DMC
12-21-2004, 09:55 AM
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041221/NEWS/412210339/1002/NEWS01
Four frozen skiers rescued in Killington
December 21, 2004
By Alan J. Keays Associated Press
KILLINGTON — Four Pennsylvania men who skied out of bounds at Killington spent a bone-chilling night and day in the woods before they were rescued when a helicopter spotted their campfire.
"I had some Christmas cookies with me that I gave them," said Game Warden Donald Isabelle, one of the first rescuers to make contact with the four missing men in the woods late Monday afternoon. "They were pretty hungry. It didn't take them long to eat."
More than three dozen rescue workers launched a search around 4:30 a.m. Monday when the four men were reported missing by another man, who told Vermont State Police his friends had skied out of bounds at Killington Ski Resort around 12:15 p.m. Sunday and never returned to their hotel room.
Searchers battled frigid temperatures and the clock, combing the trails and back woods of the ski resort trying to find the four men. Rescue workers were hampered by about 4 inches of freshly fallen snow from the night before.
It wasn't until around 3 p.m. Monday that a Vermont National Guard helicopter that had recently arrived at the scene spotted a campfire and the men in the woods.
The helicopter crew directed rescue workers to the four men. The searchers were able to locate them and guide them down Bucklin Trail to Brewer's Corner on Wheelerville Road in Mendon.
That is the spot where most lost skiers eventually walk of the woods.
The four missing men and their guides emerged around 5 p.m. Monday, nearly 30 hours after they were last seen skiing out of bounds.
"When we found them, they were hooting and hollering and saying, 'Boy, we're happy to see you guys,'" said Isabelle, who along with fellow Game Warden Dale Whitlock guided the men out of the woods.
"They were cold," Isabelle said. "A couple of them, their feet were bothering them, but nothing so they couldn't walk."
He said the men appeared to be in good condition, considering that they spent a night outside in sub-zero temperatures.
He said the four men told him they got lost and stopped walking in the woods around 3:30 p.m. Sunday and built a campfire. They stayed by the campfire until Monday morning when they tried to hike back up the mountain.
"They didn't get far. They got tired. They were a long ways off the trail," Isabelle said. "They built a kind of makeshift lean-to, with just basically dead sticks. They had a pretty good fire going and they were hunkered down around it."
The game warden said he had been following the tracks the four men had left in the woods and guided the helicopter to that area. The helicopter then spotted the campfire as well as the missing men.
"We would have eventually found them because we were on their tracks," Isabelle said. "It probably would have taken us another hour or so without the helicopter."
Isabelle, who has been involved in scores of rescues of lost skiers from Killington, said the four men were initially heading in the same direction most lost skiers go after traveling out of bounds.
However, instead of following a brook, the four men decided to go back up the mountain for a view to try to find a way out of the woods, Isabelle said.
"If they would have kept following the stream down, they would have found their way out," he said.
William Sharp, a climatologist with the National Weather Service based in Rutland, said the coldest temperature the four men experienced while lost was about 20 to 25 degrees below zero, including the wind chill.
"It was brutal," he said.
The lost men, all from Perkasie, Pa., included two snowboarders and two skiers.
Jared Rush, 22, and Michael Styer, 23, were the snowboarders. Jared Raytek and Thomas Arnold, both 23, were the skiers.
State Police Lt. Donald Patch said it was the first full-scale search for an out-of-bounds skier this winter. Patch said Monday evening that no decision has been made whether the skiers would be billed for their rescue. The cost of such a rescue is estimated at several thousand dollars.
Vermont law states that a lost person who skis out of bounds is responsible for costs incurred by a search and rescue. Typically, people who "recklessly" ski out of bounds are billed. Others who simply get lost by accident are not billed.
Killington's trails are marked with signs warning skiers against going out of bounds.
Four frozen skiers rescued in Killington
December 21, 2004
By Alan J. Keays Associated Press
KILLINGTON — Four Pennsylvania men who skied out of bounds at Killington spent a bone-chilling night and day in the woods before they were rescued when a helicopter spotted their campfire.
"I had some Christmas cookies with me that I gave them," said Game Warden Donald Isabelle, one of the first rescuers to make contact with the four missing men in the woods late Monday afternoon. "They were pretty hungry. It didn't take them long to eat."
More than three dozen rescue workers launched a search around 4:30 a.m. Monday when the four men were reported missing by another man, who told Vermont State Police his friends had skied out of bounds at Killington Ski Resort around 12:15 p.m. Sunday and never returned to their hotel room.
Searchers battled frigid temperatures and the clock, combing the trails and back woods of the ski resort trying to find the four men. Rescue workers were hampered by about 4 inches of freshly fallen snow from the night before.
It wasn't until around 3 p.m. Monday that a Vermont National Guard helicopter that had recently arrived at the scene spotted a campfire and the men in the woods.
The helicopter crew directed rescue workers to the four men. The searchers were able to locate them and guide them down Bucklin Trail to Brewer's Corner on Wheelerville Road in Mendon.
That is the spot where most lost skiers eventually walk of the woods.
The four missing men and their guides emerged around 5 p.m. Monday, nearly 30 hours after they were last seen skiing out of bounds.
"When we found them, they were hooting and hollering and saying, 'Boy, we're happy to see you guys,'" said Isabelle, who along with fellow Game Warden Dale Whitlock guided the men out of the woods.
"They were cold," Isabelle said. "A couple of them, their feet were bothering them, but nothing so they couldn't walk."
He said the men appeared to be in good condition, considering that they spent a night outside in sub-zero temperatures.
He said the four men told him they got lost and stopped walking in the woods around 3:30 p.m. Sunday and built a campfire. They stayed by the campfire until Monday morning when they tried to hike back up the mountain.
"They didn't get far. They got tired. They were a long ways off the trail," Isabelle said. "They built a kind of makeshift lean-to, with just basically dead sticks. They had a pretty good fire going and they were hunkered down around it."
The game warden said he had been following the tracks the four men had left in the woods and guided the helicopter to that area. The helicopter then spotted the campfire as well as the missing men.
"We would have eventually found them because we were on their tracks," Isabelle said. "It probably would have taken us another hour or so without the helicopter."
Isabelle, who has been involved in scores of rescues of lost skiers from Killington, said the four men were initially heading in the same direction most lost skiers go after traveling out of bounds.
However, instead of following a brook, the four men decided to go back up the mountain for a view to try to find a way out of the woods, Isabelle said.
"If they would have kept following the stream down, they would have found their way out," he said.
William Sharp, a climatologist with the National Weather Service based in Rutland, said the coldest temperature the four men experienced while lost was about 20 to 25 degrees below zero, including the wind chill.
"It was brutal," he said.
The lost men, all from Perkasie, Pa., included two snowboarders and two skiers.
Jared Rush, 22, and Michael Styer, 23, were the snowboarders. Jared Raytek and Thomas Arnold, both 23, were the skiers.
State Police Lt. Donald Patch said it was the first full-scale search for an out-of-bounds skier this winter. Patch said Monday evening that no decision has been made whether the skiers would be billed for their rescue. The cost of such a rescue is estimated at several thousand dollars.
Vermont law states that a lost person who skis out of bounds is responsible for costs incurred by a search and rescue. Typically, people who "recklessly" ski out of bounds are billed. Others who simply get lost by accident are not billed.
Killington's trails are marked with signs warning skiers against going out of bounds.