The Cave & Technical Rescue Team got the call to assist West Valley SAR at approximately 2100 hrs on Sunday, January 4. There was an injured hiker at the Sierra Hut that needed to be evacuated via litter carry. My teammates arrived on scene to find one team with the hiker, and one team heading up the trail. With members of San Bernardino Mountain SAR, Wrightwood, and Valley of the Falls SAR our team of 7 made our way up the hut trail to meet the crew beginning their descent with the patient, Steven Yang of Temple City, CA.
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 r
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.
Just as we were finishing dinner on Christmas Day, I received a call to assist West Valley SAR in a search for an overdue hiker on Mt. Baldy. Upon arriving at the command post I was assigned to hike the "Hut Trail" to see if our missing hiker was waiting out the storm in the hut. Fortunately the stormy weather broke before my team of 4 entered the field.
Lost Hunter, Robert Willis, Dinkey Creek, CA, 11-22-08 and 11-23-08 Fresno County Sheriff's Department sent out a request for mutual aid on 11-20-08 requesting assistance in their continuing efforts in their search for a missing hunter, Robert Willis, scheduled for the upcoming weekend. Mr. Willis started his hunting trip on 10-30-08 and had been reported missing when he did not return home 11-01-08 from his trip in the Western Sierra Nevada Mountains, in eastern Fresno County. San Bernardino Mountain Search & Rescue Team was able to deploy four members to the search.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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 ). 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.
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.
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...
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.
All of us on the board of directors of the IESARC hope that
you had a great holiday season. We wish
all of you a very HAPPY and SUCCESSFUL NEWYEAR! December turned out to be an extreme weather month for all
of us. Cold temps, snow, ice and wind
played havoc throughout the county.
Luckily, we did not have a lot of call-outs, but we did experience a
few.
December 2008 If you haven't heard by now, I have accepted the offer from Sheriff
Penrod and Lt. Grabiec to serve another term as the IESARC Director. I
am very honored and privileged to have this opportunity to serve once again.
Read More >>
YOU JUST NEVER KNOW... when you might get a callout and what you might
find! Chad Fry of Rim SAR had quite an
experience last week. Chad was
attending the night exercise at BSAR as a new member when the exercise was cut
short because of the weather. Totally
exhausted, he got home around 11 p.m. and fell asleep on his couch while still
dressed in his uniform. Shortly after
falling asleep he was paged by his team to go on his first callout.
Naming Names I need your assistance. You got it! I need names. Please divulge as many as possible, along with title and phone number. I will do all the cold calling myself. Don’t fret, I won’t release the source unless you authorize it. You see, I am chairing a committee for IESARC to raise funds for a one time only project. IESARC would like to build a 16 foot trailer to be used for public relations. It will have various audiovisual equipment and display capability. All of the SAR teams will be welcome to u... Read More >>
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