TNSAR Search 2/19/2018
Cold Night In National Geographic Bowl
Submitted by Dirk Schoonmaker
At 4:25 pm on Monday, February 19th TNSAR was dispatched for a lost skier with known coordinates in the northern end of the Chief Creek Valley (National Geographic Bowl at Squaw). His given coordinates put him pretty much fall line below Billy's Peak on the west side of the Pacific Crest.
11 skiers responded to Squaw Valley Fire Station and met with PCSO and Matt Calcutt. 2 Squaw Valley Ski Patrollers, Pete York and Cob Staines, were just getting on his track as the team mobilized so 3 skiers with snowmobiles (Tim Bosse, Scott Meyer and Calvin Mitchell) stayed at the CP to be available for transport later. 8 skiers started up the tram and were transported by troop carrier to the top of Granite Chief lift. (Russ Viehmann, Matt Jacobs, Logan Talbott, Brad Altman, Troy Corliss, Sarah Krammen, Bernie Mellor and Dirk Schoonmaker.) As we got our skis on we heard that CareFlight was in the air overhead and that the patrollers were near the MP. Careflight was not able to land due to encroaching darkness and so we started our descent following patrol and MP tracks as Pete started hiking the MP out. The skiing was not very good and coverage started to be a problem but we met up with Pete and Cob at about 7:30 and took over leading the MP out. At 10:30 we were at the 2nd Goal Post where it was 5 degrees F, looking down at Granite Chief Chair and at 11:45 we were eating pizza in new Comm Van, and wondering how much base damage we had inflicted on our skis.
Sheriff | Dispatch | CommVan | Skiers | Snowmobiles | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dave Hunt Dave Lade | Marty Schoonmaker | Scott Meyer Calvin Mitchell Tim Bosse | Bernie Mellor Dirk Schoonmaker Russ Viehmann Matt Jacobs Troy Corliss Logan Talbott Sarah Krammen Brad Altman | Tim Bosse Scott Meyer Calvin Mitchell | Pete York Cob Staine Matt Calcutt |