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Overdue skiers


Dave_Schuldt

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We were touring up near Bear Gap/Crystal Lakes and ran into these guys as they were entering South Backcountry at the top of Chair 4. They seemed pretty cool. They expected it to be a 3-4 day trip and appeared to be packed accordingly. As we all know, avy conditions have not been the safest lately...I hope they are allright! Mileagewise, it's kind of a long tour to know where to focus the search. confused.gif

Edited by savaiusini
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I'm up for this. Anyone else? Grab your gear and we head down there tonight or tomorrow morning to see if SAR needs help.

I'm skeptical on a couple of fronts. I assume we all take personal responsibility for our actions. Nevertheless, SAR will probably turn us down for safety and liability concerns. We don't have a background they can verify and we may get in the way of their efforts.

If one of us gets hurt or killed trying to find these dudes, we'd be taking away SAR resources devoted to finding them, thereby hampering their efforts.

Maybe someone knows contact info for this dude so we don't head there for nothing?

I don't think anyone reading this website is going to ask for our help so it's up to us to act and ask them if they need it.

So:

Contact info for missing guys

Contact info for SAR group looking for these guys

How to get to trail

 

We may get turned away, but at least we tried.

pencil_pusher@hotmail.com

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Mike, check your PM's.

 

Steve, could you call the John Duhrand guy? I cannot make a long distance call from work. See if we can meet one of their people at their base of operations tomorrow morning.

Undoubtedly they'll be skeptical.

 

Okay, I e-mailed that link SEF provided with my contact info. I asked if I could meet someone at their base of operations and said I'd be going down there with at least another person of like experience.

Anyone out there know how to get ahold of either of these two skiers? Maybe they've turned up?

 

 

 

Edited by Pencil_Pusher
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I just called the number listed on Yakima's SAR web site. The guy who answered the phone took down my contact information and said they would be reavaluating the situation in a few hours and would take account that I volunteered to help if need be. I also mentioned that I could probably round up several other people if nescessary (meaning those on this board.) I will post again if I hear back with any news.

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For those of you who hate filling out all that BS

 

By KING5.com Staff and Wire Reports

 

 

CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN, Wash. - Rescue crews Friday began a search in the snow-covered White Pass area for two Seattle-area men who have not returned from a cross-country ski trip.

 

The men left the Crystal Mountain area on Sunday and were due to arrive at White Pass on Tuesday.

 

Conditions are harsh in the Crystal Mountain - White Pass area. The area in between is not far from where another backcountry skier was killed in an avalanche over the weekend.

 

Rescue officials identified one of the missing skiers as 35-year-old James Hamaker from Tacoma. The other skier is a 47-year-old Seattle man whose family did not want his name released.

 

Although the avalanche danger in recent days has begun to slowly decrease, it was forecast to become considerable again Friday night and Saturday.

 

Up to two feet of fresh snow and recent rainfall added to the avalanche danger during the period the skiers have been missing, especially in the higher altitudes. The danger will also likely affect how quickly search teams can comb the area.

 

Searchers on foot and on snowmobiles were looking between White Pass and Chinook Pass, east of Mount Rainier National Park Friday. A base camp was set up at Bumping Lake on White Pass and if weather clears, a helicopter from the King County Sheriff's Office may be used to help locate the skiers.

 

 

 

Officials say the men were experienced in the backcountry, and may have simply hunkered down to wait out bad weather. It was believed they had a cell phone, but efforts to locate them using it have failed so far, according to Yakima County Search and Rescue Coordinator Sgt. John Durant.

 

About a foot of new snow has fallen in the central Washington portion of the Cascade Range in the last two days. White Pass has 6 feet of snow at the summit and Crystal Mountain has about 6 1/2 feet.

 

On Sunday, Donald J. Dovey, 37, of Seattle was killed when he and three other backcountry skiers were caught in an avalanche in the Norse Peak wilderness area, east of Crystal Mountain.

 

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Tracks spotted in missing skier search

01/03/2003

 

By KING5.com Staff and Wire Reports

 

 

CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN, Wash. - Searchers looking for a pair of skiers overdue from a three-day outing in the mountains were following tracks discovered earlier in the day, a Yakima County rescuer said Friday.

 

The tracks were spotted via helicopter earlier in the day, according to Don Thompson, a volunteer with the Yakima County Rescue Coordination Center.

 

 

 

 

Thompson said the tracks started at about Chinook Pass and were within about 3 miles of Dog Lake and about the same distance from Highway 12.

 

Rescuers strongly suspect the tracks belong to the missing skiers and hoped to continue their search until dark, Thompson said.

 

 

 

 

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Hopefully they can narrow down a search area with those tracks, because come tonight the tracks are going to buried under lots of new sloppy snow.

 

Does anybody else know the area around white pass well? From limited studying of the topos, it seems that the white pass end of the chinook-to-white tour is where you'll find generally less threatening terrain.

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