NEWS AND PICTURES
News and Pictures from 2011
Search Management Systems class hosted by CMRU
Corvallis Mountain Rescue Unit hosted the course "Search Management Systems" in Corvallis, OR on January 20-22, 2012.
Hugh Dougher was the course instructor and provided a rich and diverse set of experiences related to search management.
According to all the feedback, the training was very well recieved and was attended by members of CMRU, DCMRU, HRCR, and PMR.
Joint OMRC training at Crater Lake
The Crater Lake weekend on September 17th and 18th went really well. There were members from Corvallis Mountain Rescue Unit (CMRU), Deschutes County Mountain Rescue Unit (DCMRU) and Eugene Mountain Rescue (EMR) at the event. There were members of "rope teams" from surrounding Josephine, Jackson, and Douglas counties as well as many Crater Lake National Park Service (NPS) search and rescue team members.
CMRU members attending were Iain Morris, Jim Dagata, Jason Killian, Jerry Heilman, Tim Hale, Aaron Hartz and Todd Shechter.
DCMRU members attending were Drew Cheney, Matt Trager, Steve McBurnett, Dennis Rilling, Barb Williams, Randy Columbell, Bonnie Dickman and Paul Dickman.
EMR members attending were Don McLaughlin and Maryanne Reiter.
NPS search and rescue team members attending were Pete Reinhardt, Jason Ramsdell, Jan Lemons, Abra Cole, Christina Sheppard, Lucy Gasaway, Pieter Sween, Paul Schauer, Cullen Armstrong, Shawn Reinhardt and Sara Spector.
The NPS had two main objectives for the weekend, which were to continue the in-caldera search for Sammy Boehlke and to collect car debris and personal items from an October 2010 car wreck. Sammy was a young boy that went missing along the north rim of the caldera in 2006 and some evidence indicated that he may have fallen into the caldera. The debris inside the caldera was left by a car that rolled into the caldera and tumbled down the 1,600 feet of scree slopes to end up in the lake. There was no one in the car except for a dog, which was ejected and survived unharmed. The car was literally shredded into many pieces and most of the contents in the car were strewn across the slopes down to the lake. The larger parts of the car had been removed by helicopter last fall, but the scree slopes were still covered with smaller debris.
On Saturday, CMRU, Josephine County and NPS search and rescue members formed a team to start the cleanup of the debris field on the scree slopes. DCMRU, EMR, Jackson and Douglas Counties and NPS search and rescue members conducted more crater wall searches for Sammy. On Sunday, CMRU, Josephine County, EMR and NPS search and rescue members continued further cleanup of the debris field while a second debris cleanup station was setup by DCMRU, Jackson County and NPS search and rescue members.
The teams collecting the car debris and personal items conducted six separate operations. At one point on Sunday, there was about 1,300 feet of rope out from vehicle anchors at the top of the caldera and it was still about 400 feet to the lake!
Rigging for the debris cleanup included a main and belay line, each using two 600 and one 300 foot ropes. The rescuer and litter was raised back up to the top of the caldera using a 3:1 mechanical advantage system using a 300 foot rope attached to the main line.
On Saturday, a single rescuer was attached to the main and belay lines on the litter using a 50 foot tether, but two rescuers were used on Sunday. The rescuers picked a safe spot to park the litter and then picked up items in the debris field while still being connected to a rope. The slopes in the main debris field were about 30 degrees and composed of small scree and sand. The rescuers carried the debris and personal items to the litter and secured the items using tarps and straps.
It is estimated that 500 to 600 pounds of debris was picked up. Highlights include a radiator, wallet, parking barricades, parts of a bumper, lots of random black plastic pieces, rear view mirror, cassette tapes, CDs, steering wheel, gas pedal, lots of clothing, and a window of shattered safety glass. As soon as the rescuers and litter were brought back to the top of the caldera, the entire litter was handed over to a NPS law enforcement ranger who unwrapped the tarp securing the load and removed, inventoried and photographed the items.
Included in the list of items retrieved from the scree slopes was a single, large orange traffic cone that CMRU members inadvertently knocked down in the caldera Sunday morning. Oops!
By the time the cleanup was finished, the Crater Lake chief ranger, Peter Reinhardt, declared the operation a huge success. It was amazing to look at the entire area of the caldera and see how much cleaner it looked, especially the lack of shiny debris twinkling in the sun.
Unfortunately, no further clues concerning Sammy's location were discovered.
Part of the weekend included a fantastic BBQ Saturday night. All of the various MRA, county, and NPS search and rescue team members, along with family and friends, enjoyed talking about the day, eating hot dogs and hamburgers (with a veggie option) and working on a keg of Mountain Rescue Pale Ale from the GoodLife Brewing Company in Bend, Oregon.
Included below are a few photographs from Todd Shechter of CMRU.
Thanks you everyone for helping make a great weekend happen!
Jerry Heilman
OMRC President
News and Pictures from 2010
Re-accreditation news for 2010
Photos from the winter 2010 snow re-accreditation for CMRU and DCMRU. The photos are courtesy of CMRU and the link is to the CMRU site.
Report for Winter 2011
Report for Summer 2010