From: hall@vice.ICO.TEK.COM (Hal F Lillywhite)
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry
Subject: Re: East Vail Chutes Avalanche Death
Date: 17 Dec 92 15:38:58 GMT
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.

In article <72453895027353@lechuguilla.mcs.anl.gov> rowlan@lechuguilla.mcs.anl.gov (John_Rowlan) writes:

>From Hal F Lillywhite:
>>If a sheriff's office gets a report that, "My friend says
>>his buddy didn't come back from skiing," they will almost always
>>follow up on it.  The standard SAR training emphasizes the
>>importance of taking all such reports seriously.



>You should keep in mind that sheriff's offices almost always wait 24 hours
>before acting upon a missing person report.  I never did understand this, but
>when I was living in Colorado and working on a MSR team, we were constantly
>sent out to find hunters and cross-country skiers who had vanished OVER 24
>hours before we were notified.

>I believe that the nature of the case will dictate whether or not they wait,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>so it is vital to give the authorities more information than "my friend didn't
>come back from such and such".

For a good sheriff's dept. the key is your phrase which I have
emphasized.  The SAR deputy will ask appropriate questions (often
over the phone) to get an indication of potential seriousness.  I
suspect that in the Vail case a deputy would have talked to the
friend and determined that he was under emotional stress.  The next
step would have been an in person talk to get all the information
possible.  Keep in mind you are talking about a deputy who is a
trained interviewer.  Obviously he is not perfect but he is more
likely than the average person is to elicit the appropriate
information. I suspect most SAR deputies would require less than 
half an hour to obtain enough information to have found Jaime.

If the indication is an urgent incident, response will usually be
*fast*.  Get ski patrol, nordic, MRA or whoever else is appropriate
there *quick*.  If evidence points to something less urgent they may
take a bit more time.

For example, last September I was called to Mt. Hood for a possible
overdue hiker.  What had happened was that an experienced hiker (Call
him John) had met a guy from Pittsburg (call him Bill) on his way up
the mountain.  Bill said he was going to the top.  John noticed that
Bill was wearing shorts, a light shirt and a thin windbreaker.  Bill
had no other clothing and no mountaineering equipment.  It also
became evident that Bill had no mountaineering knowledge.  The
weather was deteriorating.  John pursuaded Bill to abandon his
attempt for the summit and they only went up to the snowline since
Bill wanted to see that.  They started down with John trying to keep
track of Bill.  Soon Bill dissappeared and John became worried about
him and spent a little while looking for him.  Not finding Bill,
John went to Timberline Lodge and called the sheriff's dept.
Unfortunately, all John knew for sure about Bill was a first name,
maybe a last name, where he was from, and that he had a child he was
supposed to pick up somewhere at 5 PM.  The sheriff's investigation
was complicated by a *large* wedding (John was a guest there) at
Timberline Lodge.  There were a lot of rental and out of state cars
there.

Had the weather been better (or Bill better prepared) the deputy
would have waited for a missing person report.  However, in view of
the weather (by then it was really nasty) and Bill's skimpy clothing
they called for searchers to meet at Timberline Lodge.  We responded
with 2 teams and spent a couple of hours waiting and planning how we
would search if Bill really were missing.  At 11 PM no missing
person had been reported so we went home.  (We figured that was long 
enough for a worried baby sitter to contact someone.)  Since no
missing person report ever came in it would seem that Bill had come
down and left to pick up his child.

Obviously not all sheriff's departments are so diligent (Clackamas
County gets a lot of practice with SAR) but many are.

>As far as this Vail thing goes, the best action for this "friend" would have
>been to contact the Ski Patrol who would have been out the door almost
>immediately !!!

Yes, I should have thought of that.  Assuming this was in a
developed ski area (and still during the time it is open so the ski
patrol is there), the ski patrol would be the quickest response.
However since the friend has left the area you would still need to
notify the sheriff's dept.  They can get someone to talk to that
friend and get the information to guide the ski patrol so they don't
have to search the entire area.  If Jaime and his friend were skiing
out of bounds or in backcountry the ski patrol may have no
responsibility in the matter.
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