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more photosDeschutes County Search and Rescue volunteers work with Sgt. Marvin Combs, right rear, to load an AMBU sled onto a trailer Thursday afternoon.
Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
Rescuers bring back man's body
Recovery of snowmobiler ends nearly four-day mission
By Cindy Powers / The Bulletin
Published: December 01. 2006 4:00AM PSTJust before raindrops started to fall from an overcast sky Thursday afternoon, about 20 volunteers in bright yellow jackets stood in the slush near the Tumalo Creek Bridge, having completed their somber mission to recover Roger Rouse's body from the Deschutes National Forest.
Relief washed over their faces. They had ferried Rouse's body from the snowy woods, ending a nearly four-day search and rescue mission.
Volunteers placed flowers in a sled with Rouse's body just before they finished the journey.
They began looking for the 53-year-old Bend man and his son Sunday evening, after the two failed to return from a snowmobile outing earlier in the day.
Volunteers searched for two days in bitter winter weather before finding them in the Bend watershed area west of town Tuesday afternoon, but Rouse could not be saved. His son, 29-year-old Brian Rouse, was hypothermic.
Rescuers lifted him into a helicopter Tuesday night and flew him to the hospital. He was in fair condition at St. Charles Medical Center-Bend on Thursday night.
About 20 snowshoers headed out in teams Thursday morning at about 8 a.m. from an area near the Tumalo Falls Trailhead to recover his father's body, said Al Hornish, a long-time volunteer for the Des-chutes County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue Division.
They followed a trail broken through deep, soft snow Tuesday night by volunteer rescuers who tried to get to the men before Brian Rouse was flown out.
When the men were found, Roger Rouse was nonresponsive and in a severe hypothermic state. When he left for the trip, a family member reported that he had been wearing black snow bibs and a gray winter coat.
Extreme hypothermia can slow breathing and pulse rates to the point of being undetectable, experts say, making it difficult to determine if a person is alive.
After authorities confirmed that Roger Rouse had died, commanders pulled rescuers from the scene late Tuesday night for their own safety. They did not make it back to the command center until early Wednesday.
Rescue crews could not access the area by snowmobile because of the steep incline, downed trees and deep, soft snow.
The snow was hard-packed by Thursday morning, said Sgt. Marvin Combs of the Sheriff's Office. The hike in to recover Rouse took about an hour and 45 minutes - less than half the time it took rescuers to cover the same distance Tuesday night.
The snowshoers who found the Rouses Tuesday night marked the area using Global Positioning System coordinates, Hornish said.
"It's not like the old days where you flag the area and go in looking," Combs said.
The team was able to head straight to its mark Thursday.
They placed Rouse's body on a "sked," Hornish said. The heavy duty plastic sled is designed for rescue missions and can be rolled up and placed in a pack for transport.
The team carried the sled across a stream using ropes - generally a challenge for rescue crews - with no difficulty, he said.
Once they arrived at lower elevations, volunteers transferred Rouse to a larger rescue sled mounted on large, flat metal runners, Combs said. They placed the flowers inside and pulled the sled to a location where emergency vehicles were waiting.
The recovery mission was completed shortly before 2 p.m. Thursday.
Representatives of the Des-chutes County Sheriff's Office, Jefferson County/Camp Sherman Hasty Team, the U.S. Forest Service and city of Bend Water Department helped with the recovery efforts.
Rouse's body was taken to Autumn Funeral Home in Bend, but the family has not made service arrangements, according to the home's records.
Cindy Powers can be reached at 617-7812 or at cpowers@bendbulletin.com.
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