Larimer County Search and Rescue
Mission Reports 2010

Every year, for many years, Law Enforcement and EMS agencies all over the country have acquired and delivered gifts to the less fortunate children in their communities. The event has been dubbed "Santa Cops" and in addition to being a wonderful gesture it nurtures the relationships between all these groups. Larimer County Search and Rescue has participated in the event since the mid-80's.

Red Line

November 25 2010 (Thursday) Missing Woman - Silverthorne, CO

SARDOC coordinator directly contacted dog handlers. Two dog handlers were available to respond from Larimer County SAR.

Missing woman was last seen leaving from her home on Monday, November 22. Silverthorne Police and Summit County Search and Rescue had been looking for the woman throughout the week.

The woman’s body was found along a river near her home on November 26th.

Duration: 14 hour
Miles to Base: 128
SAR miles: 256
2 LCSAR/SARDOC members: Jill/Skid, Kathy/Jake
1 LCSAR ITC: Jake U.
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Whitesell
1 LCSAR SAR manager: Robin A.

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November 21 2010 (Sunday) Mills Lake Assist to Rocky Mountain National Park

12 LCSAR team members staged at the RMNP Cache at 0730 to assist in a fatality carryout from Mills lake, climbing route “all mixed up”, 2.5 miles in on the Glacier view Trailhead. Briefed at 0800, where we were told there were two teams already on their way to the subject. The plan was to have one of the two teams climb to the fallen subject, west of Mills Lake, secure and prepare for a technical evacuation down to the tree line, where it would become an advanced scree. LCSAR (Team 3) arrived at Mills Lake at 1100 and dispatched 7 LCSAR and 1 RMNP of the 14 person team (12 LCSAR, 2 RMNP) across the lake in Alpine gear to assist the evac down the slope, across the frozen lake and to the trail where the remaining members were prepared to begin the snow sled evac portion. The trail evac went smooth and fast, with three agencies working together flawlessly. We reached the trail head at approximately 1600, just before dark. Debriefed by 1700, signed out, and headed down from Estes to Loveland/Ft. Collins. All Teams had no injuries or issues to report.

Agencies Responding: LCSAR, Rocky Mountain Nat. Park, RMRG
LCSAR members: 13
LCSAR manager & ITC: 2
Total hours:156 hours
Total miles driven: 1300 miles

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November 20 2010 (Saturday) Lost Hunter – Bull Mountain Area

1634 hours, November 20, 2010: SAR manager was paged by ES regarding a lost hunter in the Bull Mountian area. The report party stated that a party of 3 set out hunting that morning. The hunters decided to split up, and one of the hunters (Joe) was following elk tracks. They had planned to reunite at their campsite at noon. However, at noon Joe did not show up. The remaining hunters called the sheriff for assistance.

Joe was described as 62 years old, 6 foot tall, wearing leather boots, orange vest, orange shirt, orange hat, blue jeans, carrying a rifle, in good physical condition. No medical conditions. He was carrying a FSR radio using channel 2-22, but the others could not contact him. He did not have a phone with him, but was thought to have a fanny pack with matches. There was ankle deep snow in the area, and temp was in the 30's. Joe and the two reporting parties were visiting from Michigan. ES recommended 4 wheel drive vehicles for access to the hunter's campsite.

A team of 16 dog handlers, trackers and searchers were dispatched. However, enroute to staging the sheriff received notification that Joe had self-recovered by going to a ranch house in the area, and advised his friends he was in good condition. The SAR team was stood down at 1734 hours.

Resources:
LCSAR members: 16
SAR manager & ITC: 2
ES personnel: 1
Total hours 18
Total miles driven: 80 miles

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November 9 2010 (Tuesday) Injured (Shot) Hunter – Hohnholz Lakes Area

11:37 Page for SAR Manager to call S-17 Re: Injured hunter near Hohnholz Lakes.

Kevin Johnston advised that two guys were hunting SW of the Hohnholz area. They split up to hunt different areas but had two-way radios to stay in touch. After a while, the reporting party heard a shot and got on the radio to ask his buddy if that was him. Reportedly, his buddy replied “I’ve been shot”. His buddy could not get any more transmissions. He decided to go out to the nearby, Grace Peak Ranch to call the Sheriff. 9-E-13 was the mountain deputy on duty. He was responding to the Ranch to meet with the reporting party.

While in route, LCSO Dispatch was transmitting on the 800MHz radio that Albany County was talking to a Ranch Employee who decided to head up a Ranch road to help the injured subject. He encountered the subject walking without any bullet holes in him (he was NOT SHOT) and was OK. The rancher transported the subject back to the ranch. The “real story” was not known at the time of this writing but ES and SAR were speculating the guy was saying “I got a shot” (meaning – at an Elk) but the reporting party misinterpreted the transmission.

SAR was stood down at 12:01

Since the search area would be a 2.5 hour drive into some very sloppy, wintry conditions, one could say that we truly “dodged a bullet on this call” (pun intended)

UPDATED INFO
As it turns out, the missing subject forgot and left his radio in the truck so there was no way he could have responded via radio to the reporting party. The reporting party is positive he heard such a radio transmission so one can speculate that it was a "prank transmission" by someone in the area.

LCSAR hours: 1.5
LCSAR miles: 14
SAR Manager: Mark Sheets
SAR ITC: Jake Udel
ES: Kevin Johnston

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October 30 2010 (Saturday) Cameron Pass - Overdue Snowboarders

21:58 the sar manager group received a page reference 3 overdue snowboarders from the Cameron Pass area. They were 22 YOA males and due back in town for a Halloween party at 18:30 at their home. Emergency Services Specialist Tony Simons was heading up to see if their vehicle could be located. Due to the late hour, it was decided not to page the team until a vehicle was located. At 22:47 dispatch contacted Tony S. and said the missing parties had returned to their home. We were stood down.

SAR manager: Dave Hake
ES: Tony Simons

Red Line

October 16 2010 Mount of the Holy Cross - Overdue Backpacker

Saturday 16 October 2010 – Mount of the Holy Cross – This mission actually began on the evening of Friday 8 October when Vail Mountain Rescue Group was notified that backpacker James Nelson was overdue from a planned 5-day 25-mile circuit of Mount of the Holy Cross. His fiancé had dropped him off at the trailhead on Sunday 3 October and expected to pick him up on Friday the 8th – when he didn’t show by evening she reported him overdue. There has been much media coverage of this mission, with the most detailed reports found at www.vaildaily.com, plus additional commentary on www.14ers.com. I was CSRB duty coordinator when this mission started, and at the request of their IC, tasked just the closest counties for supplemental resources. The Sheriff ultimately suspended the mission at midnight 12 October due to a complete lack of clues (except for another hiker who saw James on the 3rd). VMRG had a training scheduled for Saturday 16 October, and chose to use it to continue the search. At their behest, I sent an e-mail to the CSRB lister that Friday requesting assistance from any Team that wished to respond for the 07:00 Saturday briefing. Several members from LCSAR expressed interest, and I was by then on duty as L-1, so I coordinated the response of 5 members with 2 dogs: Robin Anderson with Toss, Jill Reynolds with Skid, Kyle Clancy, Rob Foster and Debbie Francis. Ultimately their team, with a backpacking friend of James’ and a chaplain from Fremont County, was assigned to the Fall Creek drainage. Skid and Toss did alert at a camping area on Lake Constantine, but the searchers found no physical clues to confirm the alerts. Team members were back in town by midnight on Saturday. As of this writing, James Nelson is still missing.

LCSAR hours: 120
LCSAR miles: 400
SAR Manager: George Janson
ES: Tony Simons

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October 16 2010 Taylor Glacier/RMNP - Carry-Out Assist, Injured Climber

At 12:27 the duty SAR Manager was alerted to a request from RMNP for assistance with carryout of an injured climber from the base of Taylor Glacier. Rangers were still enroute to the scene and had requested helicopter support, but were prudently requesting ground support from LCSAR and RMRG. 10 members (Bruce Boevers, Mark Desmond, Scott Evans, Russell Giesey, Jeff Grotenhuis, Wendy Heath, Shawna Lyons, Andy Maguire, Ken Sneed, and Sara Webster) responded to the RMNP SAR Cache, and by then Rangers had arrived at the scene and determined that the climber had succumbed to his injuries. Rangers assisted the two companions in getting off the glacier and back to the trailhead. Their IC decided to wait until morning to evac the body via short-haul using a helicopter as the weather was predicted to be suitable for this, and LCSAR resources were released at 18:00.

LCSAR hours: 60
LCSAR miles: 450
ITC: John Lee
SAR Manager: George Janson
ES: Kevin Johnston

Red Line

October 17 2010 Palisade Mountain - Carry-Out Assist, Injured Hiker

At 19:57 the duty SAR Manager was alerted to a request from Loveland Fire Department for carryout assistance of an injured hiker from the slope of Palisade Mountain above the Idlewild Lane residential community in the Big Thompson Canyon. A 58 year old male, a resident of that area, had been hiking on the mountainside since early morning, enjoying a warm and sunny day. He carried a daypack with water, food, shelter, flashlight and whistle. There are no established trails on this south aspect and as he was descending to return home before sunset (~18:15), he slipped and injured his shoulder and upper arm. Realizing he couldn’t safely continue down with this injury, and being within sight of the houses on Idlewild Lane, he began to blow the whistle and wave the flashlight until one of the residents noticed the signals after dark and called 911. Members of the Canyon VFD who live on Idlewild Lane made verbal contact with the subject, confirmed he was injured, and when others arrived began the climb, reaching the scene at about 20:45. By the time LCSAR began to arrive, several members of the Loveland FD and Canyon VFD were on scene, had packaged the subject into a litter and begun the evac. LCSAR members set up intermediate and lower anchor stations, and assisted with the carryout down the steep gully to the road and the waiting ambulance. The subject was loaded into the ambulance at about 22:45. 20 members responded: Denise Alvord, Robin Anderson, Mark Desmond, Sarah Eller, Mike Erickson, Scott Evans, Dave Followill, Debbie Francis, Jeff Grotenhuis, Marc Heiser, Shawna Lyons, Dave Mancuso, Jacob McDaniel, Jenn Nolte, Steve Schneider, Ken Sneed, Allen Weaver, Todd Westfall, Gilbert Yoh and George Janson.

LCSAR hours: 80
LCSAR miles: 500
ITC: John Lee
SAR Manager: George Janson
ES: Kevin Johnston
Loveland FD: ~20
Canyon VFD: ~10

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September 28 2010 (Tuesday) CR29C Near Ted's Place - Horse with No Rider

17:10 - page to sarmanager for possible search in the CR 29C area. A horse with a saddle came running back to a horse boarding place along CR 29C (first road west of Ted’s Place on hwy 14 that heads north). PFA Engine 7 was on scene trying to figure out who the horse belonged to and see if the person was missing or if the horse just broke away from them while getting it ready to ride. They found out it belonged to a 60 year old male who normally rides it on the trail too Seaman Reservoir and back. They new nothing more about the person or where he lived. The horse is actually boarded at another boarding place in the same area but it came back to another.

Emergency Services Kevin Johnston was contacted and decided to give the Sar managers a heads up since it was getting close to dark. I took the call and we discussed the possible actions to take. Since we were not sure if anyone was actually missing he didn’t think we needed a large crew at this time. We talked about getting the posse group to clear the trail, check on ATV accessibility, starting to back track the horse before it gets too dark just in case and maybe have a couple hasty teams covering the trail from both ends. I knew one of our members (Denise A.) lived in that area and rode those trails so I was going to try and contact her to get more information. It was decided to get a ‘small’ group around at this time and then we can grow from that when we learn more.

ITC Dan Fanning was contacted and as we were gathering team members, PFA members saw the man walking down the trail and were going to check his medical condition. The team was stood down. We had 9 members ready to respond… and one responded because he didn’t get the stand down page (sorry Rob!).

Duration: hours 1/2 hour
9 LCSAR Resources responded
3? PFA firefighters
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Kevin Johnston
1 ITC - Dan Fanning
1 LCSAR SAR managers: Dave Hake

Red Line

September 25 2010 (Saturday) - RMNP Assist Carryout from Long's Peak Keyhole Route

Mission Report Pending

SAR Manager Brian Walsh

Red Line

September 24 2010 (Friday) - Horsetooth Mountain Park - Injured 9YOA

12:43 SAR team paged to respond to Horsetooth Mountain Park for a carry out of a 9 year-old male who had fallen on the trail with possible critical injuries at Horsetooth Falls area. As team members arrived they were sent up the trail with gear and medical equipment. 15 SAR members along with several PFA firefighters and 2 PVH paramedics made it on scene. He was eventually loaded onto a litter and carried up to a landing zone and transported to the Medevac Helicopter.

Duration: 2 hours
Total hours: 30+
Miles to Location: 15
Total miles: 600
15 LCSAR Resources responded
6? PFA firefighters
2 PVH ambulance attendants
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Tony Simons and Justin Whitesell
1 LCSAR SAR managers: Dave Hake

Red Line

September 19 2010 (Sunday) - Soderberg/Sawmill Trail @ Horsetooth - Injured Cyclist

2010-9-19 At 16:20 a page to team to respond direct for an injured bicyclist with possible broken pelvis in the area of the Soderberg Trail Head in area of Horsetooth. It just so happened that I was at the gate to the SAR cache because I was going to look into an improvement to the litter right when the page went out. I was in my bus and didn’t have my gear with me but realized that due to the injury, getting the truck there fast was priority. I could always grab a helmet from the truck and borrow water from other team members since the weather was nice and more than likely just a trail carry.

While on the way there was a lot of radio traffic about a big fire that broke out North East of town. I could see the large column of smoke. I decided to see if an ITC was available to page the team and have them call the ITC rather than having to tie up dispatch because it was obvious they had their hands full with the fire. That’s the reason for having to call Mike instead of dispatch. Getting a page out for the on-call ITC would have involved going through dispatch and that’s why I just called on the radio for an available ITC that could put a page out. Thanks Mike for doing that! We ended up having a total of 17 respond.

Rangers and Paramedics from the ambulance were on their way to the subject via the shoreline trail and up Sawmill (see attached map). It was decided to load up rescuers in the back of trucks and try and drive up Towers Trail (Road) to see if we could get a vehicle closer to the subject. A couple different Landing Zones were discussed in case a flight out was needed. The Rangers and Paramedics arrived on scene and started tending to the medical. The first group of rescuers were able to drive within minutes of the subject. The subject was loaded up in the litter and carried out to one of the vehicles and transported to the ambulance. All resources returned to Soderberg Trail Head for debriefing.

Duration: hours 3 hours
Miles to Location: 15
SAR miles: 600
17 LCSAR Resources responded
1 ITC: Mike Fink
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Kevin Johnston
1 LCSAR SAR managers: Dave Hake

Red Line

Saturday, Aug 21, 2010, Carry Out Assist - Moody Hill

Mission Report Pending

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Friday (pm) Aug 20, 2010, Search for Mentally Unstable Male near Devil's Backbone in Loveland

16:00 Page to sar manager to assist in locating a mentally unstable male in the Devil’s Backbone area West of Loveland. It was decided by Emergency Services to keep the response limited to a couple dog teams and a few searchers until we understood what kind of a person we were dealing with. We ended up with 6 dog handlers and a couple searchers. Before we were able to field the subject was located by County Park Rangers and the team was stood down.

Duration: 2 hours
Miles to location: 20
8 LCSAR members responded
1 Larimer County Emergency Services: Tony Simons
1 LCSAR manager Dave Hake

Red Line

Friday (am) Aug, 20, 2010, Rescue Assist - Old Man Mountain - Estest Park

01:10 page to sar team to respond to Old Man Mountain to assist Estes Park Fire with an extraction of a female stuck in the cave. Of course everyone knows what this rescue will be like because it’s only like the 7th time someone has been stuck in the same cave! First call is to make sure the vegetable oil is on scene. It’s used to help lubricate the person stuck. It’s the only thing that works. Then to make sure Rocky Mountain National Park folks have been contacted because it’s usually a very technical rescue and all the help needed is a must.

Estes Park Fire ended up getting the girl out before most of our team members arrived. Some team members were delayed because they came upon a vehicle that rolled over on hwy 34 and the subject in the car was saying another person was in the car at the time of the accident. A small search was conducted in the area of the river and road but no one was located and the person’s story kept changing… so it was left to the State Patrol to get to the bottom of it. We had 12 total responding.

This “cave” isn’t really a cave, it’s just a very small openings between big rocks that kids and adults like to venture through. It’s so popular that it’s been named “The rite of passage”. What most don’t realize is that it’s very easy to get stuck and once you are stuck, it’s a 4 to 12 hour wait till you can get rescued. The more you attempt to get yourself free, the tighter you get jammed in. This was my 4th response to this cave and an Estes Park Firefighter said this was his 7th! One rescue took 3 different haul systems coming in from three different positions to get the person out. That particular one was with snow covering most of the rock making it even more difficult to maneuver. Why doesn’t someone close it down you ask? It’s on private land and it has history dating back to Native Americans. Maybe someday something will change, but until then, we’ll stock up on Vegetable oil.

Duration: hours 4 hours
Miles to Location: 70
SAR miles: 840
12 LCSAR Resources responded
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Justin Whitesell
1 LCSAR SAR managers: Dave Hake

Red Line

August 14 2010 (Saturday) - Grey Rock, CO. Lost Hikers.

Initial page was received at 15:46 of hikers calling 911 reporting they were lost in the area of Grey Rock. The hikers, a 38 year old male and his 11 year old son, had hiked to the top of Grey Rock earlier in the day. When they came down off the rock they became disoriented. After trying to self recover for about two hours the father phoned 911 for SAR assistance.

The cell phone call came to dispatch via the cell tower northeast of Ted’s place. The gps coordinates from the cell phone (T-mobile) gave an inaccurate position to the north of Ted’s place. However, having this information potentially ruled out the area to the west of Grey Rock as long as the lost hikers remained at their current location.

At first four teams were fielded. Team one was assigned to summit Grey Rock to act as radio relay and to utilize the vantage point in searching the northeastern portion of the drainage. The other teams were to search the drainage area east of Grey Rock and the area north of the old Wintersteen trail.

Once teams were fielded O-2 drove back down the canyon to a site where he could establish cell service and called the lost father and son to advise them to remain at their current location. At this time the father informed O-2 that they had built a smokey signal fire at their position. Teams were relayed this information.

At 19:02 Team one reported contacting a hiker that had seen smoke. By 19:40 Team one reported verbal contact with the father and son but were unable to reach the hikers due to their vantage point atop Grey Rock. Physical contact was made by Team three at 19:46. Teams one and three escorted the hikers to the trailhead. All other teams were recalled to operations.

It is noted that this is the fifth SAR response to Grey Rock since June of this year. In each instance lost hikers have been located in relatively the same location. To aid lost hikers in the future the SAR team and the Sherriff’s department are looking into a more permanent solution to direct hikers toward the proper course of travel coming off the summit of Grey Rock. In past years a few SAR team members have stacked cairns marking the trail but these have since been knocked down.

Duration: hours 8 hours
Miles to Location: 47
SAR miles: 800
17 LCSAR Resources responded: including one SARDOC Udel/Abby
1 ITC: Dan Fanning
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Mosier
1 LCSAR SAR managers: Robin A.

Red Line

August 14 2010 (Saturday) - RMNP assist on Longs Peak.

Initial page was received at 09:19 for L-1 to contact dispatch regarding a request for resources to assist in the carry out of a 52 year old male experiencing a general feeling of weakness. RMNP requested six to eight technical qualified members. SAR Team members were enroute when word from RNMP was received that a ranger had arrived on scene with the subject. This ranger relayed information that the subject also had a sprained ankle but was still mobile. Once the subject was rehydrated and escorted to a lower elevation his general feelings of weakness dissipated. SAR team was stood down.

Duration: hours 1 hours
Miles to Location: 47
SAR miles: 270
7 LCSAR Resources
1 ITC: Dan Fanning
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Mosier
1 LCSAR SAR managers: Robin A.

Red Line

August 13 2010 (Friday) - Boedecker Lake, Loveland Co. Cries for Help

22:50 Page received to call O-5. Loveland Fire was requesting assistance for searching the Northeast portion of Boedecker Lake where a reporting party over heard what was thought to be cries for help. Loveland PD had already been contacted regarding any outstanding missing person reports but no reports had been initiated. While discussing resources type over the 800 Mutual Aid Channel firefighters were over heard to begin laughing in the background. From that point the request for SAR team assistance was stood down. Unknown the source of the “cries” but the team was stood down prior to any team wide pages being sent 23:05.

Duration: 15 minutes
Miles to Location: 19.7 miles
SAR miles: 0
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Simons
1 LCSAR SAR managers: Robin A.

Red Line

August 7 2010 (Monday) - Lion’s Gulch, Estes Park, CO. Injured Female

Initial page was received at 14:21 for the SAR team to respond direct, code 3 to Lion Gulch reference an injured female, with unknown injuries, who was thrown from a horse. Estes Fire was already enroute and would try to make contact with the female via Grizzly Gulch. Emergency Services placed a medical helicopter on standby but thunder storms were moving into the area. SAR team would stage at Lion Gulch in the event a carryout of the subject was needed. Estes Fire was able to reach the subject and determined that she was able to walk out on her own accord. All SAR resources stood down 18:24.

Duration: hours 4 hours
Miles to Location: 47
SAR miles: 1300
13 LCSAR Resources
1 Larimer Emergency Services: Simons
1 LCSAR SAR manager: Robin A.

Red Line

August 2, 2010 (Monday) - PLB Activation

1327 hours: The SAR manager was paged to contact ES regarding an "emergency beacon activation." ES had been contacted by CSRB, who indicated an emergency locator beacon had been activated about an hour prior. ES was requesting the SAR team respond to locate the beacon. At the time of the page, it was not known if this was a personal locator beacon or an aircraft. However based on the info provided, ES assumed it was a personal locator beacon.

The satellite info placed the location of the beacon in the 5800 block of Hidden Springs Road, which is just northwest of the intersection of Trilby and Taft, in Fort Collins---not far from the Larimer County landfill. It was determined that we would respond non-emergent directly to the area, with Truck 10 and about 4 team members to assess the situation and attempt to locate the beacon. However, as the page to the team was about to be sent (at 1349 hours), ES called back and said the beacon had been turned off. No response was needed.

The team did NOT receive any pages for this mission. The only pages that were sent went to the SAR manager group.

So for all of you who own personal locator beacons.........yes, they do work. Yes they do transmit a signal with a location. And yes, we will come looking for you. Please don't activate them, just to see what happens.

Resources:

ES personnel: 1
SAR manager: 1
LCSAR personnel: 0
Hours: 0.5
Miles: 0

Red Line

July 31, 2010 (Saturday) - Grey Rock Search

0749 hours: page for SAR to contact ES re Grey Rock search. On this particular morning, SAR was very busy with trainings. Multiple members were at various places around the county and out of the county for tracking classes, water training for search dogs, and mock tests for search dogs. So from the beginning, there was a concern about the availability of SAR resources.

Initial report from ES is a subject (hereinafter referred to as Adam), had gone hiking early that morning on the Grey Rock trail. Adam had called his wife and reported that he fell climbing a boulder and injured his knee. He was not wanting to walk on it, and in addition, was off the trail and uncertain of his location. So from the first reports, we were uncertain if we were dealing with a search, a rescue, or both. Adam was described as 6'3", 250 lbs, and 32 years old. Dispatch obtained a long/lat location from the cell phone call. However, when plotted on the map, it showed the subject at a cell phone tower near town.....and therefore was obviously not accurate.

We decided to deploy a small hasty team to the summit, attempt to locate Adam, and assess the situation. Thereafter a decision would be made as to whether more resources would be needed for a carry out, whether a helicopter would be available for an evacuation, or whether a more extensive search would be needed.

Six SAR members responded to the initial pages and were immediately available. Additional members called in from the various trainings and indicated they would be available to leave the trainings if more personnel were needed. Of the 6 members that showed up at the parking lot of Grey Rock, two were deployed up the trail with minimal gear and radios, in order to expedite contact with Adam. The remaining 4 members were held at the parking to take additional equipment (medical equpment, litter, bash kit, etc) up the trail after the initial assessment.

About 1001 hours, the hasty team made contact with Adam who was walking down the trail. Adam was reported to have a sore and swollen knee, but mobile. Our SAR members escorted Adam to the trailhead, and arrived at 1035 hours. All SAR members were released, and the team stood down at 1038 hours.

Resources:
ES personnel: 1
SAR manager and ITC: 2
SAR members: 6
Forest Service personnel: 1
Miles driven: 400

Red Line

July 30, 2010 (Friday) - Grey Rock Mission

Mission Report Pending

A Thank You

Hello SAR folks,

Our first priority is thanking all those who so generously contributed their time and skills.

On July 29th 2010, some family members and friends decided to take a hike up at Grey Rock in the Poudre Canyon area . They left Longmont Colorado at about 10:00 am stopped at McDonald’s and made their way to Fort Collin’s.

To make a long story short , we would like you to know how “deeply your efforts and volunteer works is appreciated”.

Just your professionalism in talking with our group and reassuring us helped us tremendously.

Our family initiated a call to search Larimer county Sheriffs office and they then informed Larimer County SAR. Within an hour or so Your team’s began the search for our loved one’s , and after a long night and two search team’s and stressful situation they were found Friday July 30th 2010

We would like to relay our most grateful and sincere appreciation for all your wonderful skills and efforts in finding our loved one’s and wanted to thank each of you for your hard volunteer work and dedication.

We surely have a new found respect and knowledge of what your volunteer’s dedicate themselves to, and are “forever grateful to you” and to your great cause to bring people back home safely.

Be safe and God bless you all ~~~~~~~~~

Red Line

July 25, 2010 (Sunday) Lookout Mountain (south Buckhorn Canyon)

8:23 Paged for two overdue hikers on Lookout Mountain.

Situation: Two, possibly 3, hikers were supposed to return from a day hike on the evening of Saturday, 7/24/10. One hiker was male, the second was female and the third, if there was a third, was unknown. The mother of one of the hikers reported them overdue.

We were placed on standby until our Emergency Services Incident Commander could check the trailhead parking for our subject’s vehicle. He had a description of one vehicle but they may have taken the vehicle of the possible third hiker. We didn’t have a description of the third hiker’s vehicle. Before we can search we need a starting point.

While Emergency Services was checking possible trailheads we were going to assemble 12-14 team members to handle the search. Fortunately we had 18 team members practicing a vertical rescue nearby. We planned to supplement the 18 members with 2 dog teams and 2-4 trackers. We had 10 members and 4 dog teams reply as available. Another SAR manager was at the training and was tasked to check the Dunraven Glade Rd. trailhead that is south of Lookout Mountain. We had to check four possible trailheads that access Lookout Mountain.

The Emergency Services Incident Commander found our two hikers and their 3 dogs at mile marker 28 on Buckhorn Rd. (CR44H) while en route to the Donner Pass/Hill Trailhead.

After speaking with the subjects, we found out they started at the Buckhorn Ranger Station and hiked up Donner Pass/Hill Trail. They said the trail was hard to follow near the top but they did make it to the top and the four-trail junction. On the way down, they lost the trail and ended up following a creek believed to be Buckhorn Creek. After following the creek, they came across a forest service road and followed that until they met Buckhorn Rd. We believe the subjects followed Ballard Rd. (FR129) to Buckhorn Rd. (CR44H). When our subjects met Buckhorn Rd., they asked the driver of a passing car for the direction to the Buckhorn Ranger Station. They did not know if they were east or west of the ranger station on Buckhorn Rd. The people in the car told them to head east to the ranger station; the ranger station was to the west. Emergency Services found our subjects walking east and informed them they were supposed to be on Lookout Mountain and he was on his was to find them. Humor is good for the lost souls. He offered the subjects food and water and got them to their vehicle. The subjects were generally ok, just tired and hungry although they weren’t hungry enough to eat the MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) that Emergency Services offered the subjects.

9:39 Team stood down.

Duration: 1:16
Miles to Base: N/A
SAR miles: N/A
LCSAR members: 33 + 4 SAR dogs
LCSAR ITC: John L.
Larimer Emergency Services: Johnston
LCSAR SAR manager: Brian W. (Don D. mentoring)

From one of the lost subjects:

I hiked Donner Pass Trail to Lookout Mountain about a month ago. I also got lost during that time, but fortunately found the trail after about 25 minutes of searching and retracing steps. There is one major problem with this hike: Signage.

There are two areas where the trail ends on a road, with no markers. You have to guess which way to go on the road, and hope the trail is there. Towards the summit is where the lack of signage gets really dangerous. This is where my friend Robin and I got lost, and where I was lost a month ago. The trail opens up and appears to dead end into a rocky, fairly open area with short trees. There is a really big cairn that is misleading; there is no trail over there. Last time I was there, my friend Sara and I searched and searched around this large cairn to no avail, and decided to just bushwhack to the top. Yesterday however, Robin and I found some other cairns, in a different direction from the mighty-misleading cairn. We found the trail and followed it a ways. I even marked some trees with ribbon, hoping we would be able to stay on the trail despite its unmarked bends and turns. The trail is so disintegrated it is unrecognizable most of the way to the summit. The cairns are much to few and far between. In my opinion if the trail is in such poor condition, you should be able to see the next cairn from the spot of the one you just found. We eventually lost the trail and any sight of cairns on the way up, but heard other people at the top, and followed their voices.

When we started to come down from the summit, we thought we were on a trail, but it fizzled out just like so many others. We didn't see any cairns anywhere near the top. We started descending, recalling where we thought the trail was, so that we would eventually cross it. The truth is, we probably did cross it, but didn't realize because it looked like the ground all around it.

We kept heading down the mountain at an angle, similar to what we thought the trail was set at. We thought we would at least come across one of the other trails, or one of the roads. Unfortunately, we didn't. We attempted to go in the direction we thought the trailhead and car was, but couldn't even really tell where we came from. Robin had taken a video at the top, and we compared the mountains and landmarks of the video to what we were seeing, but it just didn't make sense.

When it started to get late we decided to go to a large rock face. Robin was confident that his mother had called for help at this point, and we thought we could easily be seen on this rock face from the air. We found a small cave-like structure on the rock and built a roof for it. It seemed crazy to keep going in the dark, since we didn't know where to go in the daylight.

This morning we headed again in the direction we thought the trailhead and car was, but it seemed like we were going the wrong way. We tried following the river for awhile, but also went up higher so we could get some perspective of where we were. If we had heard motorcycles or cars, we would have most likely headed towards them for help. At one point we found an unmarked trail and followed it until it also disappeared into a grassy aspen grove. All the mountain ridges start looking the same after awhile! We eventually stumbled across some cut down trees, and gathered that someone had hauled them away via a road. We were right, and that private road lead us back to CR 44H.

Thank you for taking the time to ask these questions. I am guessing there isn't a high number of people that get lost up there, but then again, there aren't very many that hike that trail. I wonder if the lucky ones had GPS. Robin and I looked at a map of the area after we were rescued, and felt that the simple dotted line of the trail, probably wouldn't have done us any good at the top.

Thanks again, and we are very grateful that there are people to help find those of us that get lost!

~Robin

Red Line

July 23, 2010 (Friday) Big Thompson Canyon Body Recovery

LCSAR was paged at 1208 hours for a body recovery in the Big Thompson Canyon.

The location of the body was a short 10 minute uphill walk from the road. The recovery only required a litter with wheel and a tag line.

Resources:

Emergency Services: 1
LCSAR Members: 16
Coronor: 1
LCSO Deputies: 3
Investigator: 1
Duration: 4 hours

Red Line

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.

*************************************************************************************

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.

Red Line

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

Red Line

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.

Red Line

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.

Red Line

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.

Red Line

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.

Red Line

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.

Red Line

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.

Red Line

June 27, 2010 (Sunday) - Trapped Male - Horsetooth Falls

MISSION REPORT PENDING

Red Line

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

Red Line

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.

Red Line

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

Red Line

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.

Red Line

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

Red Line

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.

Red Line

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

Red Line

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

Red Line

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.

Red Line

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

Red Line

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

Red Line

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) which neither of us had heard of before. According to Sue, when Tom experiences an EHS episode it leaves him unable to move. On a prior incident when Tom was overdue after going for a walk near their home, he was found by passers-by lying in the road, unable to move a muscle. Since coming down with EHS, Tom now goes for walks in the woods (off road, off trail) to get away from the electromagnetic fields so prevalent in our electricity-based society.

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

Red Line

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.

Red Line

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

9News Article

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.

Red Line

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 ;-)

Red Line

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

Red Line

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

Red Line

Larimer County Search and Rescue Mission Reports 2010

Mission Reports by Year

MOST RECENT MISSIONS ARE AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE

December 18 2010 (Saturday) Santa Cops Deliveries - Larimer County

November 25 2010 (Thursday) Missing Woman - Silverthorne, CO

November 21 2010 (Sunday) Mills Lake Assist to Rocky Mountain National Park

November 20 2010 (Saturday) Lost Hunter – Bull Mountain Area

November 9 2010 (Tuesday) Injured (Shot) Hunter – Hohnholz Lakes Area

October 30 2010 (Saturday) Cameron Pass - Overdue Snowboarders

October 16 2010 Mount of the Holy Cross - Overdue Backpacker

October 16 2010 Taylor Glacier/RMNP - Carry-Out Assist, Injured Climber

October 17 2010 Palisade Mountain - Carry-Out Assist, Injured Hiker

September 28 2010 (Tuesday) CR29C Near Ted's Place - Horse with No Rider

September 25 2010 (Saturday) - RMNP Assist Carryout from Long's Peak Keyhole Route

Mission Report Pending

SAR Manager Brian Walsh

September 24 2010 (Friday) - Horsetooth Mountain Park - Injured 9YOA

September 19 2010 (Sunday) - Soderberg/Sawmill Trail @ Horsetooth - Injured Cyclist

Saturday, Aug 21, 2010, Carry Out Assist - Moody Hill

Mission Report Pending

Friday (pm) Aug 20, 2010, Search for Mentally Unstable Male near Devil's Backbone in Loveland

Friday (am) Aug, 20, 2010, Rescue Assist - Old Man Mountain - Estest Park

August 14 2010 (Saturday) - Grey Rock, CO. Lost Hikers.

August 14 2010 (Saturday) - RMNP assist on Longs Peak.

August 13 2010 (Friday) - Boedecker Lake, Loveland Co. Cries for Help

August 7 2010 (Monday) - Lion’s Gulch, Estes Park, CO. Injured Female

August 2, 2010 (Monday) - PLB Activation

July 31, 2010 (Saturday) - Grey Rock Search

July 30, 2010 (Friday) - Grey Rock Mission

Mission Report Pending

A Thank You

July 25, 2010 (Sunday) Lookout Mountain (south Buckhorn Canyon)

From one of the lost subjects:

July 23, 2010 (Friday) Big Thompson Canyon Body Recovery

July 21 & 22, 2010 - Mission Calls by Don Davis

Wednesday, 7/21/10 2335 hours - SAR Manager paged by Emergency Services

Thursday, 7/22/10 0634 hours - SAR Manager paged by Emergency Services

July 12, 2010 (Monday) - Overdue Father and Son Fishermen - Chambers Lake

July 7, 2010 (Wednesday) - Missing 85 YOA Female - West Loveland, Namaqua Area

July 5, 2010 (Monday) - Male from Arkansas Church Group Stuck in Rock Crack - Old Man Mountain, Estes Park

AFTER THE MISSION...

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

June 30, 2010 (Saturday) - SARDOC Assist / Missing Male - Bailey, Colorado - The Colorado Trail, assist Park County SAR

June 27, 2010 (Sunday) - Trapped Male - Horsetooth Falls

MISSION REPORT PENDING

Monday 28 June 2010 – Zimmerman Trail – Search for missing hiker

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 Females

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

Saturday, April 3, 2010 – Tuesday, April 6, 2010 -- Wednesday, April 7, 2010 Greeley, CO. Missing Child

March 6, 2010 (Saturday) - Boulder County - Assist with Grid Search at Plane Crash Site

February 21, 2010 (Sunday) - Somewhere in Larimer County - Lost Keys

February 18, 2010 (Thursday) - Horsetooth Mountain Park - Lost Hiker

January 9, 2010 (Saturday) - Horsetooth Mountain Park - Assist with Subject Having Heart Attack

Larimer County Search and Rescue
Mission Reports 2010

Mission Reports
by Year