Bulletin E-Edition:
Rescuers braved terrain, snow in two-day search
Body of snowmobiler Roger Rouse may be recovered today
By Cindy Powers / The Bulletin
Published: November 30. 2006 4:00AM PST
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"When we got into the field we started with Sno-Cats, and these are expert operators who run these trails all the time, and they were having difficulty finding the trails."- Don Mercer, rescuer
The Bulletin file photo
One day after an Oregon Army National Guard rescue team hoisted missing snowmobiler Brian Rouse into a Black Hawk helicopter from the snowy Deschutes National Forest below, he was in fair condition at St. Charles Medical Center-Bend, according to a hospital official.
But Deschutes County Search and Rescue workers who found him Tuesday afternoon could not save the life of his 53-year-old father, Roger Rouse. A recovery team will continue its work today to bring the Bend man's body from the frigid woods.
Their family reported the two missing Sunday afternoon after they failed to return from a snowmobiling excursion that started out at Dutchman Flat near Mount Bachelor.
More than 100 people turned out over two days to search for the men. A team of three snowshoers found them in a Bend Watershed drainage area two miles west of the Tumalo Falls trailhead and about 10 miles west of Bend.
Both were hypothermic and Roger Rouse was nonresponsive.
Volunteer snowshoers and search and rescue personnel from the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office flooded the area, impassable by snowmobile, to help get 29-year-old Brian Rouse out.
But the relentless winter weather slowed their progress to a crawl.
When conditions had cleared by about 7:30 p.m., a specially trained helicopter crew from Salem flew in.
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The bird hovered over trees as tall as builddings for more than an hour as rescue workers secured Brian Rouse, of Sunriver, in a basket that was pulled into the craft.
Less than 10 minutes later, at about 10:30 p.m Tuesday, Rouse was at the hospital.
The mission turned from rescue to recovery.
The search begins
Sgt. Marvin Combs and search and rescue volunteers Al Hornish, Don Mercer and Scott Robbins, who served as part of the incident command team, began their round-the-clock mission Sunday evening.
Conditions on the mountain were severe.
One of their first calls went out to a 20-year veteran snowmobile trail groomer at about 9 Sunday night, Mercer said.
"When we got into the field we first started with Sno-Cats and these are expert operators who run these trails all the time, and they had difficulty finding the trails," he said.
Visibility was so low that search and rescue teams on snowmobiles could only find their way by following the lights of the groomers, he said. So the snowmobilers were pulled out and another cat was put into motion at about 3 a.m. Monday morning.
"We made arrangements to have the snowmobilers go out on Monday because the groomers have day jobs," Mercer said. "And we needed people with experience who could handle the conditions, which were extremely difficult Monday."
About 35 or 40 search and rescue volunteers turned out on snowmobiles Monday. Many had been out playing in the snow the day before, Hornish said, and provided invaluable information about where the trails had caused them problems.
"We knew that the Moon Mountain area was a total white-out at about noon," Hornish said, We knew that around Trail 6 was very difficult. People were commenting on the fact that if you missed some of those corners, then you are off and down into the watershed," Hornish said.
Investigators now believe that the Rouses inadvertently veered off the trail.
When the search started, a command center was established at Mt. Bachelor ski area.
But cell phones weren't working and radio communications were spotty.
Volunteers with specialized training to run winter rescue missions traveled in teams by snowmobile and were sent to designated search areas.
"The search strategy on Monday was snowmobile driven," Hornish said. "They went to high priority areas that the family identified. They told us that the guys knew where the warming huts were and that they would probably go there because of snow conditions."
The flakes continued to fall, making for soft conditions that slowed the snowmobile's progress.
"Now the snow is continuing to pile up and we knew the strategy was to go more toward snowshoeing and cross-country skiing because there were more and more areas that snowmobiles could not access," Hornish said. "We knew that Monday night."
Incident commanders worked with U.S. Forest Service officials, a trails specialist, Rouse family members, law enforcement and veteran snowmobilers to plan their strategy for Tuesday.
Representatives from the Bend Public Works Department, who "know the area like the back of their hands," helped identify areas where the two might be found, Mercer said.
"We were looking at areas where people have had difficulty before," he said. "We looked at the conditions and the area, which was so large, and our resources were limited so we had to put some kind of logic to (Tuesday's search)."
Rescuers were looking at an area that stretched 50 square miles, and progress was slow.
The group decided Monday night that they would need to search the watershed. One of the snowshoe teams would be assigned to a drainage area coming off Trail 6.
The temperature on the mountain dropped to about 5 degrees Monday night.
Searchers could not get to the last warming hut they planned to check until they sent out a Sno-Cat at about 1 a.m. Tuesday.
A skeleton crew continued the hunt until replacement volunteers showed up early Tuesday morning.
"We had 59 snowmobilers, two backcountry skiers in the Three Creeks area, and then we had teams of snowshoers - one team of four and two teams of three," Hornish said. "The family had given a lot of input as to where they might have gone and the priority was following that guidance, so we looked in those areas."
Those on snowmobiles would stop their machines any time they saw an irregular track in the snow. They turned off the engines, blew whistles and hollered the men's names.
"They are looking for clues," said Sgt. Combs. "Clues that you or I might walk past because it has been covered up with snow, but we have people who are trained and they might see a clue that we wouldn't."
"A clue is anything inconsistent with the layout of the land," Mercer added.
Like footprints covered by two days' worth of snow.
Finding the right path
At 12:21 p.m. Tuesday, the snowshoers struck gold near Bridge Creek.
"Once they found the snowmobiles, they had to follow the tracks for about three hours to cover a mile and a half," Scott Robbins said. "It took them that long to get to our folks."
But get to them they did.
At 3:30 p.m., a team of three snowshoers found Brian Rouse. His father was not far away.
"After finding them, the first thing to do was a medical assessment," Robbins said. "All of the searchers are medically trained, one of the people had higher medical training."
She was, in fact, a nurse.
Brian Rouse was suffering from moderate to severe hypothermia, and his father was noncommunicative.
Another group of three snowshoers was close behind and the six set quickly about the task of setting a fire, building a shelter, heating water and trying to stabilize the Rouse men.
Up at Mt. Bachelor the command team shifted gears, realizing that their best access would come from the Tumalo Falls area.
By about 4 p.m., a second command center was established at the Tumalo Creek Bridge.
Rescuers could not get to the Rouses' location from the Tumalo site via snowmobile.
The terrain made it impossible for a helicopter to land. The only flight teams equipped to hoist someone the estimated 130 feet over the treetops were stationed in Salem.
Snowshoers who had been searching since early morning were brought to the Tumalo site. About 20 people would end up hiking in, unaware that they would not make it back for nearly 11 hours.
The rescuers took off in waves - as they arrived on scene - breaking trail as they headed up the slope. They carried food, supplies, rescue equipment and dragged toboggans.
They were long gone by the time a Black Hawk helicopter and crew from the Oregon Army National Guard 1042nd Medical Company got the clearance to fly, Mercer said.
"The weather conditions did not permit air resources until they actually came in," he said.
The six volunteers with the Rouse men were ordered to douse their fire, lest the downdraft from the helicopter put them all in danger.
The National Guard team arrived in the helicopter - designed to fly in high altitudes and hover in extreme conditions - at about 9 p.m.
On the ground, snowshoers were still trying to get to the rescue site.
"The 20 were still hiking at 10 p.m., when Brian was lifted out, and never got to them," Hornish said.
The temperature was dropping and, by midnight, it was 11 degrees below zero.
Helicopter crews only fly for rescue missions, Sgt. Combs said, so it was up to the ground crews to coordinate recovery efforts to bring Roger Rouse's body out.
For the safety of the rescuers, he said, incident commanders decided to have all the volunteers return to the command center.
The team of 20 stopped their hike, started a fire, and waited for their six colleagues to arrive.
"They gave them hot drinks, warmed them up, helped them with their packs, made sure their medical conditions were good and started working with the rescue team where they could meet up with snowmobiles," Robbins said.
The rescue mission was not complete until sometime between 2 and 3 a.m. Wednesday, according to Combs.
Today, crews will turn their efforts to recovering Roger Rouse's body and giving closure to the Rouse family.
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