Bergtrage - Seattle Mountain Rescue

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SEATTLE MOUNTAIN RESCUE BERGTRAGE - JANUARY 2012 Avalanche Recovery 1880. In the Alpine countries during the 18 th century before there were helicopters, toboggans, transcievers and modern medical treatment avalanche rescues were the most difficult and dangerous rescue operations as shown MT SI SEARCH IN JANUARY 1981: It was 31 years ago on the evening of January 26 th when King County requested help in the search for a missing hiker on Mt. Si. The next morning, Seattle MRC had four teams in the field searching the west side gullies, the summit area and around Little Si with Errington and Don Goodman flying as spotters with Army helicopters. The next day Errington made another flyover with the Boeing helicopter but no signs were found and in the days following Errington and Davis made two more ground searches with no results. On February 21 st , the body of Brett Hall was found in a creek feeding the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River. Brett was a kid who was stubbornly gonna’ go up the front of Si but his friends didn’t want to go any further, so they let him continue on while they came back down. Brett went from the gully on the left above Moon Valley, and apparently went up a small face. Then next year some kids hiking in Black Canyon found a shoe with a foot still in it partially buried in gravel. Davis went with a team of 3 or 4 and ascended Black Canyon to get the remains. His Dad put a plaque up at base of the Hay Stack which is still there today. Some thoughts were that he died up on the face and was snowtransported to fall into Black Canyon. And the “creek feeding middle Fork” was the water channel down Black Canyon, but they did not want publicity for Black Canyon so made it an obscure place in the press. There is a legend of a gold mine somewhere up on Si, and many have tried looking for it in the Black Canyon. The teens that found the bones in the shoe were most likely looking for the gold mine in Black Canyon. "CLIMB TO GLORY"10TH MOUNTAIN DIVISION (LIGHT INFANTRY) It is well known that the Mountain Rescue Association (MRA) was established in 1959 at Timberline Lodge at Mount Hood, Oregon making us the oldest Search and Rescue association in the United States. What is not so well known anymore is that the Army’s 10th Mountain Division is considered one of the founding units of the MRA. How could this happen when the 10th Mountain was disbanded in 1945 after WW II? In 114 days of combat, the 10th Division suffered casualties of 992 killed in action and 4,154 wounded. This deserves an explanation. Veterans of the 10th Mountain Division were in a large part responsible for the development of skiing into a big name sport and popular vacation industry after World War II. Ex-soldiers from the 10th laid out ski hills, built ski lodges, designed ski lifts and improved ski equipment. They started ski magazines and opened ski schools. Vail, Aspen, Sugarbush, Crystal Mountain, and Whiteface Mountain were but a few of the ski resorts built by 10th Mountain veterans. Many of them became active ski patrollers and rescuers and eventually founding members of the MRA. Ome Daiber, himself never a soldier, was named an honorary member of the National Association of the 10th Mountain Division for his contributions developing cold weather and mountain survival gear for the Army. Dee Molenaar, another MRA founder and author of the book “MOUNTAINS DON'T CARE, BUT WE DO: An Early History of Mountain Rescue in the Pacific Northwest and the Founding of the Mountain Rescue Association” is also an honorary member of the association due to his service to the Army as a civilian instructor with the Mountain and Cold Weather Training Command at Camp Hale, Colorado where two members of the Seattle MRC, Lou and Jim Whittaker, were also enlisted Army instructors and Honorary Members of the 10th Mountain Division Association. As you see, the Seattle MRC/SMR has also had a long history of being associated with the 10th Mountain Division. As a gesture of this historical association, at the January 17th Winter Party there will be a donation can for the Wounded Warriors of the present day 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) which, even though is is not trained as a mountain warfare and only wears the “Mountain” tab as an honorific has been engaged in continuous deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and has had more deployments than any other Army division. Please make a donation at the party, no matter how small, and help these Wounded Warriors. 4
SEATTLE MOUNTAIN RESCUE BERGTRAGE - JANUARY 2012 SMR’ SMR’S WINTER PARTY ARTY 2012!!! Tuesday, January 17 th , 6PM in Preston (the small town just East of Issaquah) Highlights include: Free!!!! Yummy food will be there! Beer provided! Dazzling assortment of door prizes. Wimpy Award and Vulture Award winners announced. Come meet your fellow Mtn Rescuer and get to know them before you find your life in their hands somewhere. Bring the family or significant other – This year’s party is once again at our own Garth Bruce’s Kidz Bounce, and Garth has promised to leave some of the bouncy toys up somewhere for the kids and anyone who drinks too much. Plus, the more people you bring, the more likely it is that you will win something. Here’s the address: 8178 304th Avenue Southeast. Issaquah, WA 98027-8889 Note that maybe it is technically in Issaquah, but you need to go to Preston to find it. Call Bree Loewen (206) 919 6240 or email her breeloewen@gmail.com by January 10th if at all possible so she can get a head-count for food planning. MISSIONS IN DECEMBER 2011 (CONTINUED) It just had to happen, we had one final mission in 2011 on New Years Eve when there was a callout Saturday night for two young women hiking on the Little Si Trail who we stranded in the dark, the typical inexperienced and unequipped hikers we get called out for all the time. There is no mission report yet but they we apparently located on the flat area below the climbing area and we quickly walked out. P.O. BOX 67 SEATTLE, WA 98111-0067 SMR INFORMATION LINE: (206) 270-7272 WEBSITE: HTTP://SEATTLEMOUNTAINRESCUE.ORG NEWSLETTER: BERGTRAGE@GMAIL.COM SEATTLE MOUNTAIN RESCUE IS A FULLY-ACCREDITED MEMBER OF THE MOUNTAIN RESCUE ASSOCIATION AND THE KING COUNTY SEARCH AND RESCUE ASSOCIATION. SEATTLE MOUNTAIN RESCUE IS A NON-PROFIT 501C(3) ORGANIZATION DEDICATED TO SAVING LIVES THROUGH RESCUE AND EDUCATION. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A TAX DEDUCTABLE DONATION TO OUR ORGANIZATION, PLEASE SEND A CHECK MADE OUT TO "SEATTLE MOUNTAIN RESCUE” THE BERGTRAGE IS SEATTLE MOUNTAIN RESCUE’S MONTHLY ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER AND HAS BEEN PUBLISHED IN ONE FORM OR THE OTHER SINCE THE FIRST MOUNTAIN RESCUE COUNCIL NEWSLETTER WAS PUBLISHED IN 1955. IT IS SENT ELECTRONICALLY TO ALL SMR MEMBERS AND TO A LARGE NUMBER OF DONORS, FRIENDS, OTHER RESCUE UNITS AND PUBLIC AGENCIES INVOLVED IN SEARCH AND RESCUE AND IS ALSO SENT TO A NUMBER OF INTERNATIONAL MOUNTAIN RESCUE TEAMS AND ORGANIZATIONS. THE EDITOR WELCOMES ANY AND ALL COMMENTS, STORIES AND PHOTOS AND CAN BE CONTACTED AT BERGTRAGE@GMAIL.COM. 5
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Bergtrage - Seattle Mountain Rescue

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