48 Hours and Counting

This is an ongoing mission, from which I just returned after 25 hours in the field. I arrived on Saturday, January 3, as several of my teammates were finishing up their own 20-plus-hour shifts, still with a long drive ahead of them back to Flagstaff. I'll fill you in on more of the story once the mission is concluded, hopefully with a find, but in the meantime, this is who we're looking for, reprinted from the Coconino County Sheriff's Office press release:

Missing Person

"Mark Russell Irby is described as a white man, 51 years of age, 5/10, 175 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes, and wearing prescription glasses. He was last seen wearing a denim shirt, blue jeans and 'Croc' style shoes, and riding a red Bombardier ATV with AZ license plate 36B-175. Irby is on medication for high blood pressure. There are no other known medical conditions. Irby was not dressed for the extreme weather or an extended trip away from home.

"Mr. Irby had been known to travel out of the Forest Lakes Subdivision to the west and travel trails between the subdivision and Forest Service Rd. 237. He was last seen when he left the home in the Forest Lakes area at about 10:00 AM Friday, January, 2nd.

"Anyone with information regarding the welfare or whereabouts of Mark Russell Irby is urged to call the Coconino County Sheriff's Office at (928)774-4523 or (800)338-7888."

When I left incident command today, Sunday, January 4, just after 10 a.m., there were at least 30 volunteers from three county SAR teams in the field, and another call-out has since been made for more volunteers to relieve them in the morning, to continue the search if Mr. Irby hasn't been located. I'll be rejoining the mission at 6 a.m. on Monday.

Also, a DPS helicopter has been flying, searching areas around the Forest Lakes subdivision.

It's now snowing heavily, complicating matters because any ATV tracks that may have been visible on Saturday are now much more difficult to detect. This is becoming a very frustrating mission, as search teams have checked and rechecked all logical areas and then some without locating any clues, which is unusual.

Today, Sunday, teams are literally going door to door in the subdivision, walking around each and every house. Many of them are seasonal homes. Searchers will also be checking snow and ice slides that have come off the roofs, some of which are large enough to potentially bury both a man and his quad. That is, if the quad could even have made it up to the houses. It would have been nearly impossible for the ATV to have crossed the huge berms along the sides of the roads and made it through deep snow on the unplowed driveways of unoccupied homes without getting stuck in the attempt. But there's been no sign of the red quad or the man who was driving it.

Let's hope this turns out well.

Same Subject, Different Day

Déjà vu set in—see Once Was Not Enough from 3/31—as I listened to our coordinator's message even before my pager had finished playing its song. (I'm a fast hand when it comes to grabbing the phone to call in for a SAR mission. Like lightnin'.) Sergeant D said this would be a search for the same man who'd been rescued the night before.

Night before? I checked my pager. Nope, no old pages that I'd missed. Must have been a direct call to certain team members, I figured. Which turned out to be the case. They needed volunteers certified to drive the snowcat and snowmobiles, and, though I'm able to operate both, at least to some extent, I haven't been properly trained or certified by the team. Hopefully, I'll have the opportunity to get that done in the near future.

Anyhow, this man had gotten his vehicle stuck on a Forest Service road on Christmas Day. And what a day that was, with heavy snow and wind gusts texceeding 40 miles per hour. As much as I get all revved up when there's a SAR call, I do admit I wasn't thrilled at the idea of going out in that weather. (But I woulda.)

So, from what I understand, people in three other vehicles had attempted to help the stranded motorist, and they too became stuck. According to the article in the Arizona Daily Sun, search and rescue crews spent much of Christmas rescuing a large group, including children and dogs. Then on Friday, one of the former rescue-ees attempted to hike back to his vehicle and hadn't been seen for two hours. I gather from the article that the subject must have had a cellphone and informed members of his party he could no longer continue hiking. So a call for a second round of help was made.

When I arrived at The 105 building after a slow drive across town, concerned about icy roads, a few of my teammates were already there, readying the snowcat for another run and hooking up the trailers loaded with snowmobiles. As I tossed my personal gear into one of the vehicles, the house phone rang. It was our coordinator, asking if everyone had snowshoes. All shouted affirmatives.

Have I mentioned yet how much I love my new snowshoes? I bought them just after returning from the last mission in Forest Lakes and have been using them every day since. Not only is it great exercise—I've heard you can burn 600 calories per hour on those things—but I really enjoy being out amongst the ponderosa pines on virgin snow, untouched except for all the critter prints crisscrossing my path. I walk out my door, 'shoe into the forest, and immediately see that elk, mule deer, jackrabbits, Abert squirrels, a fox, and even a bobcat have recently been out and about. As far as I'm concerned, all this snow can stick around until at least March. I looove my snowshoes.

Anyhow, where was I? Oh, the mission...

As it turns out, it was a pretty dynamic situation, and plans changed rapidly. No longer were snowshoers needed, just the snowcat and snowmobile drivers again. So off went several of my certified teammates, and the rest of us reorganized the SAR building to make room for the trailers when the others eventually returned, and then we headed home.

As I learned from the morning paper, the cold and disoriented man was picked up by an Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter at 8 p.m. and flown to Flagstaff Medical Center.

Well, it's past my bedtime—unless my pager goes off again, that is—but maybe I'll just take the trash out on my beloved snowshoes before I hit the sack.