Valemount Search and Rescue saved us

Goliath

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Hi All, this is my first post and an emotional one at that!

Wanted to give a MASSIVE SHOUT OUT TO Curtis, Mack and Bill for SAVING OUR LIVES on Jan 5-6 2020. My riding partner and I would not be alive if it wasnt for these EXCEPTIONAL first responders! It took ALOT more than just these men to make sure we got out, but these were the three that coordinated the effort and made it happen. I cant tell you how thankful myself, my riding partner and our families are for all of your efforts! The sledding community is SECOND TO NONE! It took an army of men wanting to help to get us out of there safely! I understand that this is the first time Mack and Curtis's team had to leave men over night on the side of a mountain. With the most heartfelt thank you I have ever given...……..Thank you to EVERYONE that helped or tried to help, but the biggest thanks to Curtis, Mack and Bill!!! These men are the definition of TRUE HERO'S and I wanted to let the entire sled community know.

Craig O'Casey
 

SLEDBUNNYRACING

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Hi All, this is my first post and an emotional one at that!

Wanted to give a MASSIVE SHOUT OUT TO Curtis, Mack and Bill for SAVING OUR LIVES on Jan 5-6 2020. My riding partner and I would not be alive if it wasnt for these EXCEPTIONAL first responders! It took ALOT more than just these men to make sure we got out, but these were the three that coordinated the effort and made it happen. I cant tell you how thankful myself, my riding partner and our families are for all of your efforts! The sledding community is SECOND TO NONE! It took an army of men wanting to help to get us out of there safely! I understand that this is the first time Mack and Curtis's team had to leave men over night on the side of a mountain. With the most heartfelt thank you I have ever given...……..Thank you to EVERYONE that helped or tried to help, but the biggest thanks to Curtis, Mack and Bill!!! These men are the definition of TRUE HERO'S and I wanted to let the entire sled community know.

Craig O'Casey

What an awesome compliment to these fine gentlemen.

Did you want to elaborate more on what happened and how it ended. We’ve heard 3rd party but always best from those involved.

AT NO TIME ARE ANY NEGATIVE POSTS ALLOWED ON THIS THREAD.
 

Caper11

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Hi All, this is my first post and an emotional one at that!

Wanted to give a MASSIVE SHOUT OUT TO Curtis, Mack and Bill for SAVING OUR LIVES on Jan 5-6 2020. My riding partner and I would not be alive if it wasnt for these EXCEPTIONAL first responders! It took ALOT more than just these men to make sure we got out, but these were the three that coordinated the effort and made it happen. I cant tell you how thankful myself, my riding partner and our families are for all of your efforts! The sledding community is SECOND TO NONE! It took an army of men wanting to help to get us out of there safely! I understand that this is the first time Mack and Curtis's team had to leave men over night on the side of a mountain. With the most heartfelt thank you I have ever given...……..Thank you to EVERYONE that helped or tried to help, but the biggest thanks to Curtis, Mack and Bill!!! These men are the definition of TRUE HERO'S and I wanted to let the entire sled community know.

Craig O'Casey

Thank you for sharing your story. Im glad to hear it worked out for you and your riding buddy.

Big shout out on my end to the SAR in all areas. They do good work.
 

Goliath

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Still trying to learn how to navigate this site haha.

4 of us were riding together, Aaron dropped down into a little bit of a gully. Didnt look like anything we havnt been in and gotten out of before. We had radio contact with eachother, he didnt want to go much father than he was until we were together. I was still above Aaron getting my other buddy unstuck in a meadow. I wasn't going to drop down to Aaron until the other two guys up top were together. Once they were, I contacted Aaron on the radio again to get more info, what does it look like, can we get back out ect. We realized that I had to drop down to be with him, and we were going to filter down trying to find an opening. We could hear and see sleds up to the left of us in a burn area. We figured if we went a bit further down we could find something to shoot up to the burn area and we would all be OK. Unfortunately that was not the case. We had no where to go but down. When we realized we couldn't go up, right, left or down any father we contacted our two other guy up top by radio and told them our situation. We would never want to use the privilege of search and rescue unless absolutely needed. We Radio'd our guys and told them we needed to contact Search and Rescue at about 3pm. We started building a shelter and a fire. We were not injured and the sleds were intact. The next time we heard from anyone was about 7-8 pm. This is when Curtis P got ahold of me by radio. He and his team tried everything they could to rescue us that night but it wasn't going to work. He told us he would get ahold of us at first light and to turn our radios off till day break. He said pray for clear skies in the morning so the could locate us with a chopper. IT was a LONG 12 hours trying to keep warm. It was nearly impossible to keep wet would burning. We used almost all of our fuel from the sleds keeping the fire going through the night. One of our saws broke within 10 min, we only had one saw for the rest of the night. If that saw broke, we would have surely froze to death. About 930 am we hear a chopper, they are in radio contact with us and they have eyes on us, WE THINK WE ARE SAVED!!!!! We literally have nothing left from working all night with conserving limited water and food. We realized the HELL is just about to begin. The chopper opened the door and dropped a backpack and pink tape. The chopper radioed us and told us to put the snow shoes on, we had to walk out. Find out later that Bill sent his and his wife's snow shoes, of course I got his wife's pair lol. Walking out was one of the hardest things I've done, being as exhausted as we were. I sunk to my hips every second step. The scariest part was I broke through atleast 15-20 creeks and thought for sure I was getting dragged under. We get close to the bottom and we are in contact with Mack over the radio. I understand he was dropped off in the morning to clear and build a helipad for the chopper. Mack was unbelievable, taking my avi pack and helping me to the helipad. He called the chopper in, and we got in and they took us back to the headquarters.
This is obviously the quick version of the story. Total hero's those boys!
 

Bnorth

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Thanks for sharing. No one likes getting rescued on snowshoes (misery slippers) but it happens a lot. Not a lot of teams with long line certification and the winch heli is off fighting fires in Australia right now so be prepared to walk if there isn't a space to land or hover.
 

maxwell

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Thanks for sharing. No one likes getting rescued on snowshoes (misery slippers) but it happens a lot. Not a lot of teams with long line certification and the winch heli is off fighting fires in Australia right now so be prepared to walk if there isn't a space to land or hover.

Curious how that works. We have a couple long line certified pilots in the valley but I’m thinking long lining humans is a separate cerficiation?
 

Bnorth

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Curious how that works. We have a couple long line certified pilots in the valley but I’m thinking long lining humans is a separate cerficiation?
Class D HETS certification is needed for the pilot and the rescuer on the rope
 

lilduke

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Thanks for sharing. No one likes getting rescued on snowshoes (misery slippers) but it happens a lot. Not a lot of teams with long line certification and the winch heli is off fighting fires in Australia right now so be prepared to walk if there isn't a space to land or hover.

so if you were injured and couldn't walk you'd be fuct then?
 

Goliath

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Thank god for no injuries, it woulda made everything much more difficult.

The sleds were picked out by helicopter that afternoon. Another amazing person I forgot to mention was the Heli pilot! He picked both sleds out with a hook on a 150' line BY HIMSELF! no spotter, by himself! INCREDIBLE.
 

Bnorth

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so if you were injured and couldn't walk you'd be fuct then?
There's other options but they all take much more time and effort than a heli. There have been situations where rescuers go in with gear and wait with you until heli access is possible or they may come in and package you into a litter and carry you out on snowshoes to heli access or to where you can be pulled out in a toboggan.
 

Bnorth

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Thank god for no injuries, it woulda made everything much more difficult.

The sleds were picked out by helicopter that afternoon. Another amazing person I forgot to mention was the Heli pilot! He picked both sleds out with a hook on a 150' line BY HIMSELF! no spotter, by himself! INCREDIBLE.
What did he hook on to them with and where? Just a ski loop or something until he could set down and sling them properly?
 

Goliath

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Ive been sledding mountains for 7-8 years, my partner 15-16. We are not pro by any means but can hold our own. We never expected this to happen to us. Only stupid people get caught in these situations right? WRONG. I will now also reserve my judgement on any one. It can happen to anyone.
Couple of things I or WE could have done different, SAT PHONE- wouldn't have got us out of there any sooner but would have made our location easier and our families know we were OK.
I didn't have MY avi pack on that day, I had to use someone elses- I didn't transfer all my survival gear over. Even though we were really well prepared, it could have been easier.
Looking back, we should not have kept going down the creek, we should have stopped and got help while we were still in reach. Good learning lesson, nobody wants to ask for help. Pride kills. We should all ask for help when we need it, not after.
 

Goliath

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Heli pilot had a "grapple hook" made out of rebar. Looked like a big fishing hook. Tried to grab by rear grab bar but ended up taking them out by the A-arm. Picked them like that and flew them to the parking lot and set them down. Then did the same with the next one. Not a scratch on the sleds!
 

Mike270412

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Witnessed this on the back side of Goat Ridge a few years ago.Pretty talented fishing. Wonder if it was the same guy.
Heli pilot had a "grapple hook" made out of rebar. Looked like a big fishing hook. Tried to grab by rear grab bar but ended up taking them out by the A-arm. Picked them like that and flew them to the parking lot and set them down. Then did the same with the next one. Not a scratch on the sleds!
 

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Thank you! Little vulerable being new to the site and telling everyone the mistakes you made, but hopefuly it helps someone else.

There's a lot of very knowledgeable guys and gals on this site and you're post isn't one for bashing. Good people on here and most like to have fun keyboard jabbing each other. Welcome to the site...
 
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