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DEM #98-2272 November 13, 1998 |
The Unit was contacted by the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management on Friday the 13th of November at 6:30 P.M.. They had been contacted by the Lewis County Sheriff requesting eight Mountain Rescue volunteers to help search for a lost hunter.
William White a 37-year-old was last seen around 11:00 A.M. on Thursday morning in the Glacier Lake area near Packwood, WA. He had been hunting elk with four friends; they had decided to split up and try to find some elk tracks. When Mr. White did not meet them at the scheduled rendezvous, they tried searching for him on their own. They did not contact the authorities until over 24 hours later. An organized search was not started till 2:00 P.M. on Friday.
A call out was made and nine members responded; they were: Chris Berryman, Fran McFarland, Jim Andrues, Ken Capron, Stan and Angela Kartes, Jeff Sharp, Marcus Donaldson and Cheryl Wells. They were told to meet at the Cache at 4:00A.M. Saturday morning or at the search base at the Packwood Community Center at 6:00 A.M.
After arriving at the search base Jeff Sharp received a briefing from the Lewis County Sheriff. Mr. White was 6ft, 240lbs, wearing a solid orange coverall, he had no pack or other survival gear and size 13 boots. He also had a bad back and heart problems which might limit his movement in the rough terrain.
The responding members were split into two teams. Team #1 was Chris, Stan, Angela and Marcus; Team # 2 was Jim, Ken, Fran and Cheryl. Jeff remained at the search base as Operations Leader. The teams were sent into the Glacier Lake area along with other Mountain Rescue teams from Olympic Mountain Rescue which had also been called. They searched steep wooded slopes above the lake in a type 2 grid search. Team #1's area was larger than that of the second team so when they returned to search base around 12:30 P.M. it was decided to send both team back into the first area to complete the search. They returned after nightfall without finding Mr. White, and after a debriefing with the sheriff they were released to return home arriving back at the Cache around 8:30 P.M.
However; this was not the end of the search; the Unit was again contacted on Sunday evening around 5:30 P.M. The Lewis County Sheriff was going to make one more attempt to find Mr. White. The weather was supposed to improve on Monday morning enough to allow helicopters to search the area. They ask for six team members to standby at the search base to help extricate the subject if he was found. A call out was made and six members responded; they were: Fran McFarland, Stan Kartes, Russ Brinton, Ken Capron, Jeff Sharp and Dave Treber. They met at the Cache at 5:00 A.M. Monday morning and arrived at the search base at 7:00 A.M. After sitting at the base for a few hours in the fog it was decided to move to higher ground above the fog layer. They had just arrived at new base when it was radioed that the subject had been found alive at Packwood Lake by a Forest Ranger.
Mr. White stated that he had been attacked by a mountain lion (?), and had tumbled down a slope and had been knocked unconscious. When he came to, he had followed a drainage to the lake. The team members were released and returned to the Cache at 3:00 P.M.
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