunteer with Coconino County, you can fill out an application with the sheriff's department.

Way Over The Edge -- A Technical Recovery Mission

Horseshoe Bend (Colorado River) -- the site of our mission

Do you know how heavy 900 feet of half-inch rope is?

Neither do I, exactly. At least, not in actual pounds. But I've felt how heavy it is as I've tried to belay someone on the end of it. Actually, at the point where a stronger teammate took over, when my arms were starting to shake and the sweat was dripping off my chin—it was about 100 degrees out there under the desert sun—there was far less than 900 feet of rope already over the edge.

When my hands were free of the tandem prusik belay, I moved over to the main line and attached another rope to the 600-footer we were quickly using up (I tied the standard double fisherman's knot to join the two) and then maneuvered through the knot-passing process when the time came.

And down, down, down our teammate went over the edge of the 1,100-foot cliff at Horseshoe Bend, retrieving evidence. That had been our assignment for the day: to retrieve some items that had been spotted from the rim, believed to belong to a missing person. But as that task was being carried out, things changed when our teammate detected something more than just evidence. It was intermittent and faint at first, so down, down, down we lowered him, communicating via radio until he found the human remains.

As physically demanding, hot, and uncomfortable as the task sometimes was for those of us up on top, we knew our teammate, who was on his own below the rim, had the most difficult job of all... in more ways than one. Those of us tending to his lifelines from above frequently commented amongst ourselves about the long, grim task he was faced with.

Originally, the mission was expected to be fairly brief and wrapped up by noon. As it turned out, we didn't get back to Flagstaff until after 9 p.m. But we were glad to help bring closure to that search and that family.

Here are some photos from that day's long technical recovery mission near Page, Arizona...

The tech gear is loaded and ready.

 

An NPS ranger shows my teammate some of the visible evidence below.

 

 

We use the truck as an anchor for the main and belay lines.

Randy works the edge, keeping an eye on our teammate below and communicating with him.

The DPS helicopter drops a cargo net to our teammate for the recovery.

The helicopter moves closer to the cliff and our teammate's location.

Rather than raise Joel back up 900 feet, he's short-hauled to the rim.

In other Coconino County SAR news...

From July 5th: Another find for the SAR dogs

I received this mission report from Cindy, the K9 handler:

"Last night at 2030 hours, the dogs were called out for a search on the San Francisco Peaks off the Weatherford Trail.  We deployed from the center section of the trail, with the assignment of ascending to the summit starting at 2200 hours (appx 10,000'-11,000' elevation). 

"After 3 miles and 1.5 hours of hiking, all 4 of my search dogs started to show alert signals telling me they were working scent.  Each time they came to a specific point in the switchbacks we were hiking during our ascent, they would all begin to work up in elevation off trail then return to the trail.  From this behavior, I was able to inform the strike team that I expected the subjects to be above us directly each time the dogs began to show their alert behaviors. 

"Just another 2 switchbacks up, they all left the trail in a beeline straight up an extremely steep grade, cutting the next switchback entirely, directly to the subjects and gave simultaneous final responses.  Both of the subjects were cold, shivering and wet from the light rain but, after some warming and a change of clothes, they both walked out with our strike team's assistance.  They had no food, water, rain gear and the light they had was from their i-phone."

Two for the SAR Dogs: A Night Search on the San Francisco Peaks

Two very dehydrated hikers were lost with no lights and no other gear and separated from each other. One of them had a cellphone and, luckily, a signal. He finally decided to call for help after hiking ahead of his friend, who could go no further.

They'd come up from the Verde Valley to hike to the summit of Humphreys beginning at 3 p.m., but unbeknownst to them, they were not actually on the Humphreys Trail. Instead, they'd hiked down the Kachina Trail, away from Humphreys. At some point, they decided to go off-trail anyway and up toward a different summit. Eventually, the two turned back when their energy supplies and daylight started to fade quickly.

At about 9:30 p.m., I heard SAR activity on the online scanner, so I knew the call-out was coming. At around 10:00, it did, and I and five other volunteers, including one K9 handler with two search dogs, responded. In three pairs of two, myself with the handler and the two youngest of her four air-scenting golden retrievers, split up per our assignments and headed to our starting locations.

Cindy and I began hiking with the dogs from the trailhead at Snowbowl. Another pair of searchers drove down Schultz Pass Rd., then headed up the Weatherford Trail to intersect with the Kachina Trail from the other end, and our third pair of searchers drove down Friedline Prairie Road to that trailhead, to hike up and intersect the Kachina Trail at another location. So, we were searching from both ends and in the middle. I had a feeling, based on the information our coordinator was given by the one hiker on the phone, that Cindy and I were closest to the subjects' locations.

And that turned out to be the case. About three-quarters of a mile in, the dogs alerted, and we soon had voice contact with the first subject. We found him sitting in the middle of the trail in the dark. After thanking us for coming out, the first thing on his mind was water. He ended up drinking four liters before I eventually hiked him back to the trailhead. Other than being very dehydrated and hungry with a resulting headache, and a bit chilly (so I lent him one of my jackets), he was in good condition and denied needing medical attention. I stayed with him while Cindy and the dogs continued up the trail to try to locate the second hiker.

The young man I was with told me that, for a while, he'd practically carried his friend, who was in worse shape. Finally, the friend had said he had to stop and lay down, while the first guy kept going. At some point, he too had stopped, but the two remained in distant voice contact. That is, until the weaker of the two either fell asleep or passed out for a time. When he awoke, he later said, there was no answer from his friend. That's because his friend (the one I was with) had decided to try to keep going with the light from his phone. He'd made progress for about another 45 minutes before he again had to stop. I believe it was then that he'd called 9-1-1.

DPS helicopters were not available to assist with the search, but a Guardian medical helicopter was able to come out. They didn't locate either hiker with their night vision equipment, but they did help in relaying communications for us once Cindy lost radio contact with me and with our coordinator back at the Snowbowl trailhead.

About a mile or so past where we'd found the first subject, the dogs again alerted, this time heading off trail, up-slope into a gully. In the distance, Cindy heard the jingling of the bells on the dogs' collars increase in speed, meaning they were running. Then she heard a bark, as one of her dogs will often do when alerting at night. Then the dogs returned to her, gave their other alerts—jumped on her—and took off back into the gully as Cindy followed. Soon, as the dogs ran back and forth between the human they'd found and their handler, Cindy made voice contact with the second subject.

Thankfully, after he too was hydrated, the second hiker was able to walk out with Cindy and eventually met me, his friend, and our coordinator back at the trailhead. After all the obligatory information was gathered, some preparedness information given to the two subjects, and the second young man declined medical attention, we all went on our way. I was home at 3a.m.

Thank you to those super SAR dogs for making our job that night easier and faster. Had the second hiker been unresponsive, finding him without the dogs would have been a much longer, more difficult task.

Cindy and her search dogs on another mission.

Searching Under the Desert Sun

I was still searching, looking left and right and sometimes behind me because you can miss things on the backsides of boulders and other terrain features, but I also kept glancing ahead at that enticing little slice of shade in the distance, beneath the large rock overhang. I would head to that slice of shade and stop there for a good rest with the two men searching on either side of me. We all needed it.

I was feeling cooked—broiled, baked, sauteed, and steamed. The air temperature was at least 100 degrees, but the sun reflecting off the sand and rock made it feel even hotter, right through the soles of my boots. I wasn't sunburned, though; the sunblock I'd already reapplied twice was doing its job.

My water and blue Gatorade was hot, and I was now doing more of a shuffle than a walk. Walking in sand in that heat sure saps your energy.

So, have I mentioned it was hot? 🌞

Two members of Yavapai County SAR and I grid search in the desert.

We'd started searching our rather large segment a few hours earlier. We had plotted the UTM coordinates for the four corners of the assigned area then entered them into our GPSes, which were set up to record our tracks. Those tracks would later be downloaded by our coordinator onto his mapping software.

We drove up the highway to the southeast corner of our segment, spread out, and began an east-west grid search, walking about a mile with each pass. The canyon on the western edge of our segment required additional effort to search each time we came to that end. We could see fresh ATV tracks in the sand at the bottom of that canyon, which had been searched from below the day before.

This was the second day of SAR's involvement in the search, with two counties now participating, divided into several field teams. We'd met up at 4 a.m. to drive to the search area and get an early start because of the high desert temperatures. The sun was intense by 8:00. The K9 teams put special vests on their dogs that were soaked with water, and human searchers exchanged some gear for extra water bottles in their packs.

(In case you didn't know, it was hot!)

Shortly before I reached that coveted slice of shade, I overhead the K9 teams on the radio. They'd completed their assignment, and the dogs were spent. Incident Command offered rides back in the Polaris (UTV) for canines and handlers, and they readily accepted.

My search partners, both from Yavapai County, angled in toward my location, and the three of us dropped our packs in unison and ourselves into the shade. We'd completed about half our segment by 11 a.m. Another team reported that they too were taking a shade break before continuing to grid search their segment. We heard the lucky team on the river over the radio, doing their searching by boat and with a spotting scope. (But they deserved that assignment; both had been out here on foot and on ATVs the day before.)

After about 20 minutes of rest, my partners and I resumed our grid pattern, staying alert for the sound of rattling that could come from beneath any bit of brush or shaded bit of ground beneath a rock at any moment. We'd been told to watch out for rattlesnakes and scorpions, but no one reported encountering either one. I'm quite sure they were watching us, though.

There were all sorts of nooks and crannies where rattlesnakes could be hanging out.

Later that day, field teams converged back at base. The subject was (and as far as I know at this time, still is) missing. I can't give any details of the mission, I'm afraid, since it's an ongoing investigation, but I can point you to the brief missing person's report with the young man's photo: Police Search for Missing Page Man.

The search continued the following day, with members of our team's mounted unit responding.

And in other recent Coconino County SAR news...

Last week, I reported about the search in Grand Canyon for the overdue backpacker who'd begun his hike on the North Rim. I'm happy to say that the missing man was found on June 17th, tired and unable to each much but otherwise in good condition and good spirits.

Coco. SAR also recently responded to a call for the carry-out of a hiker who'd fractured her ankle near the saddle on the Humphreys Trail. Four search and rescue volunteers went up to Snowbowl (ski area), where a fire engine and an ambulance were already there. Two firemen and three personnel from Guardian had been deployed via a Snowbowl UTV up one of the ski runs to the base of a steep route that eventually connects with the Humphreys Trail at 11,400 feet. (We use this route as a shortcut when subjects are located near or beyond that elevation.)

Coconino County SAR drove our team's own UTV to the bottom of the route and then proceeded on foot. By that time, the firemen and medics were already with the subject. SAR made good time, and when they rendezvoused with the others, they tied the patient into the Stokes litter and carried her up the trail a ways until they found a relatively clear area to descend. They attached a 300-foot rope to the litter and slowly lowered the patient. It took four evolutions to get her down to the Polaris Ranger. She and two Guardian medics rode the UTV to the ambulance, while the rest walked down.

There was also a call-out to search for an overdue hiker in the Blue Ridge area, but SAR was turned around at Lake Mary when the subject turned up.

And last night at 7:45, while I was at a dinner party, there was another call-out for a litter carry near the saddle on the Humphreys Trail, for another patient with a fractured ankle.

Search for Overdue Backpacker on the North Rim, Grand Canyon

On Thursday, members of our Coconino County Search and Rescue team headed out to help the National Park Service with a search in the area of Sowats Point and Jumpup on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Volunteers were told they needed to be prepared to be self-sufficient for 48 hours.

I don't know a lot about the search at this time, except that the 64-year-old solo hiker was on a strenuous multi-day trip including the Bill Hall Trail and was due out of the canyon on Monday. After the Park Service was notified, presumably by family, that the hiker was overdue, they conducted some of their own investigation and searching before contacting Coconino SAR for assistance on Wednesday afternoon. I'm told that high winds have hampered aircraft searches in the area.

If the search continues beyond Saturday, I expect more requests for Coconino SAR's assistance. My backpack is always ready, just in case.

******

In other Coco SAR news...

On June 8th, the team was called out to help with evacuations and road blocks associated with a wildfire in the Turkey Hills area east of Flagstaff. This turned out to be an intentionally set fire—make that fires because there were 14 of them (!) along a gas pipeline—which forced the evacuation of approximately 50 area residents and burned an unoccupied mobile home. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and the fire was quickly contained by several ground crews and air tankers.

As the firefighting efforts were underway, a woman approached one of our team members at a road block. Visibly upset, she spoke to the SAR volunteer for several minutes, then admitted she was concerned that a family member had started the fires. Information was taken from the individual, and then SAR contacted the Sheriff's Office.

In the early hours of June 9th, 20-year-old Obrian Wilson Kee was arrested and eventually admitted to starting the fires because he was upset with his girlfriend. See: Arrest Made in Hill Fire from the Arizona Daily Sun.

SAR also recently responded to three calls for lost or overdue hikers on the same day. All were quickly located and in good condition.

We have a feeling this is going to continue to be a busy summer for Coconino County Search and Rescue, in part because Arizona's White Mountains have been torched by the Wallow Fire, likely bringing even more people to the northern part of the state for outdoor recreation. 

SAR Called to Assist with the Wallow Fire (and Some P-SAR Too)

It's now the second largest wildfire in Arizona history, having burned more than 486 square miles as of Tuesday (so more by now) and still moving 5 to 8 miles per day. That's almost as big as the city of Phoenix! 2,500 firefighters from several western states and some as far away as New York are working to contain the blaze, which is burning in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest near Springerville, Arizona. "The blaze has consumed 311,481 acres since it started May 29. It has been propelled by wind gusts of more than 60 mph." (Arizona Daily Sun)

Yesterday, our search and rescue team received a call to respond for an extended mission from Thursday through the weekend, to assist with road blocks and perhaps other assignments in connection with the Wallow Fire. Our coordinator said we'll probably be asked to do the same multiple times over the next few weeks.

See:  Northern Arizona Fire Personnel Help Fight Wallow Fire, Others to find out who else is responding from Coconino County.

******

In other team news...

Last Saturday, several of us set up a booth at the Outdoor Festival at Mormon Lake, co-hosted by the Arizona Game and Fish Department and Mormon Lake Lodge. The day was filled with activities, including archery, fishing, and horseback rides, and there were information booths from a variety of exhibitors and live animals from the Game and Fish Department's Adobe Mountain Wildlife Center.

The theme of our SAR booth was the ten essentials of hiking, with the ten essential categories being navigation, illumination, insulation, nutrition, hydration, shelter (which, in our case, was as simple as a rain poncho or a survival blanket with grommets so it could be used as a tarp), tools and repair, sun protection, first aid, and (although it feels strange to say so right now, given the first part of this post) fire-starting.

Coconino County SAR members teach children and adults about the ten essentials.

We gave out P-SAR cards ("P" being for preventative), which list the 10 essentials and other hiking and preparedness tips. We also had examples of those essential items. On the one hand, we had a large Zip-loc baggie with a condensed version of these essentials, which would be an appealing size and weight for a lot of people, adults and children, who go for recreational day-hikes. We also had a few of our search and rescue packs for more extensive examples of 10-essential gear, which would be appropriate for longer hikes and more extreme weather.

A lot of children visited our booth, and they seemed to really enjoy going through the list on the P-SAR cards, reading off each item and then searching for it in the baggie. Some wanted to see if they could lift my backpack. And some also got a little quiz. We ask, "If you got lost, what would you do?" and heard a lot of really good answers about ways to signal for help. Many eventually got around to the main answer we were looking for: sit down and stay put. Or "hug a tree" as we like say. We also asked the kids what they can do to prevent getting lost in the first place. (Parents seemed happy to hear that question.)

So, it was a good day for SAR community education. We were invited to return to the festival next year.

A Body Recovery at Midgley Bridge

Midgley Bridge - Credit Flickr CC

I know it might sound cold: "body recovery." After all, just a short time before we arrived at the scene, that body had been a living, breathing man—an 80-year-old man who, for some reason we weren't aware of, had made the decision to end his life. At about 8:30 a.m. on Friday, June 3, a woman reported that she'd just received a call from her husband, who was about to jump from the bridge. Soon after deputies arrived, that man, who had already climbed over the railing, let go.

Our team has been to Midgley Bridge in Sedona's Oak Creek Canyon before, for the same type of mission. In fact, when the call is for Midgley Bridge, it's usually preceded or followed by the words "body recovery." Certainly not an easy thing to do in any sense of the word. But speaking for myself, dealing with that grim task is made easier by the fact that I'm doing it with my teammates, who understand the range of emotions that goes along with the physical effort.

Following such missions, which all of those volunteers present had been through before, critical incident management (basically, counseling) was offered to us, either immediately or at any time after that.

While I have to admit that I'm okay with what I did and saw, I can't help but wonder about that man and why, after 80 years of life, he chose to leave it in the way that he did. I can't imagine the feeling of helplessness, sorrow, pain, or perhaps something else that would drive someone to that. I hope he'll rest in peace.

A Busy Memorial Day Weekend for Search & Rescue and the CCSO

It was a three-day weekend with six calls for Search and Rescue that I know of.

Saturday started off with a missing person with dementia who'd walked away from a home in Junipine Estates. The SAR team was called, but the subject was located by a passerby before searchers arrived. Deputies and one SAR member went to the subject's location to extricate him from the brush where he was sitting, and he was transported to the hospital.

Then there was the call-out for a technical rescue at Mooney Falls on the Havasupai reservation. A DPS helicopter was en route when SAR was called, but it was unknown if high winds would prevent the crew from landing or doing a short haul in the canyon. So, the technical rescue team headed that way from Flagstaff as quickly as possible, although it's a very long response time for ground SAR to travel that far. Luckily, the helicopter was able to land near the falls, and the patient was loaded without any technical rescue, air or otherwise, necessary. The SAR team made it all the way to the turnoff from Seligman before they were told to turn around.

Just after refueling the SAR vehicles back in Flagstaff, the tech team was asked to head out of town again, this time to Waterholes Canyon just south of Page.

Waterholes Canyon

The victim had fallen approximately 100 feet and was about 500 feet below the rim. Page Patrol deputies and Page Fire Department also responded, as did DPS Air Rescue, but it was determined that a helicopter technical rescue was not possible due to extremely windy conditions.

The Coconino County Sheriff's SAR coordinator requested additional assistance from the Park Service at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. With multi-agency cooperation, the victim and a paramedic who'd scrambled down to his location were raised to the rim, where a Classic Air Ambulance transported the patient to Flagstaff Medical Center at about 9 p.m. SAR and Page Fire personnel then assisted the uninjured members of the canyoneering party from the bottom of the canyon to the rim. The CCSO technical rescue team returned to Flagstaff again at 2 a.m.

On May 28th, while the rescue in Waterholes Canyon was underway, there was a call for a lost hiker near Ashurst Lake. A Coconino County Sheriff's Office corporal who is also an assistant SAR coordinator handled the call and conducted a hasty search. He successfully located the missing hiker.

The next morning, the Sheriff's Office received a report of an accident at Willow Springs Lake. The victim, who was still onshore at the time another canoe flipped, tried to assist in a separate boat, which also overturned. From what I heard, the victim had called for help, went under, resurfaced, and called again, then disappeared. A deputy from Forest Lakes and the Forest Lakes Fire Department responded to the scene, and search and rescue was requested to assist with the search. Our SAR coordinator arranged for the Coconino County Sheriff's Office Dive Rescue Team and members of the NPS Glen Canyon Dive Rescue Team to respond, and an underwater search was conducted into Sunday evening. The search was suspended at dark and resumed on the morning of the 30th. The missing subject was located deceased at approximately 4:00 p.m. on Monday.

Also on Monday at approximately 9:00 p.m., the Sheriff's Office received a call of separated hikers on the Humphreys Peak Trail. Deputies responded and located both parties.

These were just some of the incidents the Coconino County Sheriff's Department was involved with over the busy Memorial Day weekend.

SAR Business is Picking Up

Compared to past winters since I've been on the Coconino County Sheriff's Search and Rescue (Coco SAR) team, this last one was relatively quiet. Not nearly as many call-outs as the year before, for sure. But now that spring has sprung in northern Arizona, the calls are coming more frequently.

After the successful all-night search in Sedona, there was another call-out just a couple of days later, this one for the rescue of three stranded hikers in Sycamore Canyon, at least one of whom was suffering from a heat-related illness. Eight SAR volunteers responded to the area, while a DPS helicopter was on its way. The helicopter crew located the subjects and lowered food, water, and a handheld radio to the young men, the latter so SAR could keep in contact with them. They didn't have enough of a cellphone signal in the canyon to make a voice call, but one of them had apparently been able to send a text message to a family member, who had then contacted 9-1-1.

I was not able to respond to the mission that night, but I talked to a team member who was there and was told the hikers had run out of food and water and eventually light. With the one hiker being ill and without provisions, they'd been unable to keep moving. After being hydrated and re-fueled by the DPS crew and later, when search and rescue reached them on foot, given more food and water and warm clothes, they were able to slowly hiked out with our team.

Then, yesterday, the start of the Memorial Day weekend, there were two calls, one a search for a dementia patient and another for a technical rescue near Supai at Mooney Falls, which is down in the Grand Canyon on reservation land, not in the National Park. I was on a recreational hike at the time, quite a distance from my vehicle and then a long drive from Flagstaff, so again, I was unable to respond.

The first mission, however, was soon called off because the subject was located and transported by EMS. I don't yet know what happened with the Mooney Falls mission, other than the fact that, when the call-out was made, a DPS helicopter was already en route. For those familiar with the area, you know that Flagstaff is a long way from Hualapai Hilltop, the trailhead for Supai and, from there, Mooney Falls. Our response time would be very long. But I'll update you when I learn more.

And here I sit at home, listening to wind blow up to 65mph gusts outside my office window, hanging around doing computer work and reading until the next call-out comes in. If... or, more likely, when it comes, I'll be going.

An All-Night Search in Sedona

Seven of us from three merged ground-pounder teams lay on the cool rock with our packs under our heads, stargazing as we rested and waited. Our headlamps and any other sources of light were off. Not far from Submarine Rock, on the jeep road in the trees below, a team on the Polaris UTV shut off their vehicle lights, and another team on foot somewhere in the area went dark as well. The helicopter, DPS Ranger out of Phoenix, had arrived with their night-vision equipment, so searchers held their positions and became as little of a distraction as possible. If the missing hikers were out there, it was them we wanted to stand out.

It was around 3 a.m. on Sunday. We'd been hiking and searching for several hours, with teams starting from different trailheads, covering as many trails and roads as we could in this hasty search phase, sometimes bushwhacking through dense manzanita, cat claw, and cactus to try to get a look into a side canyon. Earlier, a few of us had detected a faint whiff of smoke from the top of Submarine Rock, but it soon dissipated on the breeze. We reported it and the general direction we believed it came from to Incident Command. From our high point, we didn't see any glow in the surrounding forest.

We were looking for three missing French-Canadian hikers who'd started out from the Chapel of the Holy Cross parking lot around midday on Saturday, rendezvousing with their three friends at Chicken Point at 2:30 in the afternoon. The others had started hiking the Broken Arrow Trail from the north, and the two groups had exchanged car keys when they met up, as planned. The three hiking to the vehicle parked at the chapel arrived at their destination, but the three hiking north never had. After waiting and doing some searching, the friends of the missing hikers had called 9-1-1.

We'd been told that the missing hikers were wearing shorts, light clothing, and sneakers, and they had one liter of water left between the three of them when they'd met the other group at Chicken Point. One of the missing was a smoker, so she possibly had cigarettes and a lighter or matches with her. If so, they may have been able to start a fire.

We also kept calling and blowing our whistles and stopping to listen. We looked for prints—there were many in this popular hiking area—especially watching for any fresh tracks that veered off the main trails. We took a closer look at prints now and then that were on top of all the rest and the mountain bike tracks, but we found nothing that seemed significant. On a beautiful weekend day in that area, a large number of feet would have passed through.

As we lay on the rock, the helicopter made a big circle around the area. We watched them return in our direction and then disappear behind a butte. They didn't immediately come back into view, and within less a minute our radios transmitted our coordinator's message in unison: Ranger had located our three missing hikers. It was indeed the smoke from their fire we'd smelled earlier. Thanks to the helicopter, locating the source of that smell was very much expedited. Had we tried to find it on foot in that rugged terrain and given their location in the bottom of a wash about a mile from any trail, it would have taken us hours longer.

DPS Ranger gave us coordinates, which we plotted on our maps and entered into GPSes. Five of us hiked up the rocky drainage and bushwhacked to their location, arriving at the three happy hikers at about 5:15am. They were not only in a good spirits, laughing at the whole situation and thanking us profusely for coming to their aid, but they were in good physical shape, too. Carrying an ill or injured hiker out of that location would have been a beast.

After dousing and buying their fire, offering the hikers water and making sure they were okay to walk out, we all followed the boulder-strewn wash back to the jeep road. From there, the three hikers were given a ride on SAR's UTV to their waiting friends at the Broken Arrow Trailhead.

Before departing, I got lots of appreciative French kisses... uh, meaning the cheek-to-cheek kind... meaning the face-cheek kind... as the vacationing hikers and their friends again thanked me and my teammates for our help. Despite the skin I left behind on the cat claw "claws," it had been a good night for some SAR.

See: 3 Lost Hikers Overnight in Sedona Wilderness from the Arizona Daily Sun

A view from Submarine Rock / Flickr -- CC

A Fallen Climber in Jack's Canyon

I had just gotten home when the call came for a technical rescue in Jack's Canyon (pictured above), about 30 miles from Winslow, AZ. I'd been at the morning session of the map and compass class, part of our team's annual three-day "navigation boot camp," which we run primarily for members of other teams and organizations. The field session would begin later in the afternoon, so I'd wanted to stop home for a while beforehand to see my dog and have lunch. But SAR called, and back to the building I and eight other tech team members went.

By the time I arrived, the gear had been loaded and we were ready to roll. We drove code three—lights and sirens and speed—down I-40, listening to our coordinator communicate with other agencies, including DPS and Guardian helicopter crews and an on-scene deputy. We knew that the Blue Ridge Fire Department was there also and that it was likely the patient would be airlifted to the hospital before we'd arrive. There's a landing zone at the bottom of the canyon, not far from where the accident occurred. But we kept going, knowing that anything can happen and assuming our help would be needed. That's how we always respond to call-outs.

Sure enough, the patient was packaged and on the Guardian helicopter, en route to Flagstaff Medical Center, before we got to the staging area, which of course was better for the patient. Waiting for us to get all the way out there from Flagstaff and then do a long, rugged litter evacuation probably wouldn't be a patient's first choice.

Apparently, the climber had taken a 20- to 30-foot fall, landed on his feet, then went down on his back. He'd hit his head but thankfully was wearing a helmet.

After talking with the deputy about what had happened, my teammates and I walked to the canyon rim and a short distance down the trail to take a look at the area. Several of us had never been there before.

It sure was a busy place on that Saturday afternoon, with several groups of climbers visible in the relatively small area of the canyon we could see from where we were standing. We watched climbers on the canyon's far wall and could hear lots of voices coming from below. There were numerous tents set up among the pinon–juniper on the rim.

As we stood there, watching climbers, we discussed how we would have carried out the evacuation had there been no helicopter available but just a waiting ambulance, or if the accident had occurred far from a landing zone. Never know what a future call to Jack's Canyon might bring.