by Guy Mansfield | Jun 29, 2021 | Outdoors
Last month, I supported a search for a solo hiker missing for six days above the snowline in Skagit County, Washington. As the mountain rescue teams started working their way up into their assigned areas, I loaded into the Spokane Sheriff’s helicopter, along with the...
by Guy Mansfield | Apr 6, 2021 | Outdoors
Most hikers don’t realize it, but when they head out on the trail or into the wilderness, they carry with them a Risk Profile. In 2018, a novice snowshoer perished after getting lost while descending the Muir Snowfield on Mount Rainier. On the second day of the...
by Guy Mansfield | Jan 18, 2021 | General Search and Rescue, K9 Search and Rescue, Outdoors
Sometimes we give up. Sometimes on SAR missions we return day after day, then week after week, without finding our lost person. The search is called off. Volunteers leave the scene in quiet resignation. Families leave the scene in despair. In the last six months here...
by Guy Mansfield | Dec 15, 2020 | General Search and Rescue, Outdoors
In November of 2020, a solo snow-shoer became lost while descending the Muir Snowfield on Mount Rainier. In the dark, ranger search teams climbed up in a snow storm, but were unable to locate him. The next morning, more search teams arrived, and in mid-afternoon the...
by Guy Mansfield | Nov 3, 2020 | General Search and Rescue, K9 Search and Rescue
There has been a recent surge in the long-term discussion about the use of the word “closure” in SAR-related writings. Some point out (rightly so) that families of the lost may never fully recover from their grief and pain, and some conclude (wrongly, in my opinion),...
