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Missing cross-country skier lost north of Mt. Bachelor, what happened?

Searchers Find Stuck Motorists, Lost Skier
Busy Weekend for Deschutes County Sheriff's SAR
By Barney Lerten, KTVZ.COM
March 13, 2011

Deschutes County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue crews had a busy weekend, rescuing three motorists stuck in the snow west of Sisters and a lost cross-country skier west of Mount Bachelor.

SAR and sheriff’s deputies were dispatched around 6:30 p.m. to a report of three people stranded when their small pickup got stuck in the snow on a Forest Service road west of Sisters, said Deputy Rhett Hemphill.

They were identified as Mathew Bruce Edson, 28, of Beaverton, 2-year-old Brady Edson and Phillip Alberds, 28, of Portland.

Hemphill said Mathew Edson was driving on Forest Service Road 1510 when he got stuck in a snow bank/ Five SAR members responded and found the three around 90 minutes later, taking them back to Sisters.

Around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, deputies, SAR members and Forest Service law enforcement were dispatched to a report of a lost cross-country skier, last seen near the Crater Ditch ski trail west of Moon Mountain, Hemphill said.

About 20 searchers responded to look for Patrick Creedican, 59, of Bend, by snowmobile and cross-country skis.

Creedican (ODOT’s Bend district manager) had skied to the end of the Crater Ditch trail and was starting to return to the Nordic Center at Mount Bachelor when he got turned around and ended up going down the Soda Creek drainage, eventually coming out near Sparks Lake.

Once in that area, Creedican was able to use his phone and tell searchers of his location.

Around 9:30 p.m., a snowmobile team found Creedican and transported him back to Mount Bachelor, cold and hungry but otherwise unhurt, Hemphill said.

http://www.ktvz.com/news/27184915/detail.html

What can be learned from these interesting incidents?
We have been unable to talk to the stranded motorists. We remain amazed that folks in Central Oregon continue to get stuck in the snow on remote forest roads. It is fortunate that they mostly stay with their rigs rather than trying to hike out for help only to become lost and die of hypothermia. Be Prepared to be stranded on backcountry roads in Oregon.

What happened to my good friend Pat Creedican?
I talked to Pat for quite a while on the telephone today, Monday. Here is what happened on Sunday.

Pat set out from Mt. Bachelor with his wife and two friends from church. Wife and one friend returned to the the Nordic Center from the top of the first big up-hill on the way through Big Meadow and up to the base of Brokentop. Pat and the second friend met a solo skier and they all turned back near Brokentop. The weather provide continuous light snow and very low visibility the entire day. Friend and new friend decided to return by a steep route and Pat preferred the mellow slopes.

They agreed to communicate by cell phone text messages, although this was a new technique for the two. Pat felt it was safer to communicate by text message rather than by voice because, in theory, text messages can get through when voice will not. This may have been the first problem because Pat's last text message with his position and intention was sent but not confirmed as received.

A second problem was that his GPS receiver was a wrist sized runners model that did not have a background map, only a tiny track line showing where he had been (and the time, speed, distance and altitude gained of course). He was not on the tiny line in the window of the wrist GPS and he could not tell how far the line was away from where he was. The runners GPS did provide his general latitude and longitude Coordinants but he was unable to relate them to his big map with basic contours for the entire Three Sisters Wilderness.

Pat started skiing down hill, heading South toward Cascade Lakes Highway. Due to the poor visibility, he found himself in a drainage rather the mellow slopes he sought. He watched his compass in surprise as the drainage seemed to be heading west instead of south. He found himself in trees with heavy powder snow piled in mountains between the deep welled trees. About this time his ski bindings froze solid. He broke a ski pole trying to pry the binding. He was unable to climb up hill to head south. He did not have skins for his skis, so he improvised with tree branches tied with parachute cord on the bottoms of the skis. He became exhausted and drenched with sweat (at about 20 degrees) trying to head up the side of the drainage, south toward the highway.

Pat sat down in the powder snow, (he did not have a six ounce winter insulating pad), finished the last of his three liters of water and Gatorade, ate some energy bars and studied his map. He found from the map that he was probably in the drainage of Soda Creek that eventually turned south into Sparks Lake. A steep 1,000 foot climb and drop in powder snow lay between his location and Cascades Lakes Highway. Judging from the map, his only course was to follow the Creek west until it joined the Highway at Sparks Lake.

Pat says it this way:
"Bob, I just thought of a bright spot to this venture. That is that I had a backup plan and it worked."
"At the start of the trip I gave a compass to my ski buddy and told her if all else fails and you get lost, go due south and you will hit the highway and likely be near Mt. Bachelor. When I got down in the hole and wasn’t sure where I was I took a bearing on due south and found a 1000’ ridge in the way that I would have to go straight over. It took awhile for reality to set in – that if I had to go straight up the side of the ridge, it must be running east-west, not the north-south of the ridgelines around Todd Lake , which was the drainage I thought I should have been in. With that clue I looked more closely at the map and found the east-west ridge and creek and realized it was Soda Creek. Then it was just a matter of skiing along the creek to the highway."

Pat did follow the Creek west until it spilled into Sparks Lake. Unfortunately, he was on the steep side of the big creek on unconsolidated snow that avalanched into deep fast running water. He had only one ski pole. As the hours past, he was able to get water with a single bottle tied to his ski pole. (He had lost two bottles in the creek.) Finally, he found a place he could cross the creek without the risk of getting wet and swept down into a tunnel under the snow, and the skiing was easier. He had a strong headlamp (and a backup, too) and finally found Cascades Lakes Highway, covered with snow but with a solid snowmobile track.

He turned on his cell phone. Just then, at about 9 pm, his cell phone rang! It was a call from his friends and family who were with the Deschutes County Sherriff's SAR team back at Mt. Bachelor. Pat spoke directly with the SAR Incident Commander, indicating he was OK, just tired and very cold. He had shut off his cell phone hours before when his tower reception failed as he descended further into the Soda Creek  drainage, and put it in an inside vest pocket to keep it safe. (This also kept his cell phone battery warm, although he had not thought of that imperative).

He was asked by SAR to call 911, so that his location could by found by triangulation of cell tower pings. He received a call back from SAR confirming his location, on the highway at Sparks Lake. He was asked to call back every ten minutes as the rescue progressed. He was picked up by snowmobile and whisked back to his family and rig at Mt. Bachelor.

He was pretty cold. He had good light poly and pile layers, but not an overnight weight puffy coat. He might have been in a pickle if he had to stop using his major muscles to create heat. He is thankful for his last moment decision to put his rain jacket and pants into his pack (along with his two or three light layers to adjust and avoid sweat wetness as he exercised). He had no provision for shelter (but he did not plan to be lost overnight ;-)).

Pat Credican sent me the following email message:
"Bob, not a bad write up. Thanks for being merciful. Two corrections – I started out with my wife Carolyn and two family friends, not my daughter. Then wife and friend returned and I and the other friend continued.

The other is that the “cold and hungry” reported in the paper was made up out of thin air by the reporter. I had plenty of clothes on – trying to keep a balance between overheating and sweating and staying dry from the precipitation. I had two more backup, warm dry shirts still in my pack. I had plenty of food too and was adequately hydrated due to being able to get water from the creek.

I keep analyzing where I went wrong and have mostly concluded that I had good enough instruments and map, but “assumed” I could remember the route by looking at the terrain. I had taken the route the month before on a wonderful ski with my son, though at that time it was hard crust whereas this week it was fairly deep powder. I believe different conditions also altered my perception of the landscape. I think if I had taken a good bearing and followed my compass more closely in the beginning, I would have been just fine, but instead, I was in a hurry and assumed that I could just go by what looks and “feels” right. That is usually how I get turned around and it almost always happens on a low visibility or cloudy day. Obviously I have always managed to “find” myself. Probably a novice outdoorsman would have been more careful and relied more on their instruments and thereby stayed out of trouble.

I like to think this was a fairly minor deviation for most people that spend much time in remote areas hiking or hunting. What made it noteworthy, and more embarrassing, was that other folks were waiting for me at the other end and we lost communication and they made the responsible choice to call search and rescue. I think they did the right thing by not waiting all night.

Keep up the good work, Bob.
Climb On!"
Pat

Here is our visualization of Pat's possible track

We used My TOPO's Terrain Navigator Pro software and traced where we think Pat got caught in the Soda Creek drainage, was unable to climb up hill in the deep un-consolidated snow on a 20 degree day and decided to continue down Soda Creek to Cascade Lakes Highway at Sparks Lake:

Additional important information:
Cell phone providers have been increasing tower coverage, year by year. Update your phone and then check your favorite recreation areas for current coverage.
Much of the high desert recreation areas and the Three Sisters Wilderness are covered by Verizon CDMA cell phone towers. Other providers will tell the customer that they have the same coverage, (due to reciprocal agreements), but my understanding is that cell phones of all other companies, all using GSM technology, can not "see" or ping CDMA towers. Check this yourself under "clear skies".

Voice communication is much better than texting: You have positive interaction in the communication. Many people do not text, some have turned off the text function in their cell phones.

However, hunters, climbers and others who adventure into the backcountry, should carry a $149.00 SPOT-2 GPS Satellite Messenger. This new device will send a message home, "I'm OK and having fun exactly here on this map"; or message friends "I could use a little help, exactly here"; or send a message to 911 "I need help exactly here, right now - see the map attached," (taking the Search out of Search and Rescue)!

1. Practice the Four Basic Responsibilities of the Backcountry Traveler. They work!  Basic Responsibilities

4. Always stay found on your topo map and be aware of major land features. If visibility starts to wane, reconfirm your bearings with your map, compass and GPS and quickly return to a known location. A GPS is the only practical way for a trained individual to navigate in a whiteout or blowing snow.  Lost Mt Hood Climbers

A suggested minimum standard news advisory for all backcountry travelers!

"We would like to take this opportunity to ask our visitors to the backcountry of Oregon to Plan for the unexpected. Each person should dress for the forecast weather and take minimum extra clothing to provide protection from a drop in temperature and possible rain or snow storm or an unexpected cold wet night out. Each person should carry high carbohydrate snacks, two quarts of water or Gatorade, a topo map and declination adjusted base plate compass and an optional inexpensive GPS (and the skills to use them together). Each person who has a cell phone should carry their ordinary charged cell phone (from a service provider that has the best local backcountry coverage). An inexpensive SPOT-2 GPS Satellite Communicator is a good additional option for some. Each person should carry their selected items from the new 'Ten Essentials Systems' in a day pack sized for the individual, the trip, the season and the forecast weather."

"Visitors are reminded to tell a Responsible Person where they are going, where they plan to park, when they will be back and to make sure that person understands that they are relied upon to call 911 at a certain time if the backcountry traveler has not returned. Call 911 as soon as you become lost or stranded. You will not be charged. Do not try to find your way until you are benighted, exhausted, or worse yet - wet. Your ordinary cell phone call to 911 can take the 'Search' out of Search and Rescue."

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