SAR team rescues injured hiker from remote location

BONNERS FERRY — Even for the most proficient of hikers, accidents can happen. A wrong turn, a wrong step, a sudden change of weather: all these things can turn an idyllic day in the wilderness into a nightmare scenario. The greatest danger, even to those prepared, is the distance from adequate help or rescue.

“About nine o’clock this morning, we got a call of an elderly male hiker who had fallen down and possibly injured his hand or arm in one of the scree fields up above Ball Lake,” said Boundary Search and Dive Rescue Team Vice Commander Tony Jeppesen on July 19, from the command base where he was the Incident Commander for the team.

The 67-year-old long distance hiker fell while attempting to navigate a scree field, a mass of large and small loose stones that cover a slope on a mountain. The hiker was accompanied by another female hiker. They were fortunate to be high enough in elevation that they had cell phone service and were able to contact the Boundary County Sheriff’s Office.

The Boundary County Search and Dive Rescue Team (SAR) was activated and arrived at the Ball Lakes trailhead at 11:10 a.m. and set up a command base. The SAR team worked quickly and efficiently, gathering their gear. Jeppesen organized Team One which consisted of Boundary Search and Dive Rescue Team members Jimmy Driver, Josh Shelton, and Stuart Yoder.

Hall Mountain Volunteer Firefighter Sandy Steinhagen was also on scene, and she accompanied the SAR team as a civilian hiker, bringing along her medical kit.

The initial search is referred to as a Hasty Search, although Jeppesen explained that this was not as much of a “search” as it would be for a lost subject, since they had the location of the injured hiker.

“We are trying to get in there quickly, find him, get him located, and get him out,” said Jeppesen. “If we can’t then it will require more planning to be done, and we call in more resources to see what we can do about locating him, but I’m pretty confident that we are going to find him.”

Shortly after Team One was deployed, Boundary Ambulance arrived on scene with Boundary Ambulance Captain and Paramedic Kelly Halleman and Boundary Ambulance Emergency Medical Technician Jacob Bushnell.

The initial decision was to wait for Team One to reach and evaluate the injured hiker before sending in the medical team, since they were unsure if airlift by helicopter might be necessary.

“Heck of a ride up here in the ambulance,” remarked Halleman about the miles of steep, rocky, winding road, covered in brush and low hanging branches. In the quiet time, awaiting news from Team One, there was a brief discussion about whether or not the ambulance had arrived at command base with one fewer antennae than it had when it began the journey.

The sun was high in the sky, leaving little shade at command base, dispersing the mosquitoes, and replacing them with wasps and aggressive deer flies, when the decision was made to deploy Team Two. “Cool. No worries. Make it happen,” said Halleman, an avid outdoorsman.

“So generally, on something like this, if we get to the patient, we will assess what he needs medically and provide appropriate medical care,” said Halleman while donning his hiking boots. “Hopefully he can walk out and it won’t be that big of an issue. We will just splint his arm and deal with that appropriately. If it is something worse than that, then we’ll fly him.”

At 12:09 p.m., Boundary Search and Dive Rescue Team Member Evan Phillips took lead of Team Two, which consisted of him, Halleman, and Bushnell, and they set out.

Radio contact became difficult as the two teams navigated the varied terrain, so a relay was established. Steinhagen, initially following along with Team One, had decided to stay back and acted as a part of the relay team and to instruct Team Two on which trail to take, when they arrived at her location.

At 1:13 p.m., Team One located the injured hiker. “There is a lot of steep sections,” said Shelton about the trip in. “There wasn’t a trail where he was. We had to go off, a little ways, into the boulder area there.”

Team One assessed and stabilized the hiker’s injuries and by 1:38 p.m., they began the long trek back out. The search and rescue ended successfully, when the hiker was safely in the ambulance and on his way to the hospital.

“They did a really good job today, everybody pulled together,” Jeppesen said of the team. “We were able to activate quickly, get en route quickly, we were on scene quickly. We were able to get up to the subject in less than two hours from the trailhead. We couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. Everybody worked well together. Overall, it was a really good mission, a really good team and an excellent outcome.”