TNSAR Search 03/21/2009

Lost Snowmobiler Saved by TNSAR

A fun day of riding snowmobiles with friends and family became life threatening when one member got separated from his group. The rider lost his way trying to follow the tracks of his friends and impacted a tree which severely damaged his snowmobile but thankfully incurred no bodily injuries. After significant personal effort the lost rider was not able to extract his stuck and damaged snowmobile from the tree and hillside.

At about 5:00pm the lost snowmobiler used his cell phone to call 911 for help. Shortly after the TNSAR pagers went off and the troops rallied to the call. Our missing snowmobiler had conveniently left from the trail head just behind the TNSAR garage making our deployment a breeze.

The Snowcat was first in the field and made quick work in getting to Stumpy Meadows. In effort to alert the missing rider the team deployed a number of rocket flares which lit up the snowy night sky.

After a short briefing seven snowmobilers then left the garage, two riders being the missing riders friends, headed to the PLS (Place Last Seen).

Sometime after the team Snowmobiles and Snowcat had been searching the PLS, the missing rider had contacted PCSO dispatch and provided his GPS coordinates. The Comm Van team converted the coordinates to UTM and dispatched the field teams.

Not long after receiving the missing riders coordinates and arriving near them the team began to shout and listen for the missing rider. A response was heard and the subject was soon located. He was cold, confused and glad to see the team. He was outfitted with dry, warm gloves and a team jacket.

TNSAR team members then provided their version of AAA by extracting the damaged sled with an adventurous ride and returning it to the team garage.

After a brief chat with the missing rider, he indicated that he would not have made it through the night. TNSAR saves the day, again!

Here is a GPS map of a route taken to the lost rider.

GPS map of a route taken to the lost rider

Sheriff Dispatch Comm Van Truck Skiers Snow Cats Snowmobiles Other
Sage Bourassa Doug Read & Chris McConnell Reid Cox & John Chilcote Bob Wright Scoop Remenih
Dave Gleske
Bob Wright
Scott Meyer
Bill Koplin
Ray O'Brien
Dep. John Lasagna
Dep. John Riella

David Hopp
Kyle Railton
Myles Lewis
Steve Twomey (I.C.)