TNSAR Search 1/04/2016
Snowboarder off the back of Alpine Meadows
Submitted by Dirk Schoonmaker
A classic old style search: no cell phone contact, just a car in the parking lot and a boarder last seen at 12:30.
We got dispatched at 6:30, just as we were all heading to the General Meeting, for a missing Alpine Meadows employee who's car was still in the parking lot. He was last seen boarding Summit Chair at 12:30.
Six skiers showed up initially and chose routes off the top of Summit Chair- north, center and south. Eight more skiers show up as time passed and filled in the spaces in between.
At about 8, above the headwaters of Grouse Creek, Bob Wright heard a response to his yells. The responses were intermittent and unintelligible, but Bob was able to direct skiers to the area until contact was made with the MP, above the north fork of the north fork of Grouse Creek, just below the \Safe Route\ ridge. He was in good shape, and after food, water and custom fitted snowshoes he was escorted by 9 skiers up the safe route to Summit Chair, where the Alpine Meadows troop carrier transported all 15 searchers and the MP bodies down to the base, arriving about 10:15.
Sheriff | Dispatch | Truck | Skiers | Snowcats | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sage Barrasso Dave Lade | Ray O'Brien | Jeff Coulter Mark Johnson Brian York | Paul Cushing Jeff Devries Mike LeFrancois Joe Pace Dirk Schoonmaker Bob Wright Russ Viehmann Neil Morse Paul Kitano Eric Stendell Kerry Stendell Logan Talbott Matt Jacobs Andrew Osterricher Gary Sterle John Pang | Brian York | Alpine Meadows Patrol Squaw Valley Ski Patrol |