I promised a detailed account of the the day Snojo got hurt, but first I want to talk about the night before.
A little backround info is in order for this story to make sense. I am a helicopter pilot for a Emergency Medical/Search and Rescue outfit in Idaho Falls. We work for the hospital and service East Idaho, Western Wyoming, and Southwestern Montana. We are a private company and not connected with any County or State agency, we respond to requests for help from those agencies.
On saturday night the 19th of Jan I was on shift and we got a call around midnight to do a search for lost snowmobilers in the mountains west of Alpine WY. The only info we had was two males called their wives and said they were lost and to launch S&R, they thought they were near Poker Peak. I am very familiar with that area so I accepted the flight and launched to see if we could find them. The local S&R was not going in till the morning unless we came up with a GPS coordinate for them.
As far as we knew they were not hurt just lost and the potential for serious cold exposure. I took off and did a search of the area and found them. We fly with Night Vision Goggles or we would never have found them in the middle of the night. It was not an area that I could land so we got a Lat/Log, and dropped them two sleeping bags. We called in their position to S&R and went back to base for the rest of the night.
The local S&R mounted up and headed in to get those guys out, they had about 10 people going out in the middle of the night to try and help. The S&R did get to them and offered assistance. AND HERE IS THE KICKER:The guys refused help and said they wanted to stay!
I went riding up there Sun. morning with my wife, Snojo and Dam Dave and who do we meet coming out? You guessed it the two guys wo wanted to have a winter camp-out while fifteen people risk life and limb to try and help.
I had a talk with one of the guys at the top of a big climb that is the way out. I told him that a lot of people hung it out to try and help him and his friend and he was really not concerned about any of that, he did thank me for the sleeping bags though. I asked him where his friend was and he said he was walking up the hill because he wasn't a good rider and couldn't make it up. I offered to go down and get everyone gathered up and show them the easy way out but he said "no thanks". I asked him to just put the sleeping bags in the back of my truck at the parking lot and I had to walk away.
At this point I just put on my helment and me and my group took off.
The point of this novel is that this whole rodeo was so F***ed up in so many ways and this is the kind of Bull S**t that gives sledders and all outdoor adventurers a bad name with the public and S&R.
Here are my thoughts:
1 If you call your wife/husband and say you are lost - THEY WILL FREAK OUT.
2 If you need help ask for it, if you don't need help MAKE IT CLEAR, so other people don't put theirselves at risk for you.
3 If you are lost have the tools to help yourself and help others to help you. GPS, COMMUNICATIONS, SHELTER, FOOD, FIRE, ETC. ETC.
Doing this type of thing is my job and the majority of people we help in the backcountry are very appreciative and I really like to be able do this type of work. It is very rewarding to help out fellow sledders and it could just as easily be me on the other end of this deal.
BUT: It only takes one call like this to really piss you off and realize there are a lot of slob riders out there that need to clean up their act.
I could go on for ever but I would like to hear some other people comment on this deal.
Thanks, Matt.
A little backround info is in order for this story to make sense. I am a helicopter pilot for a Emergency Medical/Search and Rescue outfit in Idaho Falls. We work for the hospital and service East Idaho, Western Wyoming, and Southwestern Montana. We are a private company and not connected with any County or State agency, we respond to requests for help from those agencies.
On saturday night the 19th of Jan I was on shift and we got a call around midnight to do a search for lost snowmobilers in the mountains west of Alpine WY. The only info we had was two males called their wives and said they were lost and to launch S&R, they thought they were near Poker Peak. I am very familiar with that area so I accepted the flight and launched to see if we could find them. The local S&R was not going in till the morning unless we came up with a GPS coordinate for them.
As far as we knew they were not hurt just lost and the potential for serious cold exposure. I took off and did a search of the area and found them. We fly with Night Vision Goggles or we would never have found them in the middle of the night. It was not an area that I could land so we got a Lat/Log, and dropped them two sleeping bags. We called in their position to S&R and went back to base for the rest of the night.
The local S&R mounted up and headed in to get those guys out, they had about 10 people going out in the middle of the night to try and help. The S&R did get to them and offered assistance. AND HERE IS THE KICKER:The guys refused help and said they wanted to stay!
I went riding up there Sun. morning with my wife, Snojo and Dam Dave and who do we meet coming out? You guessed it the two guys wo wanted to have a winter camp-out while fifteen people risk life and limb to try and help.
I had a talk with one of the guys at the top of a big climb that is the way out. I told him that a lot of people hung it out to try and help him and his friend and he was really not concerned about any of that, he did thank me for the sleeping bags though. I asked him where his friend was and he said he was walking up the hill because he wasn't a good rider and couldn't make it up. I offered to go down and get everyone gathered up and show them the easy way out but he said "no thanks". I asked him to just put the sleeping bags in the back of my truck at the parking lot and I had to walk away.
At this point I just put on my helment and me and my group took off.
The point of this novel is that this whole rodeo was so F***ed up in so many ways and this is the kind of Bull S**t that gives sledders and all outdoor adventurers a bad name with the public and S&R.
Here are my thoughts:
1 If you call your wife/husband and say you are lost - THEY WILL FREAK OUT.
2 If you need help ask for it, if you don't need help MAKE IT CLEAR, so other people don't put theirselves at risk for you.
3 If you are lost have the tools to help yourself and help others to help you. GPS, COMMUNICATIONS, SHELTER, FOOD, FIRE, ETC. ETC.
Doing this type of thing is my job and the majority of people we help in the backcountry are very appreciative and I really like to be able do this type of work. It is very rewarding to help out fellow sledders and it could just as easily be me on the other end of this deal.
BUT: It only takes one call like this to really piss you off and realize there are a lot of slob riders out there that need to clean up their act.
I could go on for ever but I would like to hear some other people comment on this deal.
Thanks, Matt.
Your a better man than I!!
