|
Wright's Lake Search for Glen
(or "Nerd to the Rescue")
July 2000
On Thursday night, July 6, 2000, west slope SAR got a late night callout for a 36-year old male with a medical condition who was lost near Wright's Lake.
By midnight, I and about eight other volunteers were on Wright's Lake road. The Tahoe team was already on scene, and were asking what to program into their the radios. I was going to stop and grab my ready book, but Jim Wassner had the numbers at his fingertips.
By the time we had pulled into the small parking lot at the Wright's Lake information station. the seven or so Tahoe members already hiking up the trail, accompanied by one 4WD unit. Their radios were sort of faint, but that's not unusual in the mountains
In the pitch black night, we found Deputy Bill Wilson behind his patrol rig, talking to the subject's friends, and he gave us the scoop.
The subject, Glen, and 3 friends were staying in a cabin at Wright's Lake. On Thursday afternoon, they hiked up the Barrett Lake jeep trail. Glen fell behind on the way back, however, and when his friends backtracked, all they found was his water bottle. All four had been drinking heavily and, as it turned out, Glen's medical condition was chronic alcoholism.
The big comm van rolled up about a half hour later, and while Frank Munoz interviewed Glen's friends inside, Bill Fisher and Dennis Barbee struggled to get the extended antenna up. "Do you know, does this go on here? Where does the cable connect? Think this part will help?" We hoped the big mast would help us hear the Tahoe folks better, as well as get us some cell phone coverage. Meanwhile, I worked on grouping people into teams, Michael Corum sketched Glen's shoe print and Jim Wassner sat at the computer plotting assignments.
Dennis Barbee and I hit the Barret Lake Jeep Trail about 0130. There was no moon, and we hiked by flashlight. As we walked we could hear snatches of Team 1's traffic, though they were still fading in and out. We automatically came to a dead stop, however, when we heard them say they had found Glen's pack and sleeping bag. If that was true, then Glen was probably nearby.
Indeed he was. It wasn't much later when we heard, "Command Post, Team 1, clear the air for emergency traffic!" Then silence.
On a SAR, nothing gets your attention like the words "emergency traffic." The ominous silence probably meant they really had their hands full. I hoped it was because they had found Glen and not because someone had fallen off a cliff or something. Sure enough, over the radio came the faint report that they had found Glen, that he was ALOC, (altered level of consciousness), hypothermic and had minor injuries. Team 1 wanted to discuss the possibility of evacuating him, but their signal was so weak that Dick Lowe in CP couldn't always hear them.
What a rotten time to have radio problems! I tried to think of something that would help. I knew that the Tahoe unit often uses CalCoord channel, and I remembered the frequency was 156.075. So Dennis held the flashlight while I programmed my radio, and when I called "Team 1, SAR 7," they answered like they were next door. Cowabunga, Batman! Radio nerd to the rescue! I offered to relay, and conversations started flowing once again. Soon, Dick came up on CalCoord and was talking directly to the Team 1.
Dennis and I continued on in, and soon met up with Karen Gilman and Rob Blumenthal, and then with Bill Fisher and Andrea Henderson. By that time Team 1 had decided not to evacuate Glen until daylight, so Dennis built a fire and all six of us bivouacked where we were.
No matter what month it is, every night is a winter night in the mountains. No one got much sleep thanks to the cold, and finally, about 5 a.m. there was enough light that we packed up and started hiking again.
The sun wasn't up yet dawn when we found the Tahoe folks camped on a broad granite plateau sprinkled with boulders. Glen was by the fire, wrapped in a sleeping bag and a reflective blanket. He was semi-coherent, delirious and obviously not doing well.
A carryout was out of the question because of the distance back to base camp and the lack of a litter wheel. We beseeched CP to get us helicopter. After some hesitation, they agreed and in about an hour CHP Helicopter 20 appeared, circled once, and settled down on the gray granite.
The CHP paramedic examined Glen, then started an IV for his dehydration. We moved Glen onto the CHP stretcher, then carried him to the chopper. With the blades still turning overhead, we heaved him up, slid him through the large rear doors, and then turned and hustled for cover. When we were out of the way, the helicopter revved and rose, then hovered, turned, and took off in the direction of Sutter Hospital in Roseville.
All that was left for us was to pick up our gear and hike our weary bodies back to base camp — no small task carrying that Stokes litter full of gear, but we took turns. On the trail, the Tahoe folks proved themselves good company, as well as real pros in the search and rescue business.
Final note: Tahoe's radio problems, we later discovered, were due to a mix up in the PL tones (the tones that activate the closest mountaintop repeater). Jim gave them the tone for Zone 5, alright, but somehow they ended up with Zone 4 in their radios. In other words, they were talking through a repeater somewhere near Georgetown!
Another Perspective
Double Probation Pat Hambel
To begin with, I would like to thank the employers on behalf of their employee -volunteers. Without the flexibility and sacrifice that these businesses are willing to contribute, many victims would suffer. Similarly, without your employee's skills in the wilderness, however inconvenient the circumstances, some would perish.
The search for a lost hiker, Glen, on the Barrett jeep trail (just past Wright's Lake) was toned out at about 9 p.m. on Sunday July 6, 2000. Joe, Judy, Lynda, Shannon, Robert, Donnie, and Pat arrived at Wright's Lake and were assigned as a first in hasty team to proceed 3 miles up the trail to the position last seen. Joe made an admirable attempt up the extreme terrain with his stock Jeep but this was one time that walking was faster than driving.
We made contact with the reporting party exiting the trailhead as we were heading in.. They had been looking for 4 hours. They were very informative ... but only as to the level of consciousness of our victim. These guys rambled on and gave us the basics we needed ... he'd consumed 1/2 gal. of Vodka (and they must have been doing their best to match him), he had 4 MREs with him, wearing shorts, T shirt, last seen 4 hours ago near a mysterious water bottle on the trail.
One of the reporting party got dizzy from our head lamps and took a 3 foot header down a rock slope from the trail. Well, we maintained our composure and professionalism, managed to help this altered and unfortunate victim back to his feet, and sent them all back to CP.
Cutting ahead 2 hours, enroute to the PLS, Lynda spots the dark green pack and purple sleeping bag our victim had been carrying, stashed in the bushes, 5 feet off the trail, at night. We started beating brush with 3 members below and 3 above the trail, and made good use of an hour immediately around the discarded gear, flagging off the location for scent and tracking.
We stopped for a 15 minute food and water break and conferred with Command about probability of area and direction ( remember his buddy's condition). We decided to search near the pack for awhile longer so we flanked the trail again, 3 members up hill and 3 down hill at 20 to 50 foot intervals, and proceeded West towards the PLS, which we had now located. It was now 2 AM and just below 40 degrees.
We finally got a verbal response after about 1/4 mile of bush whacking. Then, the response stopped! We confirmed with each other that we weren't hearing things (we were 3 for 6 on that one) and after an aggravating 5 minutes, all 6 of us converged on the victim. He was wet, wearing shorts and T-shirt, no shoes, with arms and legs pointing up to the sky (like a dead bug). This guy was shaking uncontrollably and very altered in consciousness (hypothermic and DT's) and was covered with cuts and abrasions.
The team went into a flurry with assessment, warming fire, location and condition of victim to ICP, hot liquids cooking, and confirming that a litter team was on the way ricky tic! (By this time, a number of West Slope teams had also deployed and they began to redirect their teams to our location). After 20 minutes of warming the victim, Shannon and myself were tasked to get his gear 1/4 mile away for dry clothes etc. We found out on our return with his wet gear that he had taken several falls and one was into the river with his pack.
A team finally carried in the litter just before sunrise and informed us that others were in the process of getting the wheel that belonged to it ........ hmmmmm. Soon after, additional West Slope manpower showed up as well, but without a wheel there was no way we could carry Glenn out without great risk of injury to ourselves.
CP finally agreed to contact H-20 (CHP helicopter) who saved our bacon again (we gotta have a party for these guys!). At around 7AM, they executed a great confined area landing on some granite slabs only 100 feet away. With our still hallucinating, but warmed victim safe on H-20 on the way to Roseville hospital to be reunited with his dog Coco-Puffs, we started out on the trail home.
We were talking about what were 'gonna order at Chris' Cafe when Todd Crawford came up and informed us that he'd brought donuts and coffee to hold us over. I myself was on about 32 hours without sleep by this time.
Command post and Coordinators did a good job, and someone at. Command post even called my boss in the morning and explained why I wasn't there again. Then they did Shannon the same favor. Thanks for whatever you told them!
From the editor: I wanted to add that Glen provided us with the most rewarding search and rescue in a long time. Not only did Tahoe SAR have a good turnout, a rapid response (first in) and then actually find and stabilize the victim, but his hallucinatory state kept us entertained all night long. Not a bad substitute for a good nights sleep.
Glen explained that the reason he didn't respond when he heard us calling was that he thought we were the "gay EMT strippers" who lived down the street. He would get a little cold and must have said "would someone please close that door" at least 50 times during the night , and then asked if we could install a fan when the fire got a little smoky. We were invited to his house in Millbrae where he bar-b-ques indoors as he watches the bears swimming in his hot tub (not too many bears in the South Bay). At one point he asked us to "pay no attention to that naked man walking around over there"...explaining that it was his roommate, and he kept trying to reach into the campfire to fiddle with the "TV'.
Altered state and all, however, Glenn was polite, nicer than many of our clients, and very appreciative of the help we were able to extend.
|