Bill Koelpfer did not return as planned, so while a wildland fire approached Chino Hills, West Valley SAR was called to search for the missing man on November 15. After several hours of searching additional resources were summoned and the search continued into the morning of November 16. Around 10am a 911 call was received from a hiker in the area reporting that she had heard somebody yelling for help near her location on the Icehouse Canyon Trail. A nearby team was redirected to this location and made contact with Mr. Koelpfer confirming that he was the one shouting and was the missing hiker. The hiker suffered no major injuries and was hoisted from his location around 11:30am by Sheriff's Aviation and flown to Cow Canyon Saddle where he was evaluated by paramedics standing by and returned to the command post for a debriefing.
Around 1300 hours Team 11, who was returning from the field, happened upon a woman hiking near Icehouse Saddle hobbling along on an injured ankle. After a short discussion it was determined that she would require evacuation as well. After a bit of load-lightening, the airship was able to hoist Ms. Martin and return her to Cow Canyon Saddle for evaluation by another set of waiting paramedics. The irony of this situation is that Ms. Martin was the hiker who made the 911 call to report Mr. Koelpfer's yelling for help.
In addition to West Valley SAR, thanks to San Bernardino Mountain (Central) SAR, Rim SAR, West Valley Posse, and the Cave Rescue Team for another successful search and rescue mission.
At 10:00AM on November 13, 2008, millions of people throughout Southern California participated in the Great Southern California Shake-Out Drill - The largest earthquake preparedness activity in U.S. history! The San Bernardino Mountain SAR Team was honored to be asked to participate in this drill by putting on demonstrations and speaking with 400-plus Elementary to Junior High-aged kids at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands.
Written by Justin Wheaton, San Bernardino Mountain SAR
Saturday, 08 November 2008
It’s not everyday you get to sort of “plan ahead” for any sort of
search activity. But having known for a week that on Saturday you are
going to rappel, ascend, and traverse into a plane wreckage site, you
spend some time getting your gear together. I certainly needed to, and
was glad I did.
Mr. Hagner was reported missing by his wife on Saturday evening. Mrs. Hagner had a general idea of where he was headed, and mentioned that he was active in a hiking club that he found online. Mr. Hagner's car was located at the Ice House Canyon trailhead, and West Valley SAR began the search.
My team was called to assist with the recovery effort at the scene of
the Fossett aircraft crash. Our job was to grid search the area looking
for remains. Also onsite was the NTSB who were investigating the
reasons for the crash.
When the call came we were told that personal effects of Mr. Fossett were found, and that we were to look for the crash site. On our way to the command post at Mammoth Airport...
I was contacted at work about
0900 hours on Thursday, September 4, 2008 to deploy with my live-find dog to
assist the Department in their search for a missing Forest Falls man. Tony Jacquet was last seen going on a hike
with his German Shepherd Dog by neighbors on Monday, September 1, 2008. He was reported missing on Tuesday by one of
his neighbors when they noticed his dog coming and going on her own, with no
sign of her owner. Their neighbor was last seen
walking with his dog east on Valley of the Falls Drive on Monday between 1300
and 1600 hours.
INCIDENT: Overdue Aircraft/Search for Missing
Person
LOCATION: San Bernardino Mountains/Middle Fork, Lytle
Creek
VICTIM (S): Daniel Katz, age 24 years a resident of Mexico City
INVOLVED PARTIES IN ORIGINAL SEARCH EFFORTS: Governor's Office of Emergency Services,
Civil Air Patrol, Riverside Sheriff's Department, San Bernardino Sheriff's Department
Aviation and Volunteer Forces Unit
SUMMARY: On June
8, 2001, The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department was contacted by the
California Office of Emergency Services (OES) to assist in the search of a possible
downed aircraft in the Lytle Creek area of Fontana.
A Search Management Team from the Sheriff's Volunteer Forces Division
was sent to the scene to operate the search efforts.
Unfortunately I must postpone the October MSAR meeting scheduled for Oct, 08 due to conditions that are unavoidable and out of my control. I hope this causes no grief to all the affected personnel.
The new date and time is Nov 19th at 1800 hrs just prior to the IESARC meeting. We will be discussing HARMS, HARMS coordinators/evaluators and the upcoming county-wide training.
A hiker slips and breaks his leg in Oregon. Good thing he is carrying his HF radio. His call for help is heard nearly 600 miles away by a fellow ham in Bozeman, Montanna. The Montana radio operator is able to call Snohomish County Search and Rescue and help maintain communication with the injured hiker as rescue crews zero in on the injured hiker's location. Click the link for the full details.
People die every year while on rappel. They succumb to
hypothermia or drowning. This probably sounds odd in the deserts of southern
California. The deaths occur most often in Europe where canyoning is quite
popular. This is the sport of descending canyons, usually technical in nature.
In Europe the primary focus of canyoning is in wet canyons. In the US we tend
to call this canyoneering. We are split between the dry canyons of the Colorado
Plateau and wet canyons of the Sierras, Cascades and Rockies. The American
Canyoneering Association rates canyons with moving water as Class C (ACA Canyon Classification).
The Basic Mountaineering Course (BMC) is now being planned. It will be coordinated by Frank Hester, Wrightwood SAR and Sonny Lawrence, Cave and Technical SAR. As always it is very snow dependent. The classroom lecture portion will be held on November 22, 23 upstairs in the sheriff's office. The field portion tentatively will be held January 24, 25 or February 7, 8 or March 14, 15. Location is yet to be determined. First time students are required to deposit a $50 check made out to "IESARC." If you do not attend the course, the check will be cashed as a donation to the SAR council. If you attend, the check will be returned to you uncashed. Send checks and request to attend the course to Dave Pichotta at Volunteer Forces. All individuals wishing to recertify BMC must also register with Dave Pichotta. No check is required. Only individuals registered will be allowed to test.
Just a quick note to bring you up to date on the
latest. As some of you know, Corporal Bryan Lane
was promoted to sergeant and is now assigned to West Valley
Detention Center. He was a tremendous asset to our unit and
will be missed greatly! I am very
pleased to announce Bryan's
replacement, Corporal Dan Whitten. Dan
has an extensive background in outdoor sports, he was a member of the West
Valley SAR Team, and he was most recently assigned as their coordinator. Dan has wanted to work in our unit for as
long as he can remember and is looking forward to working with all of the SAR
teams. Welcome Dan!
Tony Jacquet was located today at 1050 near Big Falls in the Valley of the Falls area. He seems to have been the victim of a fall. Currently his evacuation/recovery is awaiting the arrival of the rescue helicopter.
Yeserday Mark Kinsey and I were inserted at Red Ridge near the summit of Mt. San Gorgonio. Our assignment was to search the Vivian Creek Trail from that point to the bottom. Our missing person suffers from a seizure disorder, and as such, when he recovers from one of these events, he does not remember the events just prior. This meant that our searching required us to search off-trail as well.
As most of the Department's S&R Teams are probably
aware of by now, Aviation has a new Helitac Course that is being offered - and
highly recommended - to all our teams.
The IESARC has been putting the word out that all the Department's
S&R teams take this course, involving as many of their team members as
possible.
The San Bernardino Mountain
S&R Team was called upon to deploy to a search for a critical missing woman
on Sunday, 08-10-08. The page came very
early that morning, about 0200 hours.
My first thought was "I sure hope this is not an early morning training
reminder" since the Team was scheduled to take the Department's new Helitac
Course put on by Aviation later that morning.
After refocusing on my pager, I realized this was, indeed, an actual
search call-out. I called the Team
Commander to let him know I was on my way.
This weekend the Barstow Desert Rescue Squad and the Cave Rescue Team trained together near Calico. A local reporter accompanied the team for part of the day and reported on the activities. Read the story.
Ironically the teams were called to assist in a mine rescue in Northern California later that day. Los Angeles County ended up taking the call, however.
Wednesday July 30, 2008 about 1530 hours the call comes for
an over the side operation. At the time it was not clear whether this was a
recovery or a rescue of an injury. Upon arrival at Red Rock Wall on Highway18
just west of Rimforest the following agencies were on scene. Caltrans, CHP,
Crest Forest Fire, Rim of the World. net, Forest Service, and SB County
Sheriff- (Aviation, Law Enforcement, and SAR {possibly also COP}). The hour had
become late and several members of the RimSAR technical rescue team were on
vacation. San Gorgonio SAR was called as assistance to RimSAR should the need
arise and Crest Forest Fire had already set up a mainline and belay station.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S.
Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named
below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer
product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless
otherwise instructed.
I just wanted to update you all on the Estrada Missing
Person Investigation. You may recall the recent search out at Piute
Springs of the missing hiker in the Colorado River Station's area.
Several of our station's SAR teams as well as outside agencies
assisted. Well, Estrada's disappearance remains a mystery.
Since calling the active part of the SAR, we located witnesses that saw her and
the RP together before she disappeared. We have video tape of her alive on
the day she went missing - checking out of the Avi just as the RP
claimed. There is no new information from the Park Service and we have
sent a few searchers back up there as recent as last week looking for
animal/bird activity, etc. with nothing new to report. We are still
waiting for many of the documents we subpoenaed. Nonetheless, our
investigation team to include Sgt. Medley, Cpl. Murch, Dep. Vessels and the
Polygraph Detail did a great job and continues to conduct a thorough and detailed
missing person investigation.
Once again another hot summer season is here. It is
important that the team training officers or team medics review the common heat
related illnesses with their teams so other team members are able to recognize
when something is wrong in either self or other team members. We seem to do
this more in the alpine environment but with our hot Southern California
summers it is important to understand heat related problems as well. I recently
had an experience that I'd like to share that went unnoticed by both others and
myself.
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People die every year while on rappel. They succumb to
hypothermia or drowning. This probably sounds odd in the deserts of southern
California. The deaths occur most often in Europe where canyoning is quite
popular. This is the sport of descending canyons, usually technical in nature.
In Europe the primary focus of canyoning is in wet canyons. In the US we tend
to call this canyoneering. We are split between the dry canyons of the Colorado
Plateau and wet canyons of the Sierras, Cascades and Rockies. The American
Canyoneering Association rates canyons with moving water as Class C (
