In early November 2021, Jay Schreckengost, a respected Deputy Fire Chief in the Seattle Fire Department, went missing on a hunting trip in the mountains of eastern Washington. Suzanne and Guy supported what would become one of the longest, large-scale search missions in recent history, with hundreds of SAR volunteers responding day after day, to fan out across steep forested terrain in a search area that encompassed over 100 square miles.

Suzanne, K9 Keb, and K9 Kili deployed, along with a dozen other K9 teams from counties across western and eastern Washington, to systematically search forest roads in the remote Milk Creek Drainage. These K9 teams drove for miles over rough and rutted roads just to reach their assigned search areas, then searched all day while recording their travel paths on handheld GPS units. Their efforts contributed significantly to the overall search efforts.

Guy served as Planning Section Chief for 11 consecutive days, working closely with the Incident Commander and the Operations Section Chief to plan and execute search strategies and deploy search teams day after day. Other members of the Washington State SAR Planning Unit joined on several days to supplement command staffing for this large-scale mission. Volunteers from Central Washington Mountain Rescue, Everett Mountain Rescue, Olympic Mountain Rescue, Seattle Mountain Rescue, and Tacoma Mountain Rescue combined forces to contribute to search efforts and search hazardous steep cliff bands.

On November 14^th, the last Sunday of this search, just as we were planning to demobilize, mountain rescue teams located Jay Schreckengost, deceased at the base of a 700-foot-high escarpment. Deputy Chief Schreckengost was transported down mountain roads to be met by Seattle Fire Department personnel and by his family members, before being escorted to the Kittitas County Coroner’s Office in Ellensburg.

It’s just over one hundred miles from Ellensburg to Seattle, on Highway I90, which first climbs Snoqualmie Pass from the east, then winds its way down on the west side of the Cascades. On Saturday, November 20, on every highway overpass between Ellensburg and Seattle, a fire engine and crew stood watch with lights flashing, as a small solemn procession brought Chief Jay Schreckengost back home.

On January 20, 2022, Guy and representatives from five Washington State mountain rescue teams presented a Significant Mission Review: “The Search on Devil’s Slide” to over 130 members of the National Mountain Rescue Association. The purpose of these debriefs is to provide an internal overview of important missions, along with a discussion of key lessons learned. Our review of “What might we do better next time?” and “Why was the mission ultimately successful?” will carry forward to help all teams respond to that next big mission.