Forum Index > Trail Talk > Road to Paradise closed due to missing showshoer
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blendergasket
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blendergasket
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PostSun Nov 08, 2020 10:57 am 
From Mt Rainier's twitter feed Paradise Rd. will remain closed today at Longmire due to a search for a missing snowshoer in the Paradise area. NPS staff are focused on the search & are unavailable to open the area to the public. -pw https://twitter.com/MountRainierNPS/status/1325490505484967936 Searchers are looking for a snowshoer who split with their partner yesterday afternoon in winter conditions with low visibility. -pw https://twitter.com/MountRainierNPS/status/1325490506399326208

"He who would understand the Book of Nature must walk its pages with his feet" ~Paracelsus
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NBL
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NBL
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PostMon Nov 09, 2020 8:47 am 
I saw yesterday on the mountaineers FB group that this fellow was found yesterday.

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Randito
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Randito
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PostMon Nov 09, 2020 11:07 am 
Tacoma Mountain Rescue Unit Facebook Page wrote:
MRNP SAR Successful. Yesterday teams from the National Park Service, Volcano Mountain Rescue, Olympic Mountain Rescue, Seattle Mountain Rescue and Tacoma Mountain Rescue were successful in finding a lost snowshoer that kept the the Park shut down above Longmire. A great effort by all those who were there and a very lucky day for the patient. Carry extra gear, have a buddy system and know what you are getting into when you travel this winter. There is no substitution for preparedness.

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forest gnome
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forest gnome
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PostMon Nov 09, 2020 8:14 pm 
Suuuure he had extra clothes..food..whistle..ect... Why break the rule of separation? Very lucky to make a stupid mistake. For God's sake carry 2 road flares and 6 or 7 lb.of gear...clothes ect..it's a no brainer to survive overnight people... Oh some hand warmers mayb too? How about a 4oz.stove and 4 oz fuel....easy to make ramen! Low vis..ok...I get that.. On the winds trip this yr. 1 in our party of 3 blew past where we were to stop. 15min after taking a break.. Had to send "skinny buns "after him & made em hike back to our stopping point...he was 3/4 mile down trail.. He got the rule of separation after that (grin)..

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altasnob
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altasnob
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PostMon Nov 09, 2020 9:24 pm 
Just curious, is it normal to shut down access to Paradise because of a search and rescue operation? I don't remember that happening before. Maybe it has happened and I just didn't know about it. Seems like there has been lots of lost people up there that did not result with the park getting shut down. Not sure what was different here? We do have serious winter weather coming in right now so quickly finding the person was paramount to survival.

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kitya
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kitya
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PostMon Nov 09, 2020 9:42 pm 
altasnob wrote:
Just curious, is it normal to shut down access to Paradise because of a search and rescue operation? I don't remember that happening before. Maybe it has happened and I just didn't know about it. Seems like there has been lots of lost people up there that did not result with the park getting shut down. Not sure what was different here? We do have serious winter weather coming in right now so quickly finding the person was paramount to survival.
I don't know about Paradise, but I was taking part in search operations around Snoqualmie Pass a few times where the sheriff would shut down access to snow lake trail, etc. In fact, I love it because often this is my only chance to be on Snow lake trail without any other people smile.gif We don't do searches in Paradise though, because it is federal, not state. But I assume the procedure is pretty common, it is normal to shut down access for the duration of the search, if it is a big operation.

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Randito
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PostTue Nov 10, 2020 12:53 am 
It is typical to not open the gate when there is a winter time search for a "lost hiker" I believe part of the thinking is that they don't want additional tracks in the snow confusing the search. I once participated in such a search, there were 8 teams, each searching a specific zone. In the search I participated in 3 hikers got lost in the fog returning from Camp Muir. They had no snowshoes and only one ski pole for the group. Still they managed to dig a snow cave using the 1 ski pole and survived the night with minimal cold injuries. Thankfully they were clothed fully in synthetic and wool garments -- no cotton, had they been "jeans hikers" I think they would have faired much worse. They had hunkered down on the steep slopes below Glacier Vista and with well over a foot of new snow overnight the avalanche hazard on that steep slope was "Considerable". "Gator" was the leader of the team that found them. My team was searching the Mazama Ridge zone.

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thunderhead
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PostTue Nov 10, 2020 9:58 am 
Agree with randito. Ive seen the gate stay closed during searches a number of times.

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Kenji
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PostTue Nov 10, 2020 11:07 am 
MRNP: Date: November 9, 2020 Contact: Patti Wold, PIO, 360-569-6563 On Sunday, November 8th, a snowshoer who had been missing overnight was located and rescued from the Nisqually River drainage below Paradise. The snowshoer was last seen on Saturday November 7th at 1:45 pm, when he and his partner separated below the Muir Snowfield at an elevation of 9,500’. The missing party intended to descend on snowshoes to Paradise, while his partner continued on skis to Camp Muir. When he did not return to the Paradise parking lot, his partner reported him missing to park rangers. Three National Park Service (NPS) teams conducted an initial search for the missing snowshoer until early morning in winter conditions that minimized visibility. The overnight low at Paradise dropped to 16 degrees Fahrenheit with five inches of new snow. NPS search managers and Mount Rescue Association ground teams began searching again on Sunday morning. Clouds prevented launching air operations until afternoon when a contract helicopter from Hi Line Helicopters with park rangers aboard joined the search. The helicopter team located the snowshoer in the Nisqually River drainage on the west side of the river a mile upstream from Glacier Bridge. Ground teams reached the snowshoer an hour later. Searchers worked to warm him while a helicopter from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island responded. The military Seahawk helicopter hoisted and transported the patient directly to Harborview Medical Center. Mountain Rescue Association units from Everett, Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympic, Volcano Rescue Team, and Mount Rainier Nordic Patrol conducted ground search efforts. The Washington State Search and Rescue Planning Unit worked with park command staff on incident planning. Hi Line Helicopters with Mount Rainier park rangers, and Naval Air Station Whidbey Island provided aviation resources. Thirty-three people were assigned to the incident. -NPS-

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Pyrites
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PostTue Nov 10, 2020 2:50 pm 
Glad this ended well.

Keep Calm and Carry On? Heck No. Stay Excited and Get Outside!
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Anne Elk
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Anne Elk
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PostSat Nov 14, 2020 11:06 am 
Update on the rescued hiker from the Seattle Times: He came back from the dead eek.gif
Quote:
"He died while he was in the ER, which gave us the unique opportunity to try and save his life by basically bypassing his heart and lungs, which is the most advanced form of artificial life support that we have in the world,” [Nurse] Badulak said. He remained dead for about 45 minutes, while teams repeatedly administered CPR and hooked him up to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine, she said. In that process, blood is pumped outside of the body to a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back to tissues in the body.
Great job by SAR and Harborview miracle workers!

"There are yahoos out there. It’s why we can’t have nice things." - Tom Mahood
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Secret Agent Man
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PostSat Nov 14, 2020 12:15 pm 
Extraordinary work from the medical team. The article notes he was found in the Nisqually River basin, another person walking down there in a whiteout instead of to Paradise.

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bullfrog
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PostSat Nov 14, 2020 12:53 pm 
This is such an amazing happy ending to what could have been a tragedy. The park rangers, SAR volunteers, and staff at Harborview are all heroes. We need this kind of good news right now.

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joker
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joker
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PostSat Nov 14, 2020 2:02 pm 
Wow. Hopefully their brain and organs fared OK through all that. I presume they ended up being suckered by the fall line down into the Nisqually valley.

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Cyclopath
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Cyclopath
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PostSat Nov 14, 2020 2:05 pm 
SAR and Harborview literally pulled off a miracle.

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