here is a start. Please critique.
A snowmobiler is Lost!!!!
By Doug Miller
Copyright negated. Any parts of this are welcome to be reproduced in any way that might possibly help someone somewhere.
Lost snowmobilers in the west are typically found eventually. The goal for most is to find them quicker. This short narrative will assist search teams in effectively finding lost snowmobilers in the Western United States.
First is First.
As a search Incident Coordinator, you will be called at some point to look for lost snowmobilers. Typically a dispatch agency will be calling, and together you will figure out what information is available.
In a perfect world, the dispatch agency will have exact location of where the person is lost. They will obtain this through in depth, at length direct discussions with the lost person on their cell phone, who has a precise fix on where they are at.
Of course in a perfect world, Search and Rescue would never get called, so lets get back to the regular world.
We get phone calls from Dispatch or the Sheriff that “some snowmobilers are lost.”
Some pertinent questions we have trained our Sheriff to expect from us:
1. Where is the truck parked, and when will you verify this?
2. When did the lost people leave the truck.
3. What medical conditions do any of the lost people have.
4. How old are the lost people?
5. Who reported the lost people.
6. What is their phone number, and are they expecting a phone call from us?
7. Do you have a cell phone number for the lost people?
8. What are the lost people’s name?
9. Any other details on where the lost people might be?
The questions are in order for a reason. The first 7 questions are FACTS. They are facts that can be confirmed and documented. The first two questions help to verify that someone is actually lost. We request a deputy physically look at the vehicle before we leave, and our Sheriff is perfectly happy to help us in this. This gives you a general location as to where to start, and a time frame for how long they have been lost.
The third and fourth question gives you an urgency level. We have had several searches where someone had diabetes and no medication. A 35 year old male hunter in prime condition might get to spend the night on the mountain, where an 8 year old girl gets the full Attention Horn treatment complete with night search.
5, 6, and 7 are ways we can call the reporting parties and glean more information. Further, this is something all dispatchers will collect, so it reestablishes comeradery if some of the earlier questions fell upon rocky shores.
8 is something the paperwork requires.
9 is a desperate attempt at fishing for more information.
So from this, we are supposed to find the person. If we have done our homework, the next steps are straight forward.
1. Pull up a map of the area.
2. Pull up a weather forecast.
3. Call up another IC and start bouncing ideas, and making sure you are intelligent and settled down.
4. Get out the call out sheet, and start calling.
Decisions
The first decision is whether to callout immediately, or wait. Items 3 and 4 combined with weather forecast help decide on whether to get an immediate callout, or wait for the next morning.
An 8 year old in a specific snowbank 2 miles off a plowed road with a storm rolling in is a formula for a night search.
5 35 year old males somewhere in the county is a formula for a next day search. Real life is something in between.
I have pulled the trigger on numerous night searches. I make the decision based upon odds of lost person getting hurt versus odds of wasting time of night searcher, balanced against the third leg of availability of Pro Riders. Because I have a list of Pro Riders at my elbow, I tend to pull this trigger a lot with great results.
Categorizing Riders
Pro Riders. Almost all snowmobilers consider themselves great riders. The trick is to figure out who really will benefit the team.
A Pro team should have a terrain expert. This is someone who knows the area well enough to not get lost at night in a snowstorm, and who has the gonads to convince the group he is right. This person does not have to be a great rider, but this person should be able to follow the group, and offer general direction of where they are, and where they should head.
A team should have a Rider Leader. In a perfect world, this person is also the terrain expert, but at the minimum this person should be an excellent rider capable of choosing a way to get from where they are at to where they are headed.
A team needs a third person. At a minimum they should be not the weakest rider of the bunch.
Teams of three are a minimum. If a team wants to have 6 or more riders in it, let them all go together, and write them off as mediocre. Keep track of them, as you might be looking for them later.
The great riders won’t question a 3 team minimum, and will squack loudly at more then 4.
Night Searches
Night searches for lost snowmobilers can be highly effective. Often you can get out the day someone was lost, and still find their tracks even in snowstorms.
Often searchers can get to a high spot and see headlights and fires from a huge distance.
Often sound can be heard from tremendous distances.
However, all this is balanced against wasting your best riders by a hasty search at night in marginal conditions.
Further, the knowledge of the Terrain Expert becomes indispensable, and the riding skill level of the searchers becomes more important.
Some general advice for night rides..
Make the “Pep Talk” really directive.
Make sure each team knows how many in their team.
Insist on Checkins
Make sure the teams all know what each other are doing.
Do not waste time on Patrols. Lost people don’t travel at night as a rule, and you probably don’t want to encourage it.
Patrols
For day searches, some of the rules change. The most effective way to find lost people is to let the lost people find a searcher. Take the major trails that propogate through the search area, and assign certain teams of 2 or 3 more dependable and novice teams to patrol these areas on a regular basis.
A great example is to take an older couple that wants to help, and assign them a loop to ride around on all day long. The loop should take no longer then an hour or two, and explain to the couple the importance of their efforts.
The first time a lost person hears a snowmobile pass in the distance, it is a rescuer that missed them. The second time it is another sledder. The third time it might be a pattern, and the fourth time it is worth fighting through the deep snow to get towards.
The older couple that does loops is by far the most likely to find the person, but only if the IC explains the importance to all the searchers.
Hint. Assign this job as the most important job at the Pep Talk, and make a point of explaining WHY. The truth is the Patrols will probably find your lost folks.
Dividing the Terrain.
Divide the terrain by Ridges and Drainages.
Your Patrols follow easy paths be they roads, trails, or cut paths by the Pros.
Your mediocre riders follow the ridge tops where they won’t cause troubles, or ride paths cut by Pros, and turn into glorified Patrols.
Your Pros are hard to utilize. They make the absolute worst patrols as they get bored and creative. Put them to work making paths that are easy enough the mediocre riders can follow as Patrols. Make the paths around the search areas for containment.
Have your Most expert Pros check the bottoms of the creeks. This is truly nasty work, and a mediocre team will soon be stuck and bellowing for help.
Have your Pros drop off the sides of mountains above snowlines making boundaries. Have them recheck these paths at the end of the day. Sometimes lost people will fall downhill until they reach these paths, or sometimes if they are down below they will walk up to the path leaving foot prints.
Under no circumstances should you ever divide the terrain into grids, unless you looking for a lost snowmobiler in Kansas. The Patrols might not find a road, the mediocres will get stuck in the bottoms, and the Pros will search somewhere they aren’t supposed to.
A snowmobiler is Lost!!!!
By Doug Miller
Copyright negated. Any parts of this are welcome to be reproduced in any way that might possibly help someone somewhere.
Lost snowmobilers in the west are typically found eventually. The goal for most is to find them quicker. This short narrative will assist search teams in effectively finding lost snowmobilers in the Western United States.
First is First.
As a search Incident Coordinator, you will be called at some point to look for lost snowmobilers. Typically a dispatch agency will be calling, and together you will figure out what information is available.
In a perfect world, the dispatch agency will have exact location of where the person is lost. They will obtain this through in depth, at length direct discussions with the lost person on their cell phone, who has a precise fix on where they are at.
Of course in a perfect world, Search and Rescue would never get called, so lets get back to the regular world.
We get phone calls from Dispatch or the Sheriff that “some snowmobilers are lost.”
Some pertinent questions we have trained our Sheriff to expect from us:
1. Where is the truck parked, and when will you verify this?
2. When did the lost people leave the truck.
3. What medical conditions do any of the lost people have.
4. How old are the lost people?
5. Who reported the lost people.
6. What is their phone number, and are they expecting a phone call from us?
7. Do you have a cell phone number for the lost people?
8. What are the lost people’s name?
9. Any other details on where the lost people might be?
The questions are in order for a reason. The first 7 questions are FACTS. They are facts that can be confirmed and documented. The first two questions help to verify that someone is actually lost. We request a deputy physically look at the vehicle before we leave, and our Sheriff is perfectly happy to help us in this. This gives you a general location as to where to start, and a time frame for how long they have been lost.
The third and fourth question gives you an urgency level. We have had several searches where someone had diabetes and no medication. A 35 year old male hunter in prime condition might get to spend the night on the mountain, where an 8 year old girl gets the full Attention Horn treatment complete with night search.
5, 6, and 7 are ways we can call the reporting parties and glean more information. Further, this is something all dispatchers will collect, so it reestablishes comeradery if some of the earlier questions fell upon rocky shores.
8 is something the paperwork requires.
9 is a desperate attempt at fishing for more information.
So from this, we are supposed to find the person. If we have done our homework, the next steps are straight forward.
1. Pull up a map of the area.
2. Pull up a weather forecast.
3. Call up another IC and start bouncing ideas, and making sure you are intelligent and settled down.
4. Get out the call out sheet, and start calling.
Decisions
The first decision is whether to callout immediately, or wait. Items 3 and 4 combined with weather forecast help decide on whether to get an immediate callout, or wait for the next morning.
An 8 year old in a specific snowbank 2 miles off a plowed road with a storm rolling in is a formula for a night search.
5 35 year old males somewhere in the county is a formula for a next day search. Real life is something in between.
I have pulled the trigger on numerous night searches. I make the decision based upon odds of lost person getting hurt versus odds of wasting time of night searcher, balanced against the third leg of availability of Pro Riders. Because I have a list of Pro Riders at my elbow, I tend to pull this trigger a lot with great results.
Categorizing Riders
Pro Riders. Almost all snowmobilers consider themselves great riders. The trick is to figure out who really will benefit the team.
A Pro team should have a terrain expert. This is someone who knows the area well enough to not get lost at night in a snowstorm, and who has the gonads to convince the group he is right. This person does not have to be a great rider, but this person should be able to follow the group, and offer general direction of where they are, and where they should head.
A team should have a Rider Leader. In a perfect world, this person is also the terrain expert, but at the minimum this person should be an excellent rider capable of choosing a way to get from where they are at to where they are headed.
A team needs a third person. At a minimum they should be not the weakest rider of the bunch.
Teams of three are a minimum. If a team wants to have 6 or more riders in it, let them all go together, and write them off as mediocre. Keep track of them, as you might be looking for them later.
The great riders won’t question a 3 team minimum, and will squack loudly at more then 4.
Night Searches
Night searches for lost snowmobilers can be highly effective. Often you can get out the day someone was lost, and still find their tracks even in snowstorms.
Often searchers can get to a high spot and see headlights and fires from a huge distance.
Often sound can be heard from tremendous distances.
However, all this is balanced against wasting your best riders by a hasty search at night in marginal conditions.
Further, the knowledge of the Terrain Expert becomes indispensable, and the riding skill level of the searchers becomes more important.
Some general advice for night rides..
Make the “Pep Talk” really directive.
Make sure each team knows how many in their team.
Insist on Checkins
Make sure the teams all know what each other are doing.
Do not waste time on Patrols. Lost people don’t travel at night as a rule, and you probably don’t want to encourage it.
Patrols
For day searches, some of the rules change. The most effective way to find lost people is to let the lost people find a searcher. Take the major trails that propogate through the search area, and assign certain teams of 2 or 3 more dependable and novice teams to patrol these areas on a regular basis.
A great example is to take an older couple that wants to help, and assign them a loop to ride around on all day long. The loop should take no longer then an hour or two, and explain to the couple the importance of their efforts.
The first time a lost person hears a snowmobile pass in the distance, it is a rescuer that missed them. The second time it is another sledder. The third time it might be a pattern, and the fourth time it is worth fighting through the deep snow to get towards.
The older couple that does loops is by far the most likely to find the person, but only if the IC explains the importance to all the searchers.
Hint. Assign this job as the most important job at the Pep Talk, and make a point of explaining WHY. The truth is the Patrols will probably find your lost folks.
Dividing the Terrain.
Divide the terrain by Ridges and Drainages.
Your Patrols follow easy paths be they roads, trails, or cut paths by the Pros.
Your mediocre riders follow the ridge tops where they won’t cause troubles, or ride paths cut by Pros, and turn into glorified Patrols.
Your Pros are hard to utilize. They make the absolute worst patrols as they get bored and creative. Put them to work making paths that are easy enough the mediocre riders can follow as Patrols. Make the paths around the search areas for containment.
Have your Most expert Pros check the bottoms of the creeks. This is truly nasty work, and a mediocre team will soon be stuck and bellowing for help.
Have your Pros drop off the sides of mountains above snowlines making boundaries. Have them recheck these paths at the end of the day. Sometimes lost people will fall downhill until they reach these paths, or sometimes if they are down below they will walk up to the path leaving foot prints.
Under no circumstances should you ever divide the terrain into grids, unless you looking for a lost snowmobiler in Kansas. The Patrols might not find a road, the mediocres will get stuck in the bottoms, and the Pros will search somewhere they aren’t supposed to.
