Tahoe Nordic Search & Rescue, Inc. Tahoe Nordic Search & Rescue, Inc.

TNSAR Search 6/12/2011

Male Skier in Desolation - Mutual Aid Call for El Dorado County

Submitted by Jimmy Smith

On Saturday Night at 11:00 PM, the pagers went off announcing a mutual aid search in El Dorado County for a 29 year-old male skier in Desolation. The call was for an 8:00 AM deployment in South Lake Tahoe, meeting at the garage at 7:30.

The next morning, three skiers responded and we were told to report to South Lake Tahoe Airport at 8:00AM as the parking lot would be used as a command post and teams would be inserted into the field by helicopter. We arrived just as the briefing started and learned that our 29-year old subject was dropped off by his girlfriend on Tuesday, June 7th off Hwy 50 and his plan was to go to Ralston Peak, Lake Aloha, Dicks Peak, Velma Lakes, and out to Emerald Bay. He was due out Friday afternoon the 10th. When he did not come out as planned and could not be reached on his cell phone, the EDCSO was contacted and a search was initiated. On Saturday afternoon, they deployed a helicopter along the route he was supposed to take, but they did not locate him. A hasty team was organized to go to the field, but they were not deployed due to it being late in the afternoon and the fact they did not have any clues as to where to deploy the team.

Our team was assigned to go in from Emerald Bay and hike the reverse of his planned route meeting up with a snowshoe team that was to be inserted on Dick's Peak and sent our direction. We arrived at the Eagle Lake Trailhead at 9:50 AM and hiked up the trail with our skis and ski boots on our packs for about a mile and a half until we arrived at the flat area on the Emerald Bay trail above Eagle Lake. From there, we started skinning up till we met up with the Bayview trail and followed that until we reached the meadow area between Dicks Lake and Fontanillis Lake where the PCT comes through. Along the way, we looked for anything resembling a single ski track and got a tad excited about one track until it diverged into two.

Once we arrived at the meadow we called in to get the location of the team we were to meet only to find out that they had not been deployed. Apparently, Dick's Peak had been searched by helicopter and no tracks or clues had been seen. At that point, our plan was to circle back toward Emerald Bay via Fontanillis Lake, Middle Velma, and then arriving back at Eagle Lake at the stream inlet on the west end. The idea was to cut off any approach that the MP could have made to Emerald Bay. Along the way, we did not come across anything that would qualify as a clue and somewhere near the west end of Eagle Lake we found out that the MP had been located at Loon Lake. Apparently, he had made a wrong turn at Dick’s Peak and went through Rockbound Valley to Rockbound Lake, eventually arriving at Loon Lake.

Entering the Eagle Lake area from the west end at the creek was a bit hazardous. The snow was thin, the rocks were large, and one member actually post-holed up to his chest. Eventually, we made our way back out to the trailhead and were out of the field by 6:30 PM.

SheriffDispatchSkiers
John Riella
Terri Viehmann
Chris McConnell
John Pang
Jimmy Smith
Russ Viehmann

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