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Three snowshoers found safe after nights lost on Mount Hood

Portland Mountain Rescue finds three hikers lost on Mount Hood

Portland Mountain Rescue finds three hikers lost on Mount Hood
Monday, December 24, 2012
Portland Mountain Rescue had the privilege of giving three backcountry travelers the gift of coming home safely to their families for the holidays. On Saturday, December 22, 2012, the party of three adults left the White River West Snopark bound for the White River Hut for the night to celebrate a birthday. They were attempting to follow the Mineral Creek Trail on the south side of State Highway 35.

Over six feet of snow had accumulated in the area during the prior week and snow was still coming down. Breaking trail through deep snow in challenging terrain combined with difficulty finding and staying on the trail impeded their progress and exhausted them. The two women were on snow shoes and the man was on cross country skis. They were unable to find the hut before dark and kept searching through the night.

Understanding their predicament, they moved about in attempts to obtain a connection on their cell phone. They managed to connect to 911 sometime early on Sunday, but the connection was poor. The 911 system was unable to get a fix on their location through the phone’s GPS.

On Sunday, the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office activated the Crag Rats to search the White River area north of Highway 35, which was the area suggested by the limited information available by estimating their location from the cell phone signal. The Crag Rats did not locate them before dark and the search was curtailed until Monday morning. Sometime Sunday afternoon, the lost party managed to establish a good cell phone connection and communicated their exact coordinates to the Sheriff. This location was near Mineral Creek about 4 miles southwest of the snopark on Highway 35.

Sunday night, the Sheriff asked Portland Mountain Rescue to assist searching on Monday. Twelve PMR members and three rescuers from the Crag Rats formed three teams at dawn on Monday. Two teams were inserted by snow cats that transported them south on different Forest Service roads. The third team traveled on skis down Mineral Creek, attempting to follow the trail. All three teams intended to search different routes and converge on the coordinates the lost party gave the sheriff.

By 10:15 a.m., the first team to reach the coordinates quickly made contact with the lost party using voice and whistle calls. The three were tired, cold and hungry, but otherwise healthy. After hot drinks and high calorie snacks, the party agreed they could travel on foot aided by the rescuers. The quickest evacuation route required climbing a steep 1000 vertical feet and about a mile to reach a snow cat waiting on a ridge. Deep snow, heavy packs, challenging terrain and inadequate gear made this an exhausting and slow endeavor for the lost party, even with considerable help from the rescuers. After a three-hour effort, everyone was loaded on the snow cat and they arrived back at the snopark to waiting family and friends around 3:00 p.m.

Portland Mountain Rescue urges back country travelers to check and understand back country conditions before setting out. Set objectives consistent with the conditions and the skill and strength of your party. Research unfamiliar territory and plan navigation in advance. Plot waypoints on your map and enter them in a GPS. Then set a turn-round time and head back to safety if you have not reached your destination by that time.

What can be learned from this interesting incident?

We have been unable to talk to the stranded hikers. Federal HIPPA privacy laws prevent medical personnel, including SAR Volunteer Units, from providing contact information for patients. If Mark Kelsey, Margarita Estrada and Deborah Shindler of Oregon will contact us, we will correct any inaccuracies in our analysis. This analysis is not a 'could-a, would-a, should-a exercise', but a traditional effort to help folks learn valuable lessons from the experiences of other climbers.

From news reports, "Three people who got lost while snowshoeing since Saturday were brought back to safety by rescuers Monday afternoon and were reunited with family members. Search and Rescue teams were activated Sunday afternoon after Mark Kelsey, an experienced mountaineer, Margarita Estrada and Deborah Shindler got lost and spent the night in cold conditions on Mount Hood. Just after 10:30 a.m. Monday, the snowshoers were all found safe. Search team members then spent most of the day leading them off the mountain and back to the White River West Sno Park on Highway 35 where they started their excursion. They arrived at the snow park at about 3:30 p.m."

"The Hood River County Sheriff's Office initially said the group planned on camping overnight and were equipped with sleeping bags and food. But later it was learned the group did not have any sleeping bags and very little food. The trio initially called for help Sunday afternoon while trying to reach a 'rustic cabin', according to Russell Gubele with Mountain Wave Search and Rescue."

Note the significant differences in the details in the three accounts of this search and rescue. The Leader used cross country skis, the followers had to break their own trail in deep snow, on snowshoes.

Note that the trio was exposed for two nights and three days, almost completely un-prepared for the forecast mild wet winter weather on Mount Hood in December, and rescued about 4.2 miles from their cars!

Were they Prepared for their adventure? Based on my 40 years experience in traditional mountaineering education, I find from the news reports and video and from accounts by the trio, that the two women and their Leader had completely underestimated the inherent risks of their specific adventure and individually lacked most of the traditional essential individual trip, season and weather dependent light weight preparedness gear, suggested by The (Seattle) Mountaineers' Ten Essential Systems, the standard list nationwide, for more than eight years.

The Ten Essential Systems detail how each individual on a hike or ride or climb can Be Prepared for an almost inevitable unexpected event that might lead to a stranding overnight or longer, by carrying a light day pack with individual sized, seasonal, weather forecast and trip objective related items selected from this traditional list: 1-Navigation, 2-Sun Protection, 3-Insulation, 4-Illumination, 5-First Aid, 6-Fire Starter, 7-Tools, 8-Nutrition, 9-Hydration, 10-Emergency Shelter and (11)-Communication. What do you carry in your day pack in the winter?

Specifically:
1. Navigation: "A GPS device the group carried indicated several trails to the cabin, but the one they took had been washed out when the White River flooded. The three then hiked for about 20 hours looking for the trail but were unsuccessful."

It seems clear that they did not have the correct USGS 1:24,000 Quad topo map, $8.00, or a declination adjusted (16 degrees east) clear baseplate compass, $25.00, to find their way without a current GPS.

I seems clear that they did not have a "GPS device", a common hand held current GPS DOD satellite receiver such as the Garmin eTrex Venture HC $150.00, with an internal 1:24,000 topo used by millions of ordinary folks world wide -for Geocaching- finding multi millions of geographic points, for adventure travel and hunting or the skills to relate their highly accurate GPS geographic location to a paper Quad topo map or to the ground.

I understand that they used a smart phone with a "GPS" navigation application. Their inability to GO TO the rustic cabin or to return to the point where they left the trail or to their car is typical of a costly cell phone "navigation app" designed for commercial motorized travel. To follow a pointer on the GPS to 'GO TO' a simple waypoint is a hallmark of the hand held GPS. The radio receiver is linked to the DOD military satellite system in the sky overhead, not to commercial cell phone towers serving population centers.

2. Sun Protection: The forecast called for snow showers. This was not known to be a factor

3. Insulation (Clothing layers): The three kept on the move for 20 straight hours. "All night long, we couldn't stop," Shindler said. Around 5 a.m. Sunday, they paused and made coffee, hot chocolate and peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches. Estrada was wet and cold, Shindler said, and "we couldn't get a fire going."

Clearly, they survived more than two days and nights outside in stormy weather, so they had enough clothing insulation to survive. Moving for 20 hours overnight was necessary to avoid hypothermia from clothing insulation wet from melted snow and perhaps sweat. Maintaining their high level of activity kept them from becoming hypothermic, but they suffered at night. We note that the women are pictured upon return to the snow park, in borrowed SAR waterproof-breathable shells, Waterproof-breathable shells may seem unnecessary in cold snowy weather. But waterproof-breathable shells should be carried on all but the most warm summer days and windless nights at lower elevations. What do you wear in the winter?

4. Illumination: They must have had headlamps or flashlights to travel during the night for a continuous 19 hours through difficult steep terrain to stay moving and warm the first night. They stayed in place, 'sheltered' in a tree well with the increasingly cold night air pooling in the tree well, the second night.

5. First Aid, such as big Band-Aids and personal pills: It is unreported what personal first aid supplies each individual carried. Why are First Aid Kits dangerous?

6. Fire Starter: "Estrada was wet and cold, Shindler said, and 'we couldn't get a fire going'."

They were unable to start a "warming fire" in the Winter conditions, even though they had a small backpacking stove to help get a fire started. In our personal experience, it is almost impossible to start a warming fire in the three wet seasons of Central Oregon when a fire would be most helpful. 'Making a warming fire' seems to be foundational to most Survivalist Instruction, (a cottage industry for many).

7. Tools, such as a sharp little Swiss Army knife and duct tape. Unreported.

8. Nutrition: "The Hood River County Sheriff's Office initially said the group planned on staying overnight in a "rustic cabin' equipped with insulating pads and sleeping bags. But later it was learned the group did not have any sleeping bags and very little food."

The so called 'rustic cabin' was actually a small metal trailer hauled up a forest road in the Fall season and rented for $100.00 and more, by a business, under permit from the Forest Service, to winter visitors to Mount Hood. Cascade Huts.

The human body creates heat from exercise of the large muscles and the chemical work of digesting food. Read more: Calorie and Fluid Replacement during traditional alpine climbing.

9. Hydration: Their Guide carried a backpacking stove and a pot which they used to melt snow for drinking water. (It is dangerous to "eat snow" while inactive because it chills the body and helps induce Hypothermia).

Without hydration, the blood thickens and circulation is slowed - speeding a downward slope to Hypothermia.

10. Emergency Shelter:  "With the help of Kelsey's experience, the group built a 'snow cave' for protection against the elements." "(We) tried to sleep. We had nothing to sleep on," said Estrada. "Thank God we had Mark – we built a snow cave and tried to sleep, but couldn't sleep. And so these guys (the rescuers) saved us."

The three hikers clearly lacked the ability to build a traditional Snow Cave. They lacked the tools (two light weight snow shovels) and likely, the snow depth, to construct a "Snow Cave" defined as being dug upward into a deep snow drift, having thick insulating snow walls and a thick domed roof enclosing a 'bench' situated above the top of the entrance (to trap the air warmed by the occupants breath and radiated body heat). Snow caves can be dangerous.

They constructed a "snow shelter", not a snow cave. They spent the second night in a tree well covered with branches and new snow. A tree well acts as a trap for the coldest air moving down slope nearby. Warmed air escapes up and away in a 'snow shelter', the opposite of a 'Snow Cave' that traps the warmed air from the occupants.

Note that each person lacked an Essential 6 oz. personal insulating pad $16.00, a mandatory Essential for winter adventures, to protect them from lying in compressed clothing directly on the snow or frozen foliage.

Hikers at elevation in the Fall should carry Essential Shelter in the form of a two pound all-season single wall tent and a 6 oz. insulating pad. A hiking companion might carry a light sleeping bag for an emergency bivy, overnight.

11. Communication: "They decided to call for help, getting in touch with a 911 dispatcher, and rescuers were able to pin down their location after their GPS device was able to send out a brief signal."

Note that they continued moving to stay warm and to try to find their way for 20 hours before calling 911, waiting an un-necessary 20 hours, risking loss of battery power for their one cell phone. At first, they connected with only one tower and a triangulated position was not obtained, only a broad liner position. It appears that they had good cell phone reception the second day, from more than one cell tower, since their digital cell phone's Provider was able to "ping" their phone and give SAR (through 911) their geographic (UTM-NAD 27) location by triangulation from two or more cell towers (according to one source). FCC E911 Requirements for Providing Mobile Phone Geographic Locations

Note that it is unlikely that a GPS was involved in any way. 'GPS' stands for 'Global Positioning System', a constellation of satellites operated by the Department of Defense to provide world wide geographic locations to all ships, aircraft and land based users. It is used by surveyors to pinpoint locations to the fraction of an inch. Russia operates a similar constellation. Some current inexpensive hand help Garmin GPS receivers use both the American and Russian GPS Systems, simultaneously. Only a more expensive smart phones contain a GPS chip. Verizon does not use "GPS" to provide geographic locations, they use the triangulation of recorded pings. The cell phone industry has co-opted the term "GPS position" from Garmin and other actual GPS navigation devices introduced in cars and trucks to follow a moving point on a planimetric road map. The cell phone is a communication device that has the unique ability to give SAR its location The sense of cell

We can assume that two more personal cell phones were left behind in a conscious decision that "one cell phone would do". Not so, of course: Three cell phones equal three phone batteries, perhaps more than one Provider, with three times the Essential Communication ability as one cell phone.

Mt. Hood is not a community park. Visitors are expected to Be Prepared with individual seasonal, weather and trip-related selected essential items from each of the Ten Essential Systems.

But, of course, the three snowshoe hikers did not intend to become lost and stranded over-night, let alone two nights. But that may not be a good reason to be so Unprepared.

Ordinary cell phone coverage has improved, year by year, to the time of this writing in 2012 - see below for "The Rest of the Story". Check and learn your own cell coverage in your favorite backcountry areas. Much of the High Desert, the Three Sisters Wilderness and Mt. Hood now is covered by Verizon using CDMA code. The cell phones from other (urban) providers are not able to "see" CDMA towers and will not connect.

Back country travelers should carry a base plate declination adjustable compass costing $25.00 a $7.00 topo map annotated with the UTM Geographic Coordinant Grid and simple current model Garmin GPS costing as little as $100.00.. A stranded person can take the search out of SAR by simply reading the UTM Geographic Coordinants to the Incident Commander over the cell phone. Consider a $100.00  SPOT-2 Satellite Messenger if cell phone towers may not cover the area you plan to explore.

Here are some Basic suggestions for all backcountry travelers

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

2. Carry the new Ten Essential Systems, sized for the forecast weather and the adventure in a light day pack. This includes a map, compass and GPS and the skills to use them. In the winter, this includes enough extra insulation and waterproof clothing to keep you dry and warm if you become stranded. In snow, you must have a shovel and insulating pad and the skills to make a shelter in the snow to avoid hypothermia and frost bite damage. It works!  Ten Essential Systems

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, becoming benighted, exhausted, or worse yet - wet. Your ordinary cell phone call to 911 and conversation with SAR, can take the 'Search' out of Search and Rescue."

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