EDITORIAL: Ready to ride to the rescue

Published 2:30 pm Wednesday, December 29, 2021

There’s no good place to get stranded in a mountain blizzard.

But if you’re unfortunate enough to end up in such a dangerous predicament, you could do worse than to have it happen in Baker County.

Five snowmobilers from Washington likely would attest to this after their experience the day after Christmas.

The group of friends were riding in the Wallowa Mountains north of Halfway when they were overtaken by a storm that brought fog, snow and strong winds that tossed the fresh powder around so as to obscure the tracks their machines had made earlier.

As dusk fell, the riders couldn’t figure out the route back to the trailhead.

One of the riders, Mike Kelly, used his cellphone to call another friend, Brandon Christensen, also of Washington, and explain the situation.

Christensen, who had just returned from a snowmobile ride in the Tollgate area north of Elgin, relayed the message to Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash.

Another member of the group, Jon Mecham, used his GPS satellite device to send a text message that arrived at the Baker County Dispatch Center at about 5:43 p.m. That message also pinpointed the riders’ location, about a mile and a half west of Fish Lake.

Ash immediately phoned Duane Miles of the Panhandle Snowmobile Club in Halfway. Miles rounded up nine club members, some of whom had been riding snowmobiles in the same area that day.

The riders refueled their machines and headed back into the cold, dark mountains, an inherently dangerous situation.

Guided by the GPS data, the rescuers reached the Washington men about 9:10 p.m. and led them to the Clear Creek Sno-Park.

The Washington group, all experienced snowmobilers, not only had the foresight to bring the GPS device — which, because it uses satellites rather than cellphone signals, works almost anywhere — but they also had materials to build a fire as they waited for the rescuers.

Christensen said on Monday that he was “amazed” by how rapidly the Panhandle Snowmobile Club members responded to the call.

Although the GPS technology was vital in this case, no battery-powered device can replace the knowledge that the club members have about the terrain — experience that made it possible for them to reach the stranded riders so quickly.

It’s gratifying to know that local residents are willing to put themselves in potential peril to help others. Ash said he had worked with the Panhandle Snowmobile Club on previous search and rescue operations and didn’t hesitate to make the call to Miles. The club members who responded on Dec. 26 certainly justified the sheriff’s confidence in their abilities.

Everyone involved in the operation deserves thanks, particularly the club members who rode to the rescue — Dusty Traw, Ray Denig, Kyle Bennett, Josh Sevier, Kyle Dennis, Chad DelCurto, Tucker Gulick, Kelly Grisham and Shane Denig.

The Baker County Sheriff’s Office has a well-trained search and rescue team which never fails to respond when someone is missing, injured or otherwise in trouble.

Ash himself has rescued several people, including drivers who got stuck in snow on mountain roads.

But in Baker County even people who are members of a recreational group such as the Panhandle Snowmobile Club, and not part of an official search and rescue team, are also willing and capable of potentially saving lives.

— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor