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DEM #99-0259 February 9, 1999 |
The Unit was contacted by the Pierce County Department of Emergency
Management on Tuesday, Feb. 9th around 9:00 A.M. They had received a
request from King County for fifteen Mountain Rescue Volunteers. Two
snowshoers had gone for a weekend hike and had not returned as planned on
Sunday night.
A callout was made and twelve team members responded: Fran McFarland, Ken Capron, Stan Kartes, Mike Mixon, Dave Treber, Bill Weber, Cheryl Wells, Jim Lewis, Rick Wire, Tom Miner, John Kirkman and Chris Berryman. They were told to meet at the Cache at 11:00A.M. or at the search base at the Bandera exit off I-90 at 12:30 P.M. After arriving at the search base and being briefed they were split into two teams. Team One was Stan, Cheryl, and Ken. Team Two was Jim, Mike, Rick and Dave. John, Fran, Tom and Chris stayed at the base. Fran was OL; Bill was driver.
Members of Seattle MRC and SPART had checked the individuals's vehicle and found the tracks of two humans and a dog heading west on the forest service road and followed them to the Mason Lake trailhead. The tracks started up the trail, but at a large, well-marked switchback, the tracks continued west, away from the Mason Lake trail. They followed the tracks west through timber and then across/under a large avalanche debris zone. At this point, the searchers searched the run-out zone and then returned to the search base due to the very high avalanche danger. The Tacoma teams were sent to Exit 38 on the north sideof I-90. They were to head east from the parking area and look for sign/tracks. No tracks were found and the teams returned in late afternoon. Throughout the day, several helos, including a news-copter, searched whenever the clouds would break. They saw tracks heading west also.
A second callout out was done on Tuesday night for more members and ten responded: Jim (Rex) Creamer, Marcus Donaldson, Alan Givotovsky, Terri Lieby, Cliff Lightfoot, Brian McGinty, Scott Nicholson, Rob Penny, Kate Roberts and Jeff Sharp. They were told to meet at the search base at 7:00 A.M. After they arrived on Wednesday morning along with the team members who had stayed over from Tuesday, TMR had twenty-one members on this search.
They were divided up into four teams. Team One was Chris, Rick and Mike They headed up the Mason Lake trail to the lake and searched the shore and surrounding area. Before they left they stomped an arrow into the snow to show the way back to the trailhead. Team Two was Jeff , Dave, Cheryl, Ken and Rex. Team Three was Stan, Kate, Terri and Marcus. Both teams two and three were sent up the middle fork of the Granite Creek road to and headed towards Thompson Lake. Team Four was Alan, Cliff, Rob and Brian along with some members of the ESAR fast team; they were sent to the Olallie Lake trail to the lake.
While our teams were searching their assigned areas the Seattle MRC and SPART teams once again pursued the tracks they had found the previous day. The tracks again lead across another slide run-out. The ground search was called off Wednesday evening after all the teams returned with no new clues. King County continued an air search on Thursday. To the amazement of all, both subjects walked out on Thursday night alive and in good shape.
Jeff Curry , 36, and Brent Coole9 and their Husky dog, Shoba, had planned to hike/snowshoe north into Talapus Lake and come out via Mason Lake on Sunday. In an interview in a Seattle newspaper Curry stated that on the first day in trying to hike to the Talapus lake trailhead in the dark they lost their bearings and wound up father north around Pratt Lake or Rainbow Lake. When they attempted to loop back they were on the wrong side of Bandera Mountain and wound up in the Pratt River drainage. When they reached what they believed was Spider Lake, short on food they finally used their compass to orient themselves and head south to Mason Lake where they found the arrow left in the snow by Chris's team and finally found their way out.
A little on the overall scene: The Cascades had just experienced four to
seven days of very high winds and high snowfall rates (up to 12"/day).
Several pro-patrollers and avalanche forecasters from ski areas within
miles had repeatedly stated the area ( a 35 degree south facing slope with
large overhanging cornices) was very dangerous due to the avalanche
hazard. The NW Avalanche center was listing the conditions as
CONSIDERABLE. The avalanche forecaster had advised the slopes on
which the Seattle MRC people were heading be cleared with explosives. A
Seattle member, Jim Klasch, said that he felt the snow give as his partner
moved out onto the slope. A Spart member had a Rutschblock of 3.
The tracks of two humans and a dog were last seen approx. four miles west of where the individuals stated in the newspaper that they were. The have repeatedly stated that they did not go in the area where the tracks were. One of the tracks found was ID'd as coming from a Scarpa Inverno, and one of the individuals was wearing Scarpa Invernos Also I-90 is south of the area they were in and is very hard to miss. It is audibly and visibly evident from numerous spots along the ridge.
Where the subjects actually were, we may never know, but the ending is the one we want to all searches with the individuals returning safe.
Tacoma Mountain Rescue |
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