Unity College Search and Rescue

Murdered ranger at Mt. Ranier: husband is a Unity College alum

2012-01-04T03:31:00.000-08:00

I was saddened to hear about this horrible killing. There's not a lot to say, except that every penny that goes into looking after military veterans, especially those suffering from PTSD, is a penny well spent.

Now it turns out that the murdered ranger's husband, Eric Anderson, went to our small college.

http://www.q13fox.com/news/nationworld/kcpq-bio-margaret-anderson-20120102,0,5455728.story

A marine's guide to fishing

2012-01-02T13:29:00.001-08:00

A Marine's Guide to Fishing - Trailer from Nicholas Brennan on Vimeo.

This is just the trailer. I'd like to see the full film. The primary actor is from Dexter, Maine. A write-up is here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/us/acting-helps-soldier-cope-with-post-traumatic-stress-disorder.html?_r=1&hp

RAF Mountain Rescue troop is casualty in Afghanistan

2011-12-30T05:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/defence/8982824/Two-officers-killed-on-covert-Afghanistan-mission-named.html

Update: a full obituary is available here.

High Angle Training cont.

2011-10-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

High Angle Training

2011-10-17T02:09:00.001-07:00

Click on the photos to enlarge.

Yesterday we held a joint high angle rescue training with Wilderness Rescue Team (WRT). "Wilderness," for short, as they are generally known in Maine SAR circles, are one of only a handful of organizations in the great state of Maine that train for and work in mountain rescue.

The way to understand the difference between WRT and other teams in Maine would be to consider the difference between search and rescue operations in woodland and wetland terrain (the kinds of operations that are the great majority of call-outs in Maine), and search and rescue operations in the high rock and ice of a Maine mountain like Mount Katahdin.

Obviously, only a team of trained and experienced mountaineers should be sent up Katahdin to perform a rescue!

But equally obviously, anyone who can read a map, hike safely and perform basic first aid can help a Maine team search a woodland or wetland like the Bangor City Forest searched only yesterday.

The latter can become the former, but not easily, because the process is much the same process that it takes to create a trained mountaineer -- you have to go mountaineering a lot!

An awful lot.

So that makes WRT one of the most committed and active teams in Maine. They have one or two former Unity students as members, I'm proud to say, including Nate, who visited yesterday with his three WRT colleagues, Joe, Jen, and Jake, to help out with our annual high angle rescue familiarization training.

Joe Poulin was the WRT lead trainer. Joe and I sit together on the Maine Association for Search and Rescue statewide committee, and I've worked with him now on SAR problems in Maine for nearly a decade, but this is the first time I'd asked him to come and train our team.

I should have asked long ago.

Joe is an excellent teacher, very animated and intense. The last photo, which I like a lot, shows him in action.

This training is not intended to create fully turned-out mountain rescuers. That's way too much to ask of a training that only lasts a day and only happens once a year. Instead it aims to begin the process of training a tiny handful of our most experienced ground searchers, particularly those who like to climb mountains, up to the much higher standards of fitness and technical knowledge required for mountain rescue personnel. Along the way we can begin to familiarize the rest of our team, particularly the beginners, with the mountain rescue environment.

The most experienced UCSAR members typically go on to federal and state park service, Maine Warden, and other agency jobs that require rescue and evacuation skills, sometimes at the mountain rescue level, and so this day is often the first step on a lifetime of training and experience.

The beginners get to try out some very scary but confidence-building activities. There are lots of cliffs one has to go over in life, metaphorical and otherwise, and it's generally a good thing to begin to learn to conquer fear and terror, if that beginning can happen in a very structured and safe environment.

I've been teaching these skills now for thirty years and I haven't hurt anyone badly yet. There have been quite a few bruises, though, including a few bruised egos.

I've seen strong men reduced to tears by the terror of their first rock climb or rappel.

Our group for yesterday's training included a large number of first year women students, and so inflated egos were not much to be found. The sex ratio made for a very pleasant and cooperative day, compared to others I've experienced, although there was also a bit more reticence and standing around rather than getting stuck in, which is what we encourage.

The best way to learn is to get stuck in.

Our WRT friends made for excellent one-on-one trainers too, so everyone was kept busy most of the time with ample opportunity to get stuck in.

Indeed, since all I had to do was teach rappel and otherwise make myself useful to Joe, I have to say I had a very pleasant day indeed, when usually this training is far too busy for me.

And it was particularly good to see our young Unity College women step up to the plate and learn to go over the edge, or make themselves useful on a rescue "system."

The greatest of thanks to Joe Poulin, Jake, Nate and Jen of Wilderness Rescue Team! Hopefully we can do this again sometime, possibly next fall.

Congratulations to all our students that learned to rappel, and special congratulations to the four that handled the final litter lower exercise.

I'll post more pictures in a day or two. These are just the best ones for now.

News report from today's rescue

2011-10-15T13:09:00.000-07:00

http://bangordailynews.com/2011/10/15/news/bangor/amherst-woman-lost-all-night-in-bangor-city-forest/

Early season search concludes well

2011-10-15T06:13:00.000-07:00

I just spent most of the wee hours helping organize a call-out, as MASAR Duty Officer. There was a search on, at the Bangor City Forest, which sounds like a park or arboretum, but in the routine nature of Maine is actually a small wilderness area, which itself backs on to bigger areas of privately owned wildland.

Our own team was called out, and six Unity students responded this morning. They arrived at the command post just in time to be told that the victim had been located alive.

(I don't have any more details and in fact we are not supposed to post details of Maine searches and rescues on our own team blogs.)

Students that haven't been on a call-out before may be disappointed to be turned around and sent home before they get to go search the woods, but this is in fact the best possible kind of outcome, or one of them:

a) The victim or subject is ALIVE! Need I say more?

b) No more searchers need to be sent out, meaning our searchers are now also safer and less likely to be hurt or injured and can be sent back to their own lives.

I'm always pleased by the responses I get as Duty Officer whenever I have to organize a call-out. I get to call people all over the state and in ones and twos and threes and fours, they get out of beds or up from in front of the TV and start making their way to the incident command post.

Horses and four-wheelers are trailered up for the ride and search dogs are made to climb into cages and kennels placed in the back of SUVs. Bags are packed or grabbed off the shelf, radios and GPS units are grabbed. On big call-outs, and this one was moderately big, scores of people then begin driving, sometimes long, long drives, all leaving their lives for the duration, and making their way to the call-out.

As a veteran, this kind of thing is important to me.

I need to feel like I belong in a society where public service is respected and honored, and where people are willing to contribute their time and energy to the greater good, or, in this case, to come to the aid of someone they don't know in a community far away.

And I get to sit by the phone, as Duty Officer, and help make this small miracle of volunteerism and public service happen.

What an honor.

Old school

2011-09-01T13:33:00.001-07:00

My old buddy Gary sent me these. He's the tall dark fellow.

Guess which one is me? Click on the image to enlarge.

Just to remind myself that I was once as young as our first years.

Or almost.

Please note, the litter handling technique circa 1983. Hasn't changed much.

Back to college, up and running

2011-09-01T01:22:00.000-07:00

Unity College SAR Team is now officially up and running for the school year.

Students have returned to campus. The educations of the new intake of Conservation Law Enforcement students have begun, with basic map reading and fitness training.

For my part, I get to teach two sections of the map reading and fitness lab. That means that about two dozen students will be hiking Mount Harris with me, twice a week, until hunting season.

The first weekly team meeting will be held soon, and trainings will begin. Students will get email notification of the time and place.

And, of course, we have to be ready for a call-out. Please make sure you have your hasty/ready pack all packed and on hand and ready to go, with flashlights that work, spare clothing that works, trail food you might actually be willing to eat, and so on.

Keep your cell phone charged and switched on.

And remember the Four Rules of Rescue:

1) Rescue is a team game:
2) Nobody gets hurt.
3) One person is in charge at all times.
4) Everyone that goes, comes back together

The Rules expanded:

1) Rescue is a team game: No prima-donnas allowed. If you want to rescue your ego, go show off at the gym. We go together, or not at all.

2) Nobody gets hurt. Obviously, the casualty or victim is likely already hurt or perhaps even dead. That's already one too many. Team leaders and team members must make every effort to make sure that their team stays safe.

3) One person is in charge at all times. Too many voices ruin The Plan. Although that Team leader should listen to his team members.

4) Everyone that goes, comes back together. If you go up the mountain together, you come down the mountain together. If you go in the woods together, you come out of the woods together. If you can't see that last team member in line, you wait until you can. The party goes at the pace of the slowest person.

BSES student killed by polar bear

2011-08-07T03:42:00.000-07:00

I've helped organize two British Schools Exploring Society Expeditions -- Iceland 1985 and Montana 1994. I was pretty sad to hear of this horrible incident.

But polar bears are in trouble and will be getting hungrier and hungrier as summer shore ice retreats from places like Svalbard. Trip flares and rifles won't stop a hungry bear.

I ran expeditions for years in grizzly country without a single serious incident and learned something about bears from a few close calls we had.

My buddies from Montana who used to do wildlife film-crew protection in Alaska thought sawn-off pump-action shotguns a better weapon for grizzly and polar bears. Air horns work well for scaring off bears in the first few minutes, as they approach the camp, and for waking the rest of the group.

And posting sentries around the clock is probably the way to begin to protect the camp.

New RAF Mountain Rescue webpage

2011-08-06T02:02:00.000-07:00

Regular readers will know that I'm a British ex-serviceman and was once part of the Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue service. There's an ex-members association, for which I'm co-editor of the annual journal. And now there's a new, updated web page, for those interested, with thousands of excellent photographs, albeit behind a registration firewall.

Moosehead search resolved -- after some delay

2011-07-25T05:55:00.000-07:00

http://bangordailynews.com/2011/07/24/news/piscataquis/maine-mans-body-found-year-after-he-disappeared/

Missing Rockwood man’s body found on Moosehead Lake

By Nok-Noi Ricker, BDN Staff

Posted July 24, 2011, at 10:31 a.m.
Last modified July 24, 2011, at 8:55 p.m.

ROCKWOOD, Maine — Two female kayakers on Moosehead Lake made a grisly discovery Saturday morning when they came across the body of a man face down and partially floating along the shore.

Game wardens believe the body is that of Rockwood resident James Russell, 51, who was last seen on Sunday, Nov. 14, on Sand Bar Way in Rockwood just before a planned paddle across the lake to Mount Kineo. His green kayak, a paddle and his backpack were found last year floating in the water off Murray Road about two miles from Kineo.

“The body was tentatively identified as Mr. Russell because of the clothing and where he was located,” Edie Smith, director of information for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said Sunday. “The official identification will be made by the medical examiner’s office, which is where his body is now.”

Kayakers Donna Barnes of Brunswick and Susan Townsend of Lisbon Falls discovered the body at around 8:30 a.m., while paddling between Sandbar Island and the mainland.

The man’s body was clothed in a brown hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, hat and brown hiking boots, which “matches the description of what Mr. Russell was wearing at the time of his disappearance,” Smith said.

Russell had been working on a carpentry project on Sand Bar Way. In addition to his paddling gear, his bicycle also was found after he went missing.

After Russell was reported missing, an aggressive search was conducted by wardens — using sonar boats and airplanes — Unity College Search and Rescue members, Maine Search and Rescue dog teams, Maine Forest Service rangers, members of Russell’s family and friends who scoured Moosehead Lake in Rockwood, Kineo and Farm Island to no avail.

“With Moosehead Lake being over 40 miles long, the search was elongated and unfortunately, the body never located at that time, despite the exhaustive search,” Smith said.

Sgt. Chris Cloutier of the Maine Warden Service, who was assisted by District Ranger Bruce Reed, led the team that recovered the man’s body and tentatively identified it as that of Russell.

The medical examiner, in addition to officially identifying the body, also will determine his cause of death. A representative at the medical examiner’s office said Sunday that no information would be released until Monday at the earliest.

A tandem lower

2011-05-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

It wasn't so much that my ego was feeling bruised, but I was just a little concerned that the tandem lower technique I like so much for introducing new trainees to the high angle environment was so thoroughly debunked by the RfR crew (one of yesterday's learning moments -- see previous post).

I hated to feel so stupid, to think I'd been using something so easily discarded, so I went looking for pictures of up-to-date UK technique just to see what they do nowadays.

Here is HRH the Duke of Cambridge, otherwise known as "Wills," on service with RAF Valley MRT just a couple of years ago, using the same system I use. The photos belong to the BBC.

It looks like it has changed little since it first came into being around 1983. It was invented by MR troop and later Chief Instructor Bill Batson and widely disseminated around that year.

It uses three ropes, two main lowering ropes and a safety/belay rope. the two mains are tied more or less directly into the litter/stretcher, and then to the guides/attendants/barrow boys, no need for a bridle. No chest harness, no complicated jiggers.

If, as I supposed based on a 2003 article by Bill in On the Hill: The Journal of RAF Mountain Rescue, the RAFMRT has adopted RfR ideas, then they certainly reverted pronto to older technique when assigned to train his Highness.

I guess if I was trying to stay current in MR systems back in the UK, I would still actually be current.

The one new idea here that I can see is the notion of "vectoring" the mainlines on the edge transition. We never bothered to do that back in the dark ages.

The question would be, why do they still use this system, if as reported by Bill, the RfR ideas were introduced circa 2003?

I might email Bill and try to find out.

Rigging for Rescue

2011-05-22T01:58:00.000-07:00

One of our local Maine SAR teams, Mount Desert Island Search and Rescue, organized a Rigging for Rescue seminar for this weekend, and I agreed to attend.

This was a good opportunity for the team, and so someone should take advantage of it. I was available while everyone else was gone for the summer.

So, when the plans for the training were being made last summer, I seized the day and arranged for the fee to be paid and this Friday the day finally arrived and I went to the class, which was held in and just outside of Acadia National Park.

Ordinarily the Unity College Search and Rescue Team is used by the authorities as hasty search and wide area search team, but particularly the latter. We get called rarely but reliably, between two to five times a year, to provide search services to some critical scene, usually under the expert management of the Maine Warden's Service.

(Forty percent of Maine Wardens are Unity College graduates, so one reason the team exists is to begin to prepare these public servants for the very large percentage of their job that is search and rescue.)

But we get generally used as a search team, not a rescue team.

Only once, in my eleven years as faculty advisor to the Unity College SAR Team, have I been personally used on an evacuation of any kind, never mind a high angle rescue evac.

However, our team members have been involved in steep angle rescues on Mt Katahdin or MDI.

Usually they've been up to either park in mufti, climbing or hiking, or on summer trail crew and seconded to the rescue, or some other such circumstances. This might have happened three or four times, that I can remember, but some of the rescues were quite epic. On a couple of occasions I've been pleased to get very good reports back from the authorities about the help our students gave in some dire escapade.

And then our team members of course go on to agencies and other teams and so need to be well-trained.

I would want our graduates to properly represent the college and to be the most help they can be to their new organizations, and some mountain rescue or high angle rescue familiarity, or at the very least, knowledge of the basics of safe evacuation praxis, is going to be needed at most parks and in most settings where our graduates are employed.

So for years now we've included evacuation training in the team's curriculum. I've also managed to run a one-day high angle "familiarization" training most years in the fall.

I call this one-day event a "familiarization" training because I'm under no illusions that it prepares students adequately for serious mountain rescue problems.

Although some are, most students on our team are not mountaineers. They don't know how to lead climb, how to follow, or how to rappel. Many have never climbed at all. The setting is unfamiliar. The mountain rescue environment and equipment is unfamiliar.

Above all, the rescue team command and control system is unfamiliar. Today's teenagers are generally less than, shall we say, practiced in following commands.

With the high turnover we have at the college, indeed at any college, 60-70% of the students who attend this one-day training are new to the team.

So the main point is to begin the process of familiarization.

I think the world might also forgive me if, as a teacher first and foremost any day of the week, I really enjoy any situation that gets students' attention and instills some healthy discipline, and there's nothing quite like the feeling that one might actually fall off a cliff if one doesn't listen carefully for getting a student's attention and instilling discipline.

In these days of video games and cell phones and Facebook and short attention spans, this is almost magical for a teacher, to actually get students focused, alert, and listening.

But if we're to get these great benefits, I need to be properly trained and updated.

My SAR experience is probably too long at this point in time, and in fact I joined my first team, RAF Leeming Mountain Rescue Team, in 1979, back in the days of braided terylene rope, when body belays, classic body rappel, and fallen leader training were still de rigeur.

(We had the "new" gear of perlon/kernmantle, stitcht plates, and figure-eights, but didn't quite trust it yet, so the old techniques were still taught as a back-up. And I suppose, they were probably considered "character-forming.")

I have also been on two American mountain rescue teams, and thought I had learned the basics of American systems.

I was therefore quite unprepared for the main lesson of RfR, which was, for me at least, how woefully out-of-date my mountain rescue skills now are. Although I can see that our one-day training still provided benefits for the students, particularly that minor paying attention thingy, my attempts to teach the technical part of high angle rescue these last few years amount to an exercise in personal nostalgia.

I think I can be at least partly forgiven for this too. My last serious externally-validated mountain rescue training was probably in 1994 in Montana. Since then the small problem of getting a PhD, so I could continue college teaching and research, and the minor difficulties of starting a farm and family, have interfered with my ability to keep up with the rescue world.

In the back of my head, I'm still cogitating. I still wonder if despite all the science obviously used in RfR, some of the older techniques might not still be useful if they get the job done faster and with less complications than some of the ideas I saw on this training, albeit at the expense of risk and more routine shock to equipment.

But it isn't professional, when the world has moved on, to cling to ideas like that, so I'll reserve those thoughts for myself.

Planet to Mick, come in please. Stand by for lesson.

Take home: I learned some new stuff on RfR that we're going to have to put to use in the UCSAR team's training. I also got to hang out on some cool cliffs with a wild and crazy bunch of guys.

But it was also a bit of a shock.

So. OK. I'm a scientist. Negative results can still be good results if the experiment is valid. This course was a success if it taught us how to better plan the team's trainings.

I'd have to say, if I want to keep updated, I'm going to have to devote more time to this. Which, realistically, there probably isn't time to do. The obvious thing to do is to bring in outside help.

We'll have to bring in some other trainers, most likely from one of the several mountain rescue teams we have in Maine.

Thanks to MDISAR and especially Steve Hudson for organizing the course and inviting our attendance.

Feature article on UK SAR

2011-03-17T03:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2011/03/14/a-hard-days-night-dogged-determination-helps-rescuers-find-their-man

Well worth the read.

Big mountain call-outs on the increase?

2011-02-21T02:30:00.000-08:00

I have absolutely no statistical data on which to base this thought, so take it with a pinch of salt.

But I think that we're seeing an increase in the number of mountain search and rescues in Maine: call outs calling for mountain training, mountain experience, and mountain gear.

I think that the "normal" kind of search, for hunters and fishermen and kids in the relatively flat, relatively congenial woods of Maine have probably also increased over the years, but more recently the big mountains seem to have have seen more events, and more events calling for mountain rescue training, than before.

An example is this week's call-out for four students on Katahdin, which was a classic mountain rescue much like we might see in Scotland or the Alps.

I saw this same process unfold in Montana in the 1980s and early 1990s. As traditional sporting uses declined, new sports increased, including rock and ice-climbing, backcountry skiing and snowshoeing, and alpine mountaineering. This led to new and different kinds of rescues for the old and fat members of Montana search and rescue teams.

(As an old and fat member of a Maine SAR team, formerly of a Montana team, I'm allowed to say this!)

This was a difficult time for SAR teams in Montana. A mountain rescuer needs to be a good deal more in shape and fit than a traditional flat-land SAR team member, and needs special skills, lots more training, and above all experience. It took a few years, several unnecessary deaths, and the founding of a local Mountain Rescue Association-sponsored team before Montana rescues systems were more equal to the task.

(The Mountain Rescue Association member teams' specialized mountain training may be contrasted to that of the more typical National Association for Search and Rescue teams.)

And when you send flat-landers up the big mountain, they may get hurt and die on the rescue.

Which should never happen because it contradicts Rule 2 of Mick's Four Rules of Rescue:

1) Rescue is a team game:
2) Nobody gets hurt.
3) One person is in charge at all times.
4) Everyone that goes, comes back together

The Rules expanded:

1) Rescue is a team game: No prima-donnas allowed. If you want to rescue your ego, go show off at the gym. We go together, or not at all.

2) Nobody gets hurt. Obviously, the casualty or victim is likely already hurt or perhaps even dead. That's already one too many. Team leaders and team members must make every effort to make sure that their team stays safe.

3) One person is in charge at all times. Too many voices ruin The Plan. Although that Team leader should listen to his team members.

4) Everyone that goes, comes back together. If you go up the mountain together, you come down the mountain together. If you go in the woods together, you come out of the woods together. If you can't see that last team member in line, you wait until you can. The party goes at the pace of the slowest person.

Finding the overlook

2010-10-16T13:57:00.001-07:00

Here's a successful coursework assignment: Our Intro to CLE map readers find the Mt Harris overlook.

There's no trail to this beauty spot, just a deer run in the woods, and you only know you're there when you look up and can see the pond. The students get only an eight-figure UTM grid reference, and must find it by pacing and using bearings and orienteering.

Some groups find it the first try. Others need to come back the next class and find it.

Earl says "Take me seriously"

2010-09-02T04:30:00.000-07:00

As a practicing human ecologist, I'm used to denial. These last few hours are an example, as I listen to people talk lightly about the hurricane. It doesn't help matters that most hurricanes that hit Maine the last few years were pretty much little squibbles of their former selves by the time they got here.

Earl, however, is a serious storm, and it will hit Maine. If it has even a portion of its current energy and scale, and if it hits the Bay of Fundy as precisely as expected, we are going to see some very difficult weather Friday night, and traveling Friday and Saturday may become dangerous.

All the State EMA resources are on standby, including the Unity College SAR Team, so I'll be staying close to the phone through Saturday morning. Most other people should stay home too and hunker down.

Travelers are just going to add to the difficulties that the various emergency services face, and may even put rescuers at risk.

An Earl-y start

2010-08-31T08:03:00.000-07:00

Unity College SAR Team is back on call, the students having arrived over the weekend.

And the weather is possibly going to be interesting during the first full weekend of the college term, what with a hurricane coming and all.

Maine doesn't usually get such terrible hurricane winds, but we do often get some very heavy rain and flooding.

Last year we had a call-out for a missing person during the first serious hurricane of the season.

That was a fairly wet weekend!

That others may live...

2010-08-14T05:45:00.000-07:00

The PJs have been busy in Alaska:

First there was the Twin Otter crash that killed former Senator Stevens and four others, then there was what sounds like an epic call out for a small plane on a glacier near Anchorage:

Spring 2010 UCSAR activities

2010-04-21T11:44:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday, February 3 & 10th, the team practiced winter survival techniques. The training included fire building, shelter building, how to dress properly for searching in the winter, and how to outfit your ready pack for winter survival.

On Wednesday, February 17th, Dale Rowley, Waldo County EMA director taught a HAZMAT Awareness course to UCSAR at Unity College.

On Wednesday, February 27th, UCSAR and the Unity College Outing Club went on a snowshoeing trip in Acadia National Park.

On Saturday, March 27th, Fred Porter of Isleboro Public Safety taught a Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) course to members of UCSAR & Unity Fire Dept at Unity College.

On Saturday, April 10th and Sunday, April 11th, UCSAR hosted a BASAR course. Participating teams included Wilderness Rescue Team, Waldo County Search & Rescue, Dirigo Search & Rescue, Mid Maine Equestrian Search & Rescue, and Unity College Search & Rescue. Course instructors were Sgt. Jon Blagdon, ME Warden Service, Michelle Fleury, ME State Police Crime Laboratory, Jim Bridge, ME Search & Rescue Dogs, Mick Womersley, Unity College, and Roger David, Lincoln County Search & Rescue. The two day course covered topics such as navigation, survival, search operations and tactics, helicopter operations, and other relevant search & rescue topics. This course is part of the MASAR Ground Searcher Certification curriculum.

On Saturday, April 17th, UCSAR provided rescue swimming services at the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race in Bangor, ME. This year over 470 canoers and kayakers participated in the race. With extremely low water levels, there were only a few participants who needed rescue services. UCSAR would like to thank team leader James and David Martin of Dirigo Search & Rescue for coordinating rescue services during the event. The link to the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race website is: www.kenduskeagstreamcanoerace.com

UCSAR will be hosting their annual Car Smash fundraiser on Friday, April 30th at Unity College. All proceeds are donated to the Regional Volunteer Food Pantry in Unity. Prices for the event are: $1 for three hits, $5 dollars for a full minute, $5 dollars for any side window, $10 dollars for either front or rear windshields. The event will start at 10am, and will be held at the Unity College gym parking lot.

Gunner the wonder lab retrieving a lost canoe paddle during the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race

Baxter State Park winter high angle SAR

2010-02-21T11:23:00.001-08:00

Members from Lincoln SAR, MDI SAR & Unity College SAR spent the last weekend in January in Baxter State Park, providing SAR coverage, as well as practicing high angle SAR techniques.

Baxter Park Rangers transported us and our gear 17 mi into the park by snowmobile to the Roaring Brook trailhead. From there, we snowshoed approximately 3.3 mi to the Chimney Pond Ranger Station. We stayed at one of the cabins at Chimney Pond. The view of Katahdin from Chimney Pond was spectacular.

We awoke early each morning and hiked across Chimney Pond, climbing up the south side of Katahdin. High angle lowering techniques based upon the Technical Rescue Riggers Guide by Rick Lipke were practiced. This consisted of two lines-a belay line and a safety. Both lines were anchored into ice. building steep angle lowering anchors in snow was also practiced.

One of the funnest, but most scariest moments of the training, was practicing self-rescue techniques with an alpine axe on the ice. We were tied into a safety line, but for someone sliding down a steep, icy mountain side for the first time, having to rely on an alpine axe to stop sliding, it was quite the adrenaline rush.

During our 3 day training period, we also practiced avalanche rescue techniques, patient packaging, and learned how the incident command system works during SAR incidents in the park.

The hike up Katahdin was strenuous, but we were awarded with an amazing view of Chimney pond, Hammond Ridge, and Katahdin Peak. Temperatures were well below zero, and 50mph winds wipped through the mountainside the entire weekend.

Unfortunately, my camera froze the second day into the training, so these photos are of the first two days only. I am hoping to receive more to add to this post in the near future.

Original smokejumper, PJ trainer dies at 98

2009-11-15T04:12:00.000-08:00

Earl Cooley, the Montanan smokejumper pioneer who also first trained USAF Pararescuemen, has died at 98 years of age in Missoula.

I spent a summer once fighting fire, and another working as a volunteer wilderness ranger for the Forest Service, and found out about smokejumping. Later, when I was at the UMT Forestry School's Wilderness Institute, I met a lot of former and current smokejumpers. One nice duty I drew was to take seniors on summer outings each Friday afternoon. One venue was the smokejumper base at the Missoula airport, where the seniors would get a tour and a talk from a jumper. I met a couple of the original jumpers, including a fellow who had been an Amishman before volunteering for smokejumper duty during WW2.

Later on I learned from guys I knew in Pararescue that there had been this contribution from the smokejumpers at the founding of the USAF service.

UCSAR & Outing Club Tumbledown Mtn. Hike

2009-11-14T08:11:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, November 8th, Unity College Search & Rescue and the Unity College Outing Club sponsored a hiking trip up Tumbledown Mountain in Weld, ME.

The mountain stands at 3,068ft. At the top, Tumbledown pond is the third highest pond in elevation in the state of Maine.

The hike began up the Loop trail, which took us across the top of the mountain and to Tumbledown pond, to the Brook trail which led us down the mountain. The hike was approximately 5 miles.

Along the Loop Trail stands a very large rock that is estimated to weight as much as a Naval destroyer. The north side of the rock has yet to be climbed. Here, Ryan attempts to conquer the 40+ foot rock on the north side.

Ryan easily scaled the south side of the rock. His technique for getting back down was quite interesting. A large birch tree standing next to the rock proved to be the best method for getting down off the rock. Much like a treed black bear, Ryan shimmied down the birch tree to the bottom of the rock-it was quite impressive to watch!

Trying to get Ryan's dog Minet up the last part of the Loop trail was a concern at the beginning of the hike. Near the summit, the trail leads you between a series of boulders which you must climb up through. However, by placing a person inside the boulder cavern, one person on the top of the cavern and one at the bottom, Minet was passed up through with relative ease.

At the junction of the Loop Trail and the Brook Trail is a separate trail heading off towards the west. Note that the sign behind Ryan and Minet states, 'This trail is difficult and not recommended for children or dogs'. Minet must have hiked 4x the distance we did as she would get far ahead of us, come back down the mountain to make sure we were okay, and head back up again. I slipped a few times during the hike, but not once did she.

Tumbledown has some spectacular views, and even has a few spots at the top where you can do some bouldering.

Josh and Tim helped keep the trail clean by picking up trash left behind by other hikers.

Joint high angle training, Acadia National Park

2009-10-25T16:20:00.000-07:00

Members of Unity College Search & Rescue attended a joint high angle rescue training session today in Acadia National Park. Other attending teams included Mount Desert Island Search & Rescue, Wilderness Rescue Team and Lincoln Search & Rescue.

Scenarios were held near the Precipice trailhead off of the park Loop Road.

I apologize for the lack of action shots; the only time I was able to take pictures was during lunch break, and towards the end of the session. I will do my best to convey the day to you in words.

The pictures you see of the rescuers in the boulder field are of a scenario in which a hiker has injured themselves while climbing amongs the rocks. The group was tasked with bringing the injured hiker down from the top of the boulder field as the hiker had a broken leg. Despite the large size of the rocks, they were not very steady, and made lots of noise when they rolled down the incline out from under your feet.

Using a litter to carry a patient out in this type of situation could be done, but would certainly be dangerous to both the patient and the rescuers. As seen in both these photos, the victim is at the very top of the boulder field. It was approximately 100yds from the bottom of the rock face to where the victim was located. Scrambling over rocks with a litter would be very challenging. How would you rescue the victim in a similar scenario?

The team decided the best way to handle the situation would be to tie a line from the tree near the victim to another tree at the bottom of the rock slope. The victim would be attached to the line, dangling above the rocks, and would be lowered down the line until they reached the bottom of the slope. A helicopter rescue from this location would not be feasible as the canopy cover is too great and the rocks would pose a threat to the helicopter's rotors.

These last two photos were taken during lunch break. We stood on top of a granite cliff approximately 40 ft in height, and practiced lowering and raising a patient in a litter. The system used included a belay line and a main line which interlocked above and in the center of the litter, tied in by a set of double prussics that were attached near the patient's head and feet. A pulley system was also collected to the litter attachment point which was used to adjust the litter if one side needed to be raised or lowered to keep the litter horizontal. The rescuer was attached to the main and belay lines also, and was responsible for manuevering the litter around and over obstacles.

On top of the cliff, the main and belay lines were anchored to trees via a karabiner, webbing, and a system of pulleys. Two sets of prussics attached to the pulleys acted as ratchets to hold the lines when the litter needed to be stopped. A 9 by 1 pulley system was set up on the main line to aid the rescuers who were pulling the litter, patient and rescuer up the side of the cliff. Initially, the rescuer was lowered down the cliff to the patient using a friction bar on the main line, which was replaced by the pulley system while the patient was packaged into the litter.

Once the litter neared the top of the cliff, a few adjustments had to be made in order to get the litter up and over. The vector pull technique was attempted first, which included two rescuers at the edge of the cliff lifting the main and belay lines vertically in order to direct the pulling force upwards rather than back towards the anchor points, and into the cliff face. As the combined weight of the rescuer and the victim was approx. 400lbs, this technique wasn't adequate. The v-strap technique was next utilized, which consisted of webbing being attached to the litter near the patient's feet. The strap was then attached to the pulley system, and the litter was hung vertically by the rescuer attending the patient. The litter was then raised vertically, with the v strap pulling the bottom of the litter upwards, which allowed for the litter to be tipped up and onto the top of the cliff edge.

High Angle Rescue Training 2

2009-10-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, October 14th, 2009, the Unity College Search & Rescue team practiced high angle rescue training senarios at Camden Hills State Park, Maine. This consisted of repelling over rock faces singularly, and of performing tandem lowers with a patient in a stokes litter. The tandem lowering consisted of two rescuers moving the patient and litter around and over obstacles down the cliff, while two rescuers on top worked the rope lines securing the two rescuers and the patient. The tandem lowers were performed at Mainden Cliffs inside the park, which is approximately 80ft. high.

The training was led by Unity College Professor Mick Womersley, who has several years worth of search and rescue experience with the Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service in the UK, as well as with county search and rescue teams in the U.S.

The following photos are of the Unity College Search & Rescue team members who attended the training-

High angling

2009-10-16T09:17:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday we had our annual high angle rescue familiarization. This is a basic introduction for our student team members.

Unity students in the Conservation Law Enforcement, Parks, Recreation, and Ecotourism, or Adventure Education Leadership majors may or may not go on to serve on teams and for agencies or other employers who practice roped rescue. Not all our target student employers do evac and rescue, but some do. Historically one or more most years go to the NPS as backcountry rangers and are given the NPS roped rescue course. Students may also go to work for Outward Bound or similar non-profit or for-profit outdoor organizations.

In most cases, they need a little rescue. They don't get taught everything they need to know in just one day, but they will be familiar with the environment and can help out on a real scenario.

We took a lot of photos, some of which I will upload so students can see them.

Onward Christian Soldiers

2009-09-11T02:37:00.000-07:00

Jake and I traveled to Edgeomb, Maine, to help instruct, test and qualify the newly formed Lincoln County SAR Team. The team were well prepared for their exercises and did well. I was properly impressed, which is not that easy to do.

It rained all day and so we had to actually use the stuff in our ready packs. I pulled out, of course, my circa 1986 RAFMRT blue Goretex raincoat which sits unused in the bottom of my pack from year to year without much thought. And of course, as it did even when it was brand new, it leaked at the seams.

Luckily for us, the Salvation Army was on hand to counter the cold rain with hot food and comfort. I have several relatives who are stalwart members of the "Christian soldiers" back home, in the brass band country of industrial Britain, catering to all the ills that bedevil no-longer-relevant industrial towns.

On this day I was very glad to see them because I was cold and wet and hot food was the necessary antidote. The Sally Annie's "Dinty Moor" type beef stew is a by-word around SAR teams in Maine.

Team updates, opening week Fall 2009

2009-08-30T23:56:00.001-07:00

Slideshow: 2007, team members learning to rappel.

The Fall term starts Monday and we already have sufficient personnel on campus to respond to a call-out.

That means that we are now officially open for business.

Since we have a tropical storm arriving shortly, with flooding predicted, the likelihood we get a call-out opening weekend is higher than normal.

All team members sophomore and above should have their ready packs packed and in their vehicle or dorm room. The team officers will shortly be updating call-out lists: be sure to get your information to them if your home phone number or cell phone number has changed.

For first years who want to know how to join: Membership is open to all UC students. The first point of contact with new students is club night, held usually in the first few weeks of the semester. Watch for posters. Team trainings/meetings are held weekly all fall, usually at night midweek. The primary land navigation training for most first year team members is the Introduction to Conservation law Enforcement Labs, which starts Monday and Wednesday, depending on your section, taught by myself and Tim Peabody.

Tim and I will explain how SAR works in Maine, and about the Unity College Team, in class. If you are assigned to my section, and a serious candidate, you will show up with suitable clothing for hiking on the first day.

(Non CLE-first years who are not required to take this class are recommended to take Map and Compass, a different class, later in their UC career.)

The team truck is off-campus until late today (Saturday), along with a considerable part of our gear. Jake Urrutia and I are helping with training/certification for the Lincoln County SAR Team today and are using the truck and gear.

Welcome back!

Mick
Faculty Advisor

Postcard from Heavy

2009-08-30T23:46:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are new to the blog, Heavy is our UK penpal and statistician for the Scottish Mountain Rescue Committee, as well as a former RAF Mountain rescue "troop" of renown. He sends regular emails with photos of his activities.

>>>>
Just back from 5 days up North West near Ullapool, at Elphin it was wet and windy and the midges were awful, worst ever. We still managed a good few days on the hills.

I was with friends John and Mary Cosgrove, I was their best man in late 70's and Martin Frew and Kenny Kennworthy, both were my Deputies when we were in the RAF at Leuchars and Kinloss in the Mountain Rescue. Kenny is moving away to Edinburgh next month so this was his last trip for a while. Martin (Raz) is in North Wales now.

Day one was Reiff small sea cliffs near Stac Polly,the weather was amazing blue skies and sun. We then went to Sulliven, a long walk in, John and Kenny kayaked in from the bothy and we met on the ridge. What a hill, and situation, one of the best. There were a pair of eagles near the summit, wonderful. Next day the weather was wild but Kenny and Martin climbed Stac Polly, we went to Ullapool then to Reiff when the weather improved. Kenny fished twice and caught some trout, he also got a hook in his finger which John sorted! The last day was wet and the midges were crazy till we got high and did Conival and Ben More Assynt, I went to the aircraft crash nearby. A very sad place where the crew are still buried on the site, the only one in UK where the crew were left where they crashed in March 1941 it was a Avro Anson from Kinloss. The hills are looking good and the heather really beautiful, what a smell of the heather when you come of the hills. Knee was sore so I took it easy and did not do last two hills but had a great walk to the crash site. Weather and daylight starting to change getting colder on the hills, winter not far away!

The bothy we stayed at is such a great place at Elphin with a view of Sullivan, It was a great trip,with good friends. I am taking it easy at weekend get ready for off to Arran for the annual golf trip from 4 Sept Lochranza for a week.

Hope all is well
""David "Heavy" Whalley MBE.BEM

Four seasons in a day

2009-08-06T07:09:00.000-07:00

"Heavy" Whalley, our pen-pal in Scottish mountain rescue has been on the BBC Scotland radio program Four Seasons in a Day. The program will be online for a day or two more.

Makes for interesting listening:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lv68k

Some Gaelic vernacular:

a ben is a Scottish mountain

a bealach is a saddle

lochans, lochs, are mountain lakes

etc...

Baxter Rescue news report

2009-07-22T02:01:00.000-07:00

Unity College Staff Member Saves a Life in Baxter State Park, Credits Skill of Maine Search and Rescue

Unity, Maine – July, 2009 – It was a busy weekend for Ryan Howes ’07, Experiential Programs Assistant at Unity College. In his spare time Howes serves as a member of the Lincoln Search and Rescue, a high angle rescue squad in Lincoln, Maine.

Howes and three Unity College students pursuing summer internships participated in one of the most physically demanding and time consuming wilderness high angle Maine rescue operations to take place in recent memory. The operation lasted nearly 30 hours and involved all five Maine-based high angle rescue squads, with additional support from park rangers, forest rangers, and game wardens.

On the evening of Friday, July 17, Howes and other members of the squad were called to Baxter State Park to be briefed by Ranger Rob Tice on a young female on Hamlin Ridge Trail who had a possible broken left leg. The squad departed for the rescue at 4 a.m. on Saturday along with members of Dirigo, Wilderness and Mt. Desert Island (MDI) Search and Rescue, and members of the Baxter State Park Trail Crew, which included three Unity College students who work on the trail crew. The students are Andy Gagnon ’11, Mike Champagne ’12, and Melanie Renell ’12. They were joined on the scene by members of the Mahoosuc Search and Rescue of Bethel, Maine, game wardens, park rangers, and forest rangers.

After the briefing while on route to the scene, Howes and his fellow rescuers were not only challenged by the bad weather, but news that a second victim had been reported.

“We heard that there was a second victim and as we were approaching victim number one, ahead, nearly at the top of the ridge, we saw one of the BSP Rangers assisting a second victim,” said Howes. “Because victim number one was in a secure location and feeling comfortable, I along with two members of Wilderness Search and Rescue took over for the ranger and helped victim number two.”

The rescuers gave the second victim food, water and warm clothing. Two search and rescue volunteers assisted the second victim from the mountain, who was able to walk despite suffering from mild hypothermia and bruising.

The rest of the 18 rescuers converged on the first victim, and packed her into a litter for transport down the mountain, noted Howes.

“This turned out to be one of the most physically demanding transports that I have ever been involved in,” said Howes.

The hike to get to the victims was 4.6 miles beginning at Roaring Brook Ranger Station and proceeding up the Chimney Pond Trail to Hamlin Ridge.

The rescuers carried the victim caterpillar style from the scene just below Hamlin Peak, 4,751 feet above sea level, two miles to Chimney Pond Ranger Cabin. The female victim was air lifted to a hospital in Millinocket by a United States Army Reserve Helicopter the following morning. The poor weather would not allow the helicopter to attempt a rescue on the ridge.

“It was about 50 degrees with 30 to 40 miles-per-hour winds on Hamlin Ridge,” said Howes. “We got to the victim at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, and started carrying her down the ridge at 10 a.m. We arrived at the ranger’s cabin at 7:30 p.m.”

“Everyone on the rescue was wet due to the relentless, wind driven rain,” Howes explained. “It rained an inch that day. We had to keep moving the entire time in order to stay warn, or we could have become victims of hypothermia. Toward the end of this experience park rangers arrived on the trail with 70 sandwiches that they had purchased from a downtown Millinocket store, and cookies that a ranger baked.”

The lesson that Howes would like to convey is not only that Maine is blessed with highly trained and dedicated rescuers, but that hikers must be prepared for the challenges that they will face.

Howes noted that the two victims were ill-prepared for the weather and inexperienced as hikers.

“I personally want to give thanks to all of the rescuers who showed up and put their lives on the line to save other individuals,” said Howes. “The level of camaraderie and teamwork was outstanding. That we were able to get the victim in the litter off the mountain before dark given the adverse weather conditions and trail conditions is a highly commendable act. This demonstrates the skill level of Maine search and rescue personnel, park personnel, and their ability to organize in such a short period of time.”

“We really had it down,” noted Howes. “We had EMT’s, Wilderness First Responders, and a physician who is a member of the Lincoln Search and Rescue Team all on the scene.”

Unity College is a small private college in rural Maine that provides dedicated, engaged students with a liberal arts education which emphasizes the environment and natural resources. Unity College graduates are prepared to be environmental stewards, effective leaders, and responsible citizens through active learning experiences within a supportive community.

An interesting story

2009-06-05T08:13:00.001-07:00

http://www.cravenherald.co.uk/news/4418047.Training_turns_to_reality_for_rescue_groups/
With an old comrade featured. Bill was one of the best climbers in the service during my time. the chopper is a Sea King, an old but awesome rescue bird. I trained a little for Cave Rescue.

In the rescue world, CRO can mean two things: The Cave Rescue Organization in England's north country, and Combat Rescue Officer, a USAF MOS for PJ-qualified candidates.

One danger in scheduling a big joint training is that fate increases the odds of a call-out for you every time.

Kadjoko call out, 4/19/2009

2009-04-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

To: Mick Womersley; Faculty; Students; Staff
Cc:
Subject: SAR callout report, Sunday 4/19
Attachments:
View As Web Page

Dear CommUnity:

The Unity College SAR team returned safely to campus this afternoon after assisting the Maine Warden's Service to look for a man missing in the woods north of Greenville since Monday.

The elderly gentleman they were looking for was, unhappily, found dead after several hours and miles of searching. It will however, be some small comfort to his family that he has been found.

We fielded 11 personnel. This is a very good response for a weekend call out. All students performed well under the leadership of their own officers (without any faculty or staff supervision), on an arduous operation, at short notice, and a long way from campus.

I hope you agree with me that they are a credit to the college.

Sincerely,

Mick

Mick Womersley, PhD
Associate Professor
Unity College
www.unity.edu/facultypages/womersley/windweb.htm
www.ucsustainability.blogspot.com
www.unity.edu/sustainability

The Maine guide technique

2009-04-19T05:10:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, the traditional Maine guide paddle technique for a one-man canoe is to paddle upright, with a very long paddle. This particular guy, a race day regular, shoots all the Kenduskeag rapids every year in this fine style, come hell or high water.

Kenduskeag race day!

2009-04-19T04:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday a small but elite group of two Unity SAR team personnel went to Bangor to help provide rescue cover for the annual Kenduskeag River Race.

The Kenduskeag is about as much fun as Mainers like to have. Being northerners and proud of it, not only do thousands of folk turn out to watch people get dumped in the icy cold waters just for fun, but almost a thousand actually go down the river as part of the race and GET dumped.

You can see pretty much every type of Mainer there is to see on the banks or in the river. The race is run by folk barely in their teens (accompanied by a paddler parent), to folk well into retirement.

One gray-haired granny who shot the rapids very neatly in her aging fiberglass kayak got the biggest round of applause. But the Maine guide who paddles standing up always gets a cheer, as does Gumby who this year was sporting a T-Shirt declaring his support for economic stimulus (as long as some of it came to him). There were also lots of pirates, of the traditional, not east African kind.

About thirty boats dumped at our little hole, and Melanie and I fished away with our throw ropes, while the Bangor FD swam around in their wet suits and fielded other dumpers and swimmers.

Of course, the loudest cheers are ALWAYS for those who dump.

Mount Harris in the snow

2009-03-15T04:34:00.000-07:00

I took a ride on some muddy dirt roads up to our Mount Harris training area. Mud season is definitely upon us. Click on the picture to enlarge it and get the full effect.

This is why we bought that 4 wheel drive king cab rescue truck. The college vans are roomy and reliable, but when we have to drive dirt roads to get to a call-out in mud season, they are a liability.

And an accident that put a van out of commission would create difficulties for the college's field trip scheduling.

As it turns out, we may be getting a second SAR vehicle soon, a Ford Bronco six-pack, donated by a college supporter.

The snow was hard, and so Haggis (a failed search dog trainee) and I could walk more or less anywhere we wanted without snowshoes. Not that Haggis has any. When the snow is deep he just plows through. I plan to go back today to try to get to the high lookout.

I also dropped in on the landowner to renew our access permission, which was readily granted. We won't mention your name on this public web page, but we are very pleased and grateful to have access to such a great training area.

Check out our most recent letter from Heavy, our Scottish Mountain Rescue buddy (a member of the Scottish Mountain Rescue Committee and Torridan MRT). Torridon had a very exciting, slightly technical call-out, with a great result. Heavy sent pictures and a summary (below).

It's always great when everything works well and you save a life. This guy would certainly have died without the technical and medical skills, and the hill fitness, of the several teams involved.

So the next time one of you is slogging up Mount Harris in the mud and rain, lost and weary and scratched by trees, and cursing Mick, remember, the real thing is much harder!

Then curse away!

Postcard from Heavy

2009-03-14T15:02:00.001-07:00

A 62 year old went off to climb his 100 th Munro Sgurr Na Sgine on the South Clunnie, he never returned to his car.

Kintail MR searched all night with team and dogs, called in my team Torridon and RAF Kinloss, I got there at 1000 we found him alive but in a bad way at about 1245. He had had a heart attack and crawled off the hill to a burn where he collapsed. He was very cold and nearly a goner but we had him off within an hour and will survive hardy old soul!

Great result and I was in at the thick of it. Young RAF guys found him and were fanatastic with their care and kept him alive. The Kintail boys ran down to the road for Oxygen and back up helped by some of the RAF Kinloss, that helped keep him alive, great team work and wonderful too see. In all a great callout with a fantastic result, the helicopter evacuation was scary, I have some good photos.

Great to have good news in this awful crazy time in the world!

Twitter, iPhone play role in mountain rescue incident

2009-03-05T02:15:00.000-08:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/04/twitter-death-entrepreneur-rob-william

Postcard from Heavy

2009-02-14T05:44:00.000-08:00

Heavy Whalley, our friend on Scottish Mountain Rescue, sent these pictures of avalanche training with RAFMRT Kinloss and Baemar MRT in Scotland. The dog is Aoanach, and belongs to the KMRT team leader.

As you can see they have quite a bit of snow.

How does Unity College SAR Team work

2009-01-18T05:57:00.000-08:00

This is in response to a prospective student's question:

Hi XXXX

We get an average of four missions a year, I'd guess. Almost all missions are big "project" searches. In Maine, the Warden's Service, our uniformed fish and game officers, are responsible for land, river and inland lake search and rescue, and they get as much 500 missions a year. They only need us for the biggest jobs, when a very large land area must be searched, or when they get too many missions at once and so need to "call up the reserves."

I should mention that about 40% of the Maine Wardens are Unity College graduates. Our CLE program trains primarily Maine Wardens, NPS Rangers and US FWS Refuge Officers. We're in the middle of a long term project to beef up the curriculum for SAR and other operational skills, but it may not have changed much by the time you get here.

A typical mission involves a night drive, in a hurry but not too fast, to a search HQ which can be up to six hours drive away, but usually only two or three hours.

The HQ is nearly always set up by the time we get there, and running pretty well using the ICS (Incident Command System). This is because we are in a sense part of the active reserve, and we get called in when it's become obvious the warden's need more help.

In most cases the Unity team acts as an independent unit and is assigned its own search area or hasty search. In a minority of cases, when a lot of ground must be covered, the Warden's split us up and use our most experienced students to be leaders of other groups, generally made up of volunteers, eagle scouts, volunteer fire department people, hunters in season and other kinds of folks. This can get interesting as ad-hoc teams can be undisciplined, untrained, and often there are one or two folks terribly out of shape.

Search areas are rarely easy ground. They're almost always wooded, often quite thick, often steep. There are many hazards. It's more important to be a good woodsman or woodswoman than a mountaineer, but being a bit of a mountain goat is always an attribute.

Line searches are the usual format, but we also often have to do hasty searches to "clear" trails and set search area boundaries.

Many team members are also members of other emergency services, such as volunteer ambulance, volunteer fire departments, police reserves or auxiliaries, Marine Patrol, Coastguard reserves, Army National Guard, and the like. I'd have to say that if you really want a lot of experience, the combination of Unity College SAR with Unity Town volunteer ambulance will do it pretty well.

The team has good morale and cohesion and I would say is one of the leading clubs. Not a day goes by that I don't see a team member in one of our T-shirts and sweat shirts. We just got our own vehicle for the first time, a former Warden's Service king cab truck, and we are making plans to trick it out for SAR. We've had a trailer for many years, and have a pretty well developed gear cache.

The team meets weekly for student-run trainings. As their faculty advisor, they meet with me two or three times a year for advanced trainings, for the MASAR spring training meet, or an annual rigging training. I meet with the team leader most weeks, and represent the college and the team at the quarterly MASAR meetings. I'm also the only qualified mountain or high angle rescue trainer the team has. But I have a lot of other responsibilities, so they don't get to see me as much as they might like to. An improvement would be to add a full SAR class to the curriculum which would automatically give me more time to teach SAR. This is in the works, but has to wait for some other curriculum work to get done first.

There are many other faculty involved, though. Tim Peabody, former Colonel of the Maine Warden's Service, is also an important mentor to the students. He tends to take the firearms and police work side of the job, and leaves the SAR more to me, but he is an expert SAR person too. Carol Blasi, former state attorney for natural resource law, handles the legal end. We also have a very strong adventure education team of Mac McInnes, another Englishman, and Beth Arnold from Outward Bound.

Last year we brought in David "Heavy" Whalley, a British mountain rescue expert, who served with me in the British Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service, to do some talks and trainings. Heavy and I and one team member also climbed Katahdin, Maine's highest peak, as part of a rescue weekend at Baxter State park.

That was the definite high point of my rescue year last year.

Anyway, always glad to answer questions. Let me know if you have others.

Mick

Mick Womersley, PhD
Associate Professor of Human Ecology

Unity College
www.unity.edu/facultypages/womersley
www.unity.edu/sustainability
www.ucsustainability.blogspot.com

Mount Harris after the leaves have fallen

2008-10-28T02:23:00.000-07:00

Our map reading classes have only one more session on Mount Harris before the November deer season starts. We won't go into the woods, except right next to campus, next month. Too dangerous.

We'll be back, depending on how much snow, in December, for their final exams, a practical, in the woods, rain or shine.

Trainee Rangers and Wardens in the woods

2008-10-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

Introduction to Conservation Law Enforcement is the first class in the Conservation Law Enforcement degree program. It has a "lab", which is really a land navigation training: Map, compass, and GPS, which I teach.

I love the October sessions on Mount Harris. Being "on the hill" with the students is good for my immortal soul. Watching students get totally and utterly lost in the woods makes me laugh.

These guys aren't lost. They found their point, the hidden overlook from Mount Harris to Howe's Pond.

For a fee, you can have the grid reference.

Call out report

2008-09-28T08:24:00.001-07:00

Unity College SAR team was alerted by the MASAR duty officer at 3am Sunday morning to assist the Maine Warden's Service in the search for a missing 80 year old female in Brooklin, Maine.

Five college personnel responded. Public Safety officer Chris Miville provided assistance with vehicles, etc. The missing woman was found at first light by authorities. The team returned to UC by 9.20 am.

Although our numbers were low, we did perform our mission of getting to the Search HQ with sufficient trained, fit personnel and equipment, ready to assist the authorities with a search or a rescue.

A brief news report is available at http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=93462&catid=2

Students that are members of the team are reminded that we are on call 24/7, even late on weekend nights. Please update your call out information with the team officers, including cell phone numbers, residence hall and off-campus phone numbers, and the building and number of your actual room so that officers of the team can find you when needed.

Team members responding were:

E. Buuck
A. Durgin
R. Burd
A Eldridge
M. Womersley

Mick Womersley, PhD
Associate Professor of Human Ecology
Director of Sustainability
Unity College
www.unity.edu/facultypages/womersley
www.unity.edu/sustainability
www.ucsustainability.blogspot.com

And we're off!

2008-08-22T02:16:00.000-07:00

Term starts Monday. Students are filtering back. By Wednesday or Thursday we ought to be more or less able to respond to a call out again.

Some things we need to do right away:

1) Decide if we want to take on one or more rescue cover weekend for Baxter State Park before their season closes. See previous posts and emails for details. We have been invited to do so by park staff. This means accepting responsibility for handling emergency response, search, and evacuation from about 4pm Friday through 10pm Sunday, although you can usually leave earlier than that.

Almost all rescues in Baxter require technical and mountaineering skills and equipment.

Our trailer is also still at the Park, having been left there in spring when my private truck experienced technical difficulties. It's in good hands. The Park staff in charge of rescue were happy to have a back-up supply of gear, and promised to look after it and only use it in a dire emergency. But we need to retrieve the trailer anyway, which means someone is going up to the park, even if we decide not to have a weekend on rescue cover.

Tough duty.

2) Get a rough plan for how to commission our new SAR truck into service. Currently the truck is in the shop, but can be brought to campus soon. The plan was to garage it at the Sustainability House and equip it with the ready response gear from the trailer. I would like to suggest to the Team that this might be a good time to reconsider the purpose of the trailer. I think it might be better to equip it with emergency food and large scale camping gear so we have assets to help the authorities in a civil emergency, and be more self-sufficient on an extended call-out.

3) The usual chores: Meet incoming frosh and recruit. Begin weekly trainings. Review, maintain and order equipment. Maintain SOPs. Liaise with State authorities, public safety, communicate our role and mission to the college and the general public.

UCSAR on Katahdin

2008-06-16T03:01:00.000-07:00

The Professor, the "Bairn" and Heavy all went to do rescue cover at the park for the weekend. We summited on Katahdin Saturday, and explored the west side on Sunday. A good weekend.

Our Saturday expedition proved to us again the old RAFMRS adage that the only way to train for the hill is to go on the hill. Katahdin is a long, steep, high mountain, and even the fittest youngsters have a hard time summoning the stamina for the ascent.

The need for a lot of scrambling and climbing on almost every way up or down doesn't help. A serious mountain.

Thanks to Rob, Stewart, Katie and the other park staff and rangers for the hospitality. We'll be back.

(Actually, we have to go back soon since we left our gear trailer there. But we will return with more troops in the early fall as well.)

Heavy at YOSAR, Baxter SAR Cover

2008-05-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

Heavy is continuing his adventures in American SAR with a fact-finding, fun-filled trip to Yosemite, where he will be hosted by YOSAR, the high angle experts, and the legendary John Dill. I will get the occasional postcard and publish it here for you guys to read.

In the meantime, let me confirm to you that our first summer SAR cover at Baxter State Park (that's Katahdin to youse from away) will be 13th to 15th June.

Lockerbie in Peabody

2008-04-28T01:10:00.000-07:00

Heavy will speak on Lockerbie in Tim's class today at 10am, room 3A.

Rescue Expert in Residence....

2008-04-25T00:36:00.000-07:00

Lots of students already have taken advantage of Heavy's extended stay (his next gig is at MASAR on the 3rd May) to have a conversation or walk with him. Feel free to go up and initiate a conversation about SAR or mountains or the beautiful spring weather -- I'm sure he'd enjoy it, and as we saw on Wednesday, he has had an amazing life, and reflected on his experiences a good deal.

You never know, you might learn something, and wasn't that what you came to college for?

Carpe diem.

Mick

Heavy here today, gives talk tomorrow 7.30 pm UCPA

2008-04-22T04:58:00.000-07:00

The Unity Centre for the Performing Arts is in downtown Unity off Depot Street. Come into town on 9/202, then turn left or right at the bronze moose, depending on whether you arrive from the east or the west.

Whatever you do, turn south. That's the important thing. Then look for the sign.

Mick

David “Heavy” Whalley, MBE BEM

“Heavy” Whalley was a member of the RAF from 1972 to December 2007. He has been involved with the RAF Mountain Rescue Service (MRS, or just MR) for 35 years. He has been Team Leader of RAF Leuchars and RAF Kinloss MR Teams in Scotland and Deputy Team Leader at RAF Valley MRT in North Wales. He was the Senior Team Leader on scene at the Lockerbie Air Disaster, and has been involved in over 1000 mountain rescues, and over 80 aircraft incidents in mountainous areas. Heavy spent the last four years as a Controller in the Rescue Coordination Centre at RAF Kinloss, giving him a unique insight into general rescue and emergency response organization in the UK. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland for over 20 years, also serving for 3 years as Chairman. He is now the Accident Statistician for this important national body. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Award for Service to Mountain Rescue by the Scottish Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland in 2002. He is also a recipient of the British Empire Medal (BEM) and a Member of the British Empire (MBE), both important UK national awards given for service to rescue. He was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery for his service in the aftermath of the Lockerbie Air Disaster.

Heavy is also a consummate outdoorsman. Mountains and mountaineering are his life. Heavy has completed the Munros 7 times (all Scottish mountains over 3,000 feet are called “Munros” after the cartographer who first mapped them), once with his dog! He has also completed four traverses of the Scottish Highlands, two in winter. He has been on over 30 official expeditions, including to the European Alps, Iran, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Tibet, where he was the Base Camp Manager of the successful RAF MRS 2001 North East Ridge expedition to climb Mt. Everest. He especially enjoys winter climbing and has been winter climbing in Canada several times and has even practised this sport in the Falkland Islands while on tour there with the RAF. Scotland is his love and he particularly enjoys the islands, especially Skye and Rhum.

He is a member of the Scottish Mountaineering Club, the Moray Mountaineering Club, the John Muir Trust, and the Mountain Bothies Association, and believes passionately in looking after our wilderness for the future and passing on his experience and love of the mountains and wilderness to others, especially young people. He is planning to join the Torridon Mountain Rescue Team in Feb 2008. He is now retired and hopes to write a book on his life and lecture on his experiences. Heavy lives in Burghead in Morayshire; he plays golf, enjoys watching football, practising photography, and he climbs or walks in the mountains at least twice a week!

Heavy is planning a US and Canadian lecture tour to cities and towns where there is strong interest on mountaineering, mountain rescue, and emergency response. He will give a slideshow of his photography relating to rescue and mountaineering in general, and talk about his mountain rescue and emergency response experiences. Heavy is an animated and passionate speaker, and his photography is superb. Tour dates are tentative, but roughly mid-April to mid June 2008. This is a not-for-profit tour intended to boost SAR, mountain rescue and mountain conservation in general. Tour venues will be asked to contribute to Heavy’s travel expenses, and to provide a night or two’s lodging.

Contact Mick for details

Kenduskeag krunches kause khaos

2008-04-20T03:43:00.000-07:00

Well, Ryan and Justin and I had fun as "fishers of men" (and women and small children) at the Kenduskeag race yesterday. Our original station was quite calm, but the cheers from the crowd, and eventually an order over the radio, drew us to a much busier station in the Kenduskeag Gorge. There was a nice three foot standing wave that was just a little wild for many paddlers. Every fourth or fifth boat went over. If you had flotation, you stood a chance, but most of the amateur boats filled with water and their paddlers were guaranteed a dunking.

A couple of leaderless kids from Dirigo's youth team had perched themselves on a precarious rock, and were handling the casualties manfully, although their operation was more physically demanding than they could handle, and the perch they chose basically guaranteed that one or both of them would be injured. Not a good choice of stance. We chose a nice beach further down, where we took turns to throw ropes and were able to bring in the swimmers with ease and comfort.

In the end, one of the rock-perched kids got exhausted from swimming after paddlers, and the other fell and cracked open the fluid sac in his knee and had to withdraw. Not before insulting us for our rope-throwing ability, which we found fairly hilarious, considering that he'd just managed to get himself injured by, basically, showing off for the crowd. If he'd just let the paddlers float by, they either came to shore, or we hauled them in safely and with little risk to ourselves.

The other kid was much more pleasant and modest a SAR colleague, and I actually saw him save a couple of young children who were in somewhat serious trouble.

We must have fished out 50-60 swimmers. We got wet and a little cold, but had no other problems. The "new" state surplus Ford 350 crew cab truck makes a great SAR truck, and will be an asset on a call-out.

More on Baxter rescue cover for summer and fall

2008-04-15T01:25:00.000-07:00

Maine Environmental News picture of a rescue in Baxter SP

I will be taking a trip to Baxter soon to begin coordinating with the park authorities. They are keen to have us help, but also need us to be fully prepared. This will be a good deal easier for us to manage in the fall, when we have a lot of students to draw on, than the summer, but I think we have to do our best to provide assistance in both seasons.

Part of the program may include one or more weekends where a group of us are on "rescue cover" for the weekend, based at the park.

Here's an older article that summarizes a summer of incidents. Be sure to read it and study the pictures. This new mission is much more oriented towards mountain rescue skills than the low-level, low angle search and rescue that is our usual fare. While I know what to do, I'm old and rusty. You guys are young and fit, but few of you know what to do. We have some work ahead of us.

http://www.meepi.org/files04/pa102504.htm

Summer and Fall: On call for Baxter State Park

2008-04-07T04:48:00.000-07:00

SAR team members may be aware that the 126th Air National Guard based out of Bangor is going on deployment this year with their choppers. Accordingly, Baxter State Park Alpine Ranger Rob Tice alerted MASAR on Sunday April 6th at the regular meeting to be prepared for long strenuous carry-offs for some of the 30-50 SAR calls the park staff get every summer and fall. Ethan and I were both there to hear it.

That means us too. My best guess: we can expect between five and fifteen such calls between now and Christmas.

How many of you will be here this summer AND are physically and mentally prepared for this? I know my skills are good, but my hill fitness was certainly questionable the last time I climbed Katahdin. In the meantime I quit my desk job as Interim Provost and started daily walking and hill-walking to get back in shape. I think I can just about handle it.

The rest of you, if you want to be used, need to get organized. We can't take out-of-shape people on these calls. Heavy is here next week and the week after, and he and I can lead some hikes on Mt Harris and elsewhere. Look for alerts in the students@unity listserve.

Those of you planning to be in the neighborhood all summer, and willing to commit to regular fitness training and to monitor cell phones and home phones diligently, should contact me by email with cell and home numbers (both please) and your local addresses, and I'll put a summer scratch team together.

In the fall we will be looking to ramp this up a level yet.

Mick

Heavy's slideshow, MASAR, River races, vehicle question

2008-04-03T01:52:00.001-07:00

Lots of stuff to go over at SAR briefings Wednesday night the next few weeks. Charlie and the other officers will be leading discussions about the following:

Heavy Whalley speech/slideshow, 23rd April:
A reminder that this very storied rescue troop is coming to Unity College to give a Lapping Lecture at 7.30pm that night. Those of you who want to join me for dinner with Heavy before hand, email me. Click here to find out more about Heavy. He will be in the area for a few days and is available for some training exercises, possibly a spring High Angle, weather permitting, certainly a couple of navigation days, which I will set up with Charlie and announce closer to the time.

MASAR Spring Training, 3rd and 4th May:
We want a good turn-out for this training weekend, which will be at the positively palatial Schoodic Education and Research Center. Organized by Chris Weibusch, NPS Ranger at Acadia, an alum of the college. Details below. See Charlie to sign up

River Race Rescue Cover:
We are asked to provide trained SAR trrops to do rescue cover on traditional canoe races each spring. The Kenduskeag Race is the big one, on the 19th April. It's fun to stand on the bank and watch the punters fall in, especially when they're Unity students. Not so fun to go into the water (brrrr!) and pull them out and catch their boats. We generally take the SAR trailer and wet suits. But good PR and public service. One of the big services we provide is radio communication up and down the river. See Charlie to sign up

Vehicle Question:
A slow year for call-outs has left us money in our budget. We've been after our own vehicle for some time. I've proposed we use the money to get one. Debate this at this week's meeting. Show up to get the details from Charlie and have your say.

MASAR spring training details

2008-04-03T01:35:00.000-07:00

10 March 2008

Spring 2008 MASAR Symposium

Saturday and Sunday, 3-4 May 2008

Hosted by Acadia National Park and
Mount Desert Island Search and Rescue

Location:

Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC)
Acadia National Park, Schoodic Peninsula, Winter Harbor, Maine

See accompanying map and driving directions. Further information about the
SERC facility may be found at:

General Schedule:

Indoor and outdoor classes all day Saturday, 3 May
Guest speaker Saturday night, 3 May
Indoor and outdoor classes Sunday morning, 4 May

Confirmed Courses Instructor
Effective Grid Searches Ed Pontbriand -Acadia National Park ranger
Man Tracking Ed Pontbriand - Acadia National Park ranger
Dealing with the Press Susan Farley -Channel 5 News Reporter
NIMS ICS-700 Chris Wiebusch -Acadia National Park ranger
Working With Search Dogs Maine Search and Rescue Dogs
Working With Mounted SAR Mid Maine Equestrian SAR
Practical Map and Compass Mick Womersley, Unity College
ICS -Communications and Plans David Whalley, Mountain Rescue Committee of
Scotland
Possible Course Topics Instructor
More Effective Search Techniques Not yet determined
Litter Raise And Lower Demo Not yet determined
Low Angle Litter Belay Not yet determined
Basic Individual Water Safety Not yet determined
Patient Packaging for Searchers Not yet determined
Communications Not yet determined
Two EMS Courses Not yet determined
Helicopters in SAR (1-2 Courses) Not yet determined

Housing

There are three on-site housing options:
Free camping is available in the campground and on the ball field. There are
restrooms located near both locations.
Beds in the bunk house are available for $15.00 per person per night. No bed
linens are provided, so you'll have to bring your own.
Private cabins and suites are available for $35.00 per person per night. Linen
service is included.

Horses can be kept at the ball field for the weekend.

Meals
Saturday lunch and dinner and Sunday breakfast and lunch will be available for
those who want them, but must be purchased in advance. The meal costs are:

Saturday lunch and dinner, and Sunday breakfast -$30.00 per person
Sunday lunch -$8.00 per person

Coffee, tea, and snacks will be available for all during the day. The cost for these is
included in the registration fee.

Program Cost
A $15.00 fee will be charged each attendee to help cover the facility use costs.

Guest Speaker
David Whalley of the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland will speak after
dinner on Saturday evening. He will present a slide show titled “Reflections On
Scottish Mountain Rescue And Mountaineering In The Last 40 Years”

Further information, including a detailed schedule and registration form, will be sent to
all units at the end of March.

Heavy's slides, MASAR Spring Training, River Races

2008-04-03T01:20:00.000-07:00

Probable call-out for our friends at PJcountry

2008-03-16T04:29:00.000-07:00

JJ Hensley
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 16, 2008 12:00 AM

The body of a fighter pilot whose plane went down in western Arizona on Friday was finally discovered Saturday afternoon.

The Air Force student pilot, assigned to the 62nd Fighter Squadron, was flying an F-16C fighter jet out of Luke Air Force Base when his plane crashed in a remote area about 12:15 p.m. Friday.

Air Force officials couldn't reveal much information at a Saturday afternoon news conference but did confirm the pilot was a 26-year-old man who was a couple of months into an 8-month F-16 flight-training course.

The pilot's name is being withheld until his family is notified.

"It's very difficult," said Brig. Gen. Tom Jones, the 56th Fighter Wing commander. "We are a very close-knit community, a very tight wing and organization."

A committee conducting a two-part investigation into the accident will convene immediately and take about 30 days to put together a report, Jones said.

The wreck occurred about 87 miles west of Phoenix, south of Alamo Lake, an area where Luke fighter pilots frequently train.

The terrain was so rugged that helicopters flew search crews in Friday night after the wreckage was discovered about 10:30 p.m.

Search crews from the Department of Public Safety, the Civil Air Patrol and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, among other agencies, combed the area Friday night and discovered some of the pilot's equipment but weren't able to locate his body until Saturday morning.

The body was discovered near the crash site, in a ravine in the Buckskin Mountains, but crews weren't able to tell if the pilot had attempted to eject from the plane before it crashed, Jones said.

The student-pilot was about halfway through a 90-minute training exercise, engaged in a mock dogfight with an instructor, when his plane crashed.

Air Force officials said training exercises would continue, but the results of the two-tiered investigation - one of which looks into fault-finding in the accident while the other looks at training safety - could influence future operations. The F-16's are worth about $20 million.

The latest fatal crash of a Luke-based jet also occurred during a routine training exercise, when Singapore Air Force 1st Lt. Brandon Loo went down south of the Barry M. Goldwater Range in May 2004.

Lt. Col. Jeffrey Lovelace was part of that training mission and saw Loo's plane crash. Lovelace said he felt for the flight instructor who witnessed Friday's crash. "(It's) very difficult," he said. "Personal. Very personal."

More from the Chief

2008-02-26T05:14:00.000-08:00

Good Evening,

At this weeks meeting we are going to go over how to use the GPS's and look at a couple slideshows on MASAR searching techniques. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Thanks,
Charlie Alves Chief UC Search & Rescue EX. 551

Anybody want to do a fund raiser?

2008-02-26T04:35:00.002-08:00

One of my on-line SAR buddies let me know about this outfit, Camp Patriot, in Montana, close to where I used to live (and do rescue). They do outdoor activities for disabled vets, which sounds like a winner to me, and a great place for a UC Adventure Therapy internship. Aimee's dad is a disabled vet, and I'm getting stiffer every year, so you never know there.

Anyway, I though we could raise a little cash for them, maybe a t-shirt sale to coincide with Earth Day and the Eco-challenge. I'll talk to Charlie this afternoon. In the meantime, read the web page.

Mick

from the boss man

2008-02-26T04:35:00.001-08:00

Search and Rescue
Meeting

Wednesday February 27, 2008
8:00pm in 1B2B

Charlie Alves
Chief
UC Search & Rescue
EX. 551

Letter from a prospective student

2008-02-25T04:58:00.000-08:00

This might be helpful to other prospective students readers:

Hi Chris:

SAR is a student club, but it’s also a public service Maine SAR Association (MASAR) accredited team. It meets as a club most weeks while college is in session, and runs it’s own training. As the advisor, I participate by helping train students in SAR. Some of the training is curricular, such as the map-reading sessions that go with the introductory Conservation Law Enforcement class for freshmen. But most is on your own time.

The team gets called out between 3 and 6 times a year, whenever the state authorities need us for assistance on a search. As a result, students get experience in searching and rescue beyond their training. They also get to work with real casualties, and unfortunately the occasional body. Most team medics are trained to EMT Basic. Some are also ambulance staff with our local ambulance service. Others are part-time in the military or coastguard, as well as local fire departments and police forces.

There’s a team blog at http://ucsarmaine.blogspot.com/, which I maintain periodically, together with links to other rescues sites and a call-out log.

Charlie Alves (calves@unity.edu) is the team leader for the rest of this school year. I copied him on this email. The team leader and officers of the team are always students. He may also email you, or you can write him with questions.

Regards,

Mick

Mick Womersley, PhD
Associate Professor of Human Ecology
Director of Sustainability
Unity College

http://ucsustainability.blogspot.com/

On 2/24/08 6:25 PM, "chris f" wrote:

Hi Mr. Womersley, my name is Chris Froehly. I will be a freshman in the upcoming 08-09 school year. I found out that you are the advisor for Search and Rescue, and I am interested in participating in that. Can you send me some more information?

Thank you,
Chris F.

Mud, glorious mud

2008-02-06T01:51:00.000-08:00

Here in Maine we are on the verge of an early mud season -- it can't quite decide what it wants to do. Just blows your fitness regime away if what you like to do is hike. Right now we can't even snowshoe because of ice.

Major private plane air crash the other day. Right by the road, no SAR needed. Not pretty. Probably icing. When the plane went in the whole state was hunkered down for an ice storm. No-one with any sense was going anywhere.

They're still investigating.

Early equinoctal gales?

2008-02-02T00:11:00.000-08:00

SAR services in UK very busy with force 10 gales, which if I remember right, means 70-80mph winds. Meanwhile, at home, last night's ice is melting fast.

Havoc as gales and blizzards hit Britain

· Mission to save sailor abandoned in Atlantic
· Up to 6,000 homes affected by power cuts

Martin Wainwright and Aidan Jones
Saturday February 2, 2008
The Guardian

Mountainous seas are threatening to sink four stranded ships after a series of dramatic rescues saw more than 40 crew and passengers winched to safety or taken off in lifeboats as gales swept over Britain.
Salvage crews are losing hope of righting the stricken ferry Riverdance, which ran aground off Blackpool, and the trawler Spinning Dale, which is wedged on rocks in one of the country's most sensitive marine nature reserves off the Scottish island of St Kilda.

From da Boss

2008-01-22T11:06:00.001-08:00

Good Morning Team,
At Wednesdays meeting we are going to be updating the roster. Please bring your extension and any other updated contact information. Also because some members of the team have class at our regular meeting time, please bring your schedules so we can discuss alternative meeting times. If you are not able to make the meeting, send me an email with days and times that are good for you.
Also I am looking for 2 or 3 people to help run a booth at club night on Wednesday. This runs from 5:30-7. Please email me if you are interested in helping for more info.

Thanks,

Charlie Alves Chief UC Search & Rescue EX. 551

Huntingdon Ravine claims another ice climber...

2008-01-21T13:46:00.000-08:00

Climb turns tragic

By Andie Hannon http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif, Staff Writer
Monday, January 21, 2008

UN 2007 climate rescue efforts

2007-12-28T05:22:00.000-08:00

Global warming brings busy year for UN disaster teams

Jo Tuckman in Mexico City
Thursday December 27, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

The United Nations office that sends expert teams around the world to help governments deal with natural disasters was busier than ever in Latin America this year, a fact it at least partially blames on climate change.

More from the CSM

2007-12-24T13:44:00.000-08:00

Hi All,
Here is an accolade from the field for Jay Perez, a former Unity student.
He is one of many outstanding young women and men making the name Unity College
well known around the country.

Have a great holiday season
Pat Stevens

"On 9 May 2007, at approximately 1015 hours, Refuge Officer Jay Perez was
on routine patrol in the visitor parking area of the National Wildlife Visitor Center at Patuxent Research Refuge, Laurel, MD. He observed a man running from the wildlife observation trail with fresh blood on his shirt, yelling that someone on the boardwalk had been stabbed. Officer Perez quickly located a woman lying on the trail’s boardwalk, bleeding profusely. Officer Perez immediately radioed in his position, requesting medical assistance and backup. While waiting for medical response, Officer Perez applied direct pressure to the victim’s wounds. His actions and demeanor quickly calmed her down, whereupon he was able to obtain critical information that later led to the capture of the assailant. Given the seriousness of the woman’s injuries and extensive loss of blood, emergency personnel on scene did not believe the woman would survive the Medi-Vac helicopter ride to the Baltimore Shock Trauma Unit. Fortunately, she did survive, and after four surgeries on her neck and numerous complications, is expected to fully recover. Clearly, without Officer Perez’ quick response and proper actions in rendering the victim first-aid, she would have succumbed to her injuries. Additionally, without Officer Perez’s calming influence and presence to talk to the victim while waiting for medical help, the assailant would not have been captured so quickly.

For his role in saving the victim’s life, as well as getting critical information leading to the capture of the assailant, Refuge Officer Jay Perez is awarded the Department of the Interior Exemplary Act Award."

Congratulations, Jay!
Thomas A. Goettel
Regional Refuge Law Enforcement Chief
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
National Wildlife Refuge System
300 Westgate Center Dr.
Hadley, MA 01035-9589

Pic of the day...

2007-12-16T04:55:00.000-08:00

Some non-action shots from Charlie, taken at our recent HA training.

Another note from the CSM...

2007-12-16T04:36:00.000-08:00

From Pat to all, some notes from CLE alumni:

Hi all,

Here are a couple of notes that I have received recently from Unity women and men serving in the field. Best of luck, and Happy Holidays to all of our young people.

Re: Rob Goodrich (2003), Byran Schliecter (2001) on the Border Patrol, and Rebecca Coles (2004) NPS

NPS NEWS
Re: Rebecca Coles (Duckett) (2004) NPS Park Ranger reports: On December 7th 2007 at 1:34 AM received what they consider the best Christmas present- The son of Ranger Jeff Duckett, NPS and Rebecca Coles (Duckett), a possible future alum, one Isaac Nathaniel Duckett was born. Both are stationed in NC, Great Smoky Mountains National Park.US BORDER PATROL NEWS

Pat, I just wanted to say thanks for everything. I am in week 15 at FLETC in Artesia, NM and am loving it. I will be working Tucson Sector for the USBP. I just wanted to write to say thanks, and if any students have interest in the BP and have questions about the academy, or the process feel free to give them my email or phone number. 207-446-9691.

Again I just wanted to say thanks so much.
Sincerely,
Robert

Pat,
Byran graduated last week, and I graduate in two days. I got top driver in my class, and came in third in my class overall. Byran placed first in his class. He is stationed in Yuma, AZ and I will be in Sonoita, AZ.
CONGRATULATIONS! on retirement.
Rob

Link to the recent BDN article...

2007-12-14T12:30:00.000-08:00

Unity: Students part of search, rescue service
By George Chappell
Thursday, November 22, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

UNITY, Maine — Whenever a call comes in about someone lost in the woods, Unity College students show up to help with search and rescue operations.

Still more on Byron...

2007-12-14T12:14:00.000-08:00

I hate to say so, but there's becoming a slight controversy over his GPS unit, and whether it was working, or he knew how to use it. We won't comment on this individual case here (none of our business), but the articles are linked below for general SAR education purposes.

Wright blames GPS; wardens say device worked properly

Staff Report
Friday, December 7, 2007
LEWISTON - High-tech devices might not be for everyone.

Steven Wright, the 53-year-old deer hunter from Vermont who spent nearly three days lost in the woods surrounding Tumbledown Mountain near Byron this week faulted his Garmin Extreme GPS unit for getting him in trouble.

Hunter's route was circuitous, data shows

Sun Journal Staff
Saturday, December 8, 2007

LEWISTON - If Steven Wright were a mountain goat, a person may be able to understand the course he took during his first 24 hours lost in the Maine woods.

Investigators from the Maine Warden Service are still analyzing the data in the Global Positioning System device Wright was carrying when he became lost near Tumbledown Mountain in northern Franklin County while hunting deer on Monday.

Hunter tells survival tale
Steve Wright recounts his harrowing story of being lost in the Maine woods.

By BETTY JESPERSEN Blethen Maine News Service

December 7, 2007

Last of the new recruits...

2007-12-14T02:26:00.000-08:00

Today is the last day for CLE Lab Finals, essentially a map-reading exercise. Students have to demonstrate that they met the outcomes of the class, basically that they can read maps and orient them to terrain, use a compass from map to ground and ground to map, adjust correctly for magnetic declination each way, and both give and use an 8-figure UTM. Pat Stevens set these objectives years ago, cribbing from his NCO school materials. Tim added a Warden's Service spin, now I get to implement. My attitude with these students is a personal tribute to Sgt Hamilton "Hammy" Anderson, RAFMRS, who once permitted me to descend all the way into the valley of Thirlmere (Lake District NP) when I should have been ascending the mountain of Fairfield, about three miles and 1,500 feet of altitude away. Once the fog lifted, I discovered where I was and had to retreat back to my start point, which took a good two hours of hard hiking. Hammy knew exactly where we were the whole time. Thanks, Hammy, for making me learn the hard way.

To pass, todays students have to demonstrate that they can find a point in adverse conditions, under pressure, using all their skills. The first group went up Harris Mountain in the dark and the rain. Since then we've been in the Sandy Stream valley in a foot of snow, bushwhacking in heavy brush. Most have done well. Some didn't practice enough on their own. Tough. This is a new reality TV show we call "so you want to be a Game Warden/Park Ranger." Think it'll catch on?

Review of "Mountain Rescue" by Sharp and Whiteside

2007-12-14T02:16:00.000-08:00

There are very few MR books on my shelf. Once I had a precious copy of Gwen Moffatt's Two Star Red, gold for any ex-RAFMRS troop, but some student borrowed it never to return (now I keep a record of such things). I have an inscribed copy of Frank Card's Whensoever, of which I am very proud. That's all she wrote. But this new book by Sharp and Whiteside is going to join the pack. It may take me a while, because being an import it's expensive (I'm reading a library copy), but it's a great book. Packed with great photography and very informative, its also a celebration of volunteer SAR. I particularly appreciated the coverage of the RAFMRS, which sometimes doesn't get its due in civilian MR discourse in the UK. The 2001 Ben MacDui twin F-15 crash is described in detail, with full credit to the Braemar and other "civvy" teams involved. I'm just now getting to the chapter on the Lockerbie Air Disaster, which has interview and other material from Heavy and Bill Batson, the two team leaders.

Awesome read. Well done, the authors.

From the "CSM"

2007-12-13T05:43:00.000-08:00

Former UC Professor of Conservation Law Enforcement (and former CSM) Pat Stevens sent the following note and some pictures of his new home. Pat is now writing a textbook on CLE. Cheers Pat!

Hi Mick,

Hope that the semester is going along well. Here are a couple of shots that I made of an ancient graveyard, the house, the island ponies, British Naval Officer, and the view from the second deck of my future home. Retirement remains a strange happening, I periodically become bored without a class in front of me, but with my Civil War research, and effort on behalf of the Intro to CLE book, I am fighting the good fight.

Students getting ready to go for the break

2007-12-10T09:21:00.000-08:00

Finals week! Good time to be a professor. Not so good time to be a student.

One problem in running a college SAR team is that students go home for vacation several times a year. But UCSAR is still on call, and many of the most dedicated members are available to respond to a search.

Have a good break everyone, but don't forget to email me your contact info if you are willing to be called to a search.

Mick

UK floods cost 3 bn, break SAR record

2007-12-10T02:29:00.000-08:00

Of course, in 1945, we were still at war, the RAFMRS was two years old, and the first helicopters were only just coming into service, and would not actually be used in SAR for years to come.

Downpours cost £3bn, says agency

John Vidal
The Guardian,
Friday December 7 2007
Some of the wettest weather in modern times flooded more than 55,000 properties, cost £3bn, saw the highest river levels in 60 years and involved the greatest number of search and rescue missions in the country since 1945, the Environment Agency said yesterday in its review of the summer floods.

SAR and Climate Change

2007-12-09T03:41:00.000-08:00

Your blogmeister grew up in Hallam Ward, Sheffield, England (cue Monty Python's old Yorkshireman sketch: "when ah were a lad we lived in a cardboard box in't middle o' t'road"), while Aimee grew up in an analogous American region close to Pittsberg PA. We both lived in a "two-up, two down" until we were about 11 years old, hers clapboard, mine Millstone Grit. This explains a lot of things, but particularly why we don't mind living in an old farmhouse miles away from nowhere with a bunch of sheep. It seems kind of luxurious to both of us.

Now my hometown MP, Nick Clegg, who also happens to be in line for the leadership of his party, the UK Libdems, has issued a call for a new civil defense structure for the UK. I've been saying for several years now, to whoever would listen, that the first effects of climate change we would see in much of the northern hemisphere will be increasing numbers of extreme weather events, and that community-based emergency response efforts would become more and more critical as years went by. For me personally, it's been deja vu all over again, as my former life as an SAR professional reunites with my current life as a climate mitigation specialist. Witness recent events in Washington State (floods), San Diego (fires), and Sheffield itself (floods). Never mind New Orleans. It's been both interesting and frustrating to watch these events unfold. As always, our leaders have feet of clay, and they fixate on the wrong thing, or miss the point.

Maine happens to be a place where civil emergencies go down quietly, if at all. As part of the SAR scene in this state (this note is crossed posted on my Maine SAR site http://ucsarmaine.blogspot.com/ and my sustainability site, http://ucsustainability.blogspot.com/) I get to be at quite a lot of emergencies. We have a good head for these things in Maine. The officials are quietly competent, the volunteers generally well-trained or at least enthusiastic, and there are lots of resources distributed widely around the state. Some of this is a credit to Unity College, of course, because we train a lot of the law enforcement types, particularly the Maine Wardens who are responsible for search and rescue, and not a few state officials and business leaders are also Unity grads or linked to the college in some way.

Mainers also tend to have lots of useful stuff in the heads (first aid, mechanics, common sense), their homes (wood stoves, oil lamps, generators, flashlights), and their trucks (four-wheel drive, snow plows, winches, jumper cables). In a word, a good ecological word, Maine is resilient. How you take a place like London or NYC and make it so, is another question. But an important one.

Read the whole article here:
A new civil defence force would defeat the politics of fear
Nick Clegg
Sunday December 9, 2007
The Observer

More on the Veteran's Day call-out

2007-12-07T01:03:00.000-08:00

Police: Body May Be That Of Missing Woman

By News 8 WMTW/WMTW.com

LEWISTON, Maine -- Searchers looking for a pregnant woman from Lewiston missing for three weeks have found a body in a shallow grave in the city behind a mall.

State police spokesman Stephen McCausland said investigators believe, pending an autopsy, that the body is that of Donna Paradis, who has

The grave was found along an ATV trail that runs along railroad tracks.

"The case has changed today from a missing person case to a homicide investigation," McCausland said.

Police on Sunday stepped up the search for Paradis, 38. Maine wardens used an airplane to search the Androscoggin River in the Lewiston-Auburn area. On the ground, police established a command center at Lewiston High School. More than 60 wardens, police officers, K-9 teams and trained civilian search teams took part in the effort. About a dozen areas were searched.

Lewiston police said they found several "items of interest" behind the Promenade Mall over the weekend.

Click on the link below to see a video of the search

http://www.wmtw.com/news/14569673/detail.html?rss=port&psp=news

Message from Charlie

2007-12-06T23:27:00.000-08:00

Hope Everyone is having a great day!

Mick Started a UC SAR blog for the team. Feel free to comment on any of the topics. Also if you have any ideas for the blog send them to Mick.

http://ucsarmaine.blogspot.com/

Thanks,

Charlie

Reply from Mick:

Thanks, Charlie.

Also, folks, if you have any UCSAR pictures or newspaper articles or any other interesting SAR-related material, or you want to write me a story, or publish a piece that you wrote for class that you think others may read, send it to me for posting. A good topic would be some interesting or exciting experience you had while out with Unity College SAR.

I expect if we make this thing interesting, we may get some donations as a result. We really need a vehicle of our own. See the solicitation on the left hand side bar.

If you send me a story, I may edit your English to make it presentable.

Finally, especially for the new officers, MASAR is going to require cell phone or pager text-messaging as a call-out system. I will be working with you guys after the break to set this up.

Mick

Missing Brit showed up on google

2007-12-06T22:58:00.000-08:00

Did anyone else read about this guy? He was reported missing five years ago, massive search, helicopters, ground teams, water search, coasties, then one day he shows up, turns himself in. Turns out that not only did his wife claim the insurance and get it, but that they were reunited in Panama a year ago. At that time they were photographed by a third party, a commercial firm, the picture was posted on the web, and when the police didn't find it, a housewife did.

Read it and weep:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2223073,00.html

More on the Byron SAR

2007-12-06T09:51:00.000-08:00

Cold, dazed, but alive

By Terry Karkos , Staff Writer
Thursday, December 6, 2007

BYRON - A deer hunter who spent nearly three days lost in snowy woods near Tumbledown Mountain was in stable condition at a Lewiston hospital after being found by a snowmobiler late Wednesday afternoon.

Steven Wright, 53, of Woodford, Vt., was hauled out of the woods near Madrid. He was found about 15 miles away on the backside of nearby Jackson Mountain by Donald Eisenhaur.

Eisenhaur said he had gone out for a "joy ride" after being advised by his wife to keep an eye out for the missing Wright.

Warden Lt. Pat Dorian called what Wright endured an "incredible story of survival."

"This is probably one of the most remarkable stories I have heard in my life," Dorian said Wednesday night. He said Wright not only weathered freezing temperatures and a snowstorm, but also dealt with being snow-blind for a while.

At one point on Tuesday, tired, and with his clothes freezing on him after he was immersed earlier up to his neck, Wright climbed into a ditch and covered himself with spruce branches in an attempt to stay warm, Dorian said.

By Wednesday morning, his vision improved but "his neck was so stiff that he couldn't look down," Dorian said.

Word that Wright was found reached searchers only minutes after the Maine Warden Service called rescue crews in for the day about 3:30 p.m. to prepare for today's now-canceled search.

"Did you just hear that?" one warden incredulously asked a handful of others and state police troopers inside the Byron town office command post, referring to a radio call saying that Wright had been found alive.

The Vermont hunter, who serves on the select board in Woodford, had been missing since Monday, and searchers began looking for him early Tuesday morning by foot, snowmobiles, airplanes and helicopters..

At 3:52 p.m. Wednesday, the wardens and troopers ran outside to listen to a call relating that Eisenhaur had found Wright about 15 miles off Route 4.

"He was able to say his name. He was conscious and alert," said Warden Lt. Adam Gormely about 4 p.m. during a hastily called news conference outside the municipal building.

At 4:30 p.m., a LifeFlight helicopter flew over the command post on its way to bring Wright to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

More than 40 wardens, Maine Forest service rangers, three warden service dogs, and volunteers from the Maine Association for Search and Rescue took part in Wednesday's search. Lt. Pat Dorian and Gormely were readying plans for today's search when they learned the hunter had been found.

The Warden Service estimated the cost of the search at $20,000 as of Wednesday night. The service said Wright won't be billed for search expenses.

Wright was wearing extreme wet-weather camouflage pants and a jacket, upper-torso orange vest and orange-colored hat. He had lost a glove, and was wet and icy when found.

He had arrived in Byron on Sunday with hunting buddies Michael Harrington and Barry Bishop, both of Bennington, Vt.

On Monday morning, they left their rental cabin and drove about four miles east of Route 17 on No. 6 Road.

At 9 a.m., they saw a deer track, which Wright began following while his friends each went along the outskirts, spreading out to the left and right, according to Turcotte. The two men then got into stands - platforms attached to tree trunks - to wait for a deer.

Wright left his backpack with his survival gear in his truck.

An experienced outdoorsman who has hunted nationwide, he was armed with a muzzleloader and two to three rounds of ammunition.

When Wright later failed to return, his friends began searching for him. At 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday, they sought help from wardens. Initially, three wardens and a supervisor began searching on snowmobiles and on foot within a one-mile radius of the hunters' truck.

"I think he's going to make it," Gormely said Wednesday night. "He was on his deathbed, and he doesn't let go of his rifle. That's a hard-core hunter."

"He hunts a lot," Neil Hoag, a fellow Select Board member in Woodford told the Bennington (Vt.) Banner. "He was out West a while ago. I know he typically hunts two or three states."

Woodford Town Clerk Ron Higgins said Wright suffered from some health problems over the summer that worried those who knew him.

"I was a little frightened because of the slight stroke that he had had, but he's a real strong and determined man," Higgins told the Banner.

Personal Satelite Trackers: Are they any good?

2007-12-06T09:43:00.000-08:00

At the latest MASAR meeting we were briefed by a retail representative on these new personal messenger/tracker devices. My immediate thought, on being told that there's a button you press to dial 911, was "false alarms." Remember SARbe? Then there was SARSAT. I well remember, many years ago, toiling to the top of a Yorkshire fell only to find that it was the site of an automatic SARbe beacon reciever giving out a false alarm.

But if the guy who just got lost in Byron, ME (below) had had one, he would almost certainly have been in better shape. That would have been the case, though, if he'd just had some dry matches.

By the way, the temperature at my house on Tuesday night was 8 degrees. Gosh knows what it was on Tumbledown Mountain.

Any comments on these new trackers?

Heavy coming to USA

2007-12-06T07:12:00.000-08:00

David “Heavy” Whalley, MBE BEM

“Heavy” Whalley was a member of the RAF from 1972 to December 2007. He has been involved with the RAF Mountain Rescue Service (MRS, or just MR) for 35 years. He has been Team Leader of RAF Leuchars and RAF Kinloss MR Teams in Scotland and Deputy Team Leader at RAF Valley MRT in North Wales. He was the Senior Team Leader on scene at the Lockerbie Air Disaster, and has been involved in over 1000 mountain rescues, and over 80 aircraft incidents in mountainous areas. Heavy spent the last four years as a Controller in the Rescue Coordination Centre at RAF Kinloss, giving him a unique insight into general rescue and emergency response organization in the UK. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland for over 20 years, also serving for 3 years as Chairman. He is now the Accident Statistician for this important national body. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Award for Service to Mountain Rescue by the Scottish Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland in 2002. He is also a recipient of the British Empire Medal (BEM) and a Member of the British Empire (MBE), both important UK national awards given for service to rescue. He was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery for his service in the aftermath of the Lockerbie Air Disaster.

Heavy is also a consummate outdoorsman. Mountains and mountaineering are his life. Heavy has completed the Munros 7 times (all Scottish mountains over 3,000 feet are called “Munros” after the cartographer who first mapped them), once with his dog! He has also completed four traverses of the Scottish Highlands, two in winter. He has been on over 30 official expeditions, including to the European Alps, Iran, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Tibet, where he was the Base Camp Manager of the successful RAF MRS 2001 North East Ridge expedition to climb Mt. Everest. He especially enjoys winter climbing and has been winter climbing in Canada several times and has even practised this sport in the Falkland Islands while on tour there with the RAF. Scotland is his love and he particularly enjoys the islands, especially Skye and Rhum.

He is a member of the Scottish Mountaineering Club, the Moray Mountaineering Club, the John Muir Trust, and the Mountain Bothies Association, and believes passionately in looking after our wilderness for the future and passing on his experience and love of the mountains and wilderness to others, especially young people. He is planning to join the Torridon Mountain Rescue Team in Feb 2008. He is now retired and hopes to write a book on his life and lecture on his experiences. Heavy lives in Burghead in Morayshire; he plays golf, enjoys watching football, practising photography, and he climbs or walks in the mountains at least twice a week!

Heavy is planning a US and Canadian lecture tour to cities and towns where there is strong interest on mountaineering, mountain rescue, and emergency response. He will give a slideshow of his photography relating to rescue and mountaineering in general, and talk about his mountain rescue and emergency response experiences. Heavy is an animated and passionate speaker, and his photography is superb. Tour dates are tentative, but roughly mid-April to mid June 2008. This is a not-for-profit tour intended to boost SAR, mountain rescue and mountain conservation in general. Tour venues will be asked to contribute to Heavy’s travel expenses, and to provide a night or two’s lodging.

Contact Mick for details

Lost hunter found

2007-12-06T07:02:00.000-08:00

From the Associated Press: Dec 5, 8:15 PM EST

Missing hunter found two days after going missing
Advertisement

MADRID, Maine (AP) -- A missing hunter from Vermont was found in the rugged mountains of western Maine Wednesday afternoon two days after he went missing while deer hunting with friends.

Steven Wright, 53, of Woodford, Vt., was coherent when he was found by a snowmobiler on the side of Jackson Mountain about 15 miles south of Route 4 in the unorganized territory of Township 6, said Maine Warden Service spokeswoman Deborah Turcotte. He was flown to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston for treatment after being in the bitter cold and snow for two days.

Wright set out on Tumbledown Mountain in Byron on Monday morning and became separated from two other hunters, Michael Harrington and Barry Bishop of Bennington, Vt., as they were tracking a deer during Maine's muzzleloader hunting season.

A storm that blanketed Maine with fresh snow left 15 inches or more on the ground Monday in the area where Wright was missing. A search began Tuesday, and two planes and two helicopters aided ground searchers.

Wright was found by Donald Eisenhaur, 68, of Madrid, about 11 miles from where Wright and his friends had set out hunting.

Eisenhaur told officials that Wright was wet and covered with ice when he found him, and that his muzzleloader and GPS device were frozen.

Before Eisenhaur went out for a "joy ride" on his snowmobile, his wife told him to keep his eye out for the lost hunter.

When Eisenhaur came across Wright, he at first thought he was a moose on the trail. But as he approached, he saw it was a man, and surmised that Wright had heard his sled's engine and crawled to the trail.

Eisenhaur placed Wright on the front seat of the snowmobile and talked to him on the ride home, according to the Maine Warden Service. Wright slumped over several times during the ride, hitting his head on the sled's stop button and causing it to shut down.

Wright was wearing cold-weather clothing and an orange vest and hat. He was also carrying a GPS device and a compass, but it was unclear if he had input his location of if the batteries were dead, Turcotte said.

Wright also had packed a survival kit with matches and a radio but had left it in his truck, Turcotte said.