*** 4-Wheel Driver Survives 6 Snow-Bound Days ***

December 25th 1998:
After staying up all night Christmans Eve at a friends house in the Squamish Valley, Richard Cutbush decided to "watch the sunrise" early Christmas morning. At 4.30am he jumped into his new 4x4 Ranger truck and headed out, clad in only a sweatshirt and blue-jeans, onto the snow-covered forest roads. His friends believed this was the first leg of a trip that would take him back to his home in Burnaby, about 2 hours drive to the South.

The first suspicion that something was wrong ocurred When Richard did not phone his family, in Sarnia, Ontario, on Christmas Day. For the next three days investigations failed to trace his whereabouts from either Squamish or his home in Burnaby, near Vancouver, B.C.. A large group of Richard friends became increasingly concerned and on December 29th, five days after his disappearance, the RCM Police asked Squamish Search & Rescue to conduct a land search.

Heavy snowfalls just before Christmas had covered the bare frozen hillsides and formed a deep and very unstable snowpack, unusual in B.C.'s Coastal Mountains. With avalanche conditions rated as extreme, the steep hillsides above the labrynth of logging roads in the Upper Squamish Valley were a serious safety risk.

December 29th 1998:
As the search initiated low clouds filled the entire Squamish Valley region, reducing visibility dramatically and precluding any hope of a search by air. This region of high mountains and deep valleys at the head of a long coastal fiord is infamous for its bad weather. Damp marine air meets cold outflow winds in the Squamish valley, resulting in high rainfall, deep snowpacks, heavy glaciation and clouds that can linger for days in the steep-sided valleys. 

Search teams were despatched on 4 wheel drive vehicles up the Upper Squamish, Ashlu and Elaho river valleys. When the snow became to deep for the vehicles the searchers switched to snowmobiles, which had a tough time coping with the heavy wet snow at lower elevations. Eventually one of the snowmobiles was stopped by an avalanche swath across the road, while another blew a piston in the heavy wet snow. Ground searchers in the vicinity of the friends house in the Squamish Valley searched a number of local 'likely spots' but also were unsuccesful in finding any trace of Richard Cutbush or his vehicle. Aproximately twenty of Richard's friends arrived at the Squamish SAR base throught the day to offer their services.

Meanwhile mutual aid was requested from Lions Bay Search & Rescue, in the form of a hasty search along the Highway 99 coastal road, that leads south along Howe Sound from Squamish to Vancouver, B.C.. Four Lions Bay teams checked side-roads, lookouts, viewpoints and any accessible shoreline but also failed to find either Richard or his black Explorer truck. That afternoon planners from both teams met in Squamish to plan the strategy for a rapid scale-up of the search the following morning.

The SAR Resource Kit was brought in from Vancouver and installed in the Squamish SAR Operations Base. Dual VHF and a UHF radios were setup in the Operations Base and a portable Radio Relay installed on a spit of land at Porteau Cove, half way up Howe Sound, to improve communications along the narrow, winding Highway 99. The new 'Search Manager' software was used to register personnel, provide nametags, allocate assignments and network to the communications plan and radio log.

As the ground teams finished their assignments for the day mutual aid requests were placed for the following morning to the Pemberton, Whistler, Sunshine Coast, North Shore Rescue and Coquitlam SAR teams. The Canadian Avalanche Rescue Dog Association were asked to provide backup personnel in case any of the search teams were struck by an avalanche. More snowmobiles were brought in by Coquitlam SAR and the new RCMP helicopter was placed on standby for the morning, weather permitting. During the late evening an early hours of the morning planning continued for both the Squamish Valley and Highway 99 search regions.

December 30th:
At 0730 hrs the Squamish SAR teams were briefed on their new search assignments. These included travelling on snowmobiles deeper into the network of logging roads in the upper Squamish Valleys and more detailed searching around the Point Last Seen. The Highway 99 region was broken into 13 3km sections, all of which were to be searched on foot, in both directions. A lifting of the cloud ceiling permitted the RCMP helicopter to be brought in - as well as a BCTV helicopter news crew.

By 0900 hrs all the ground teams had been despatched and the RCMP helicopter had begun its search of the Squamish, Ashlu and Elaho valleys. These air-search assignments were given top priority - while there was still a 'window' of good flying weather in the narrow mountain valleys.

At 0930 hours the RCMP helicopter - with the media helicopter close behind - reported seeing a man waving from the back of a snow-bound black pickup truck, high up the Ashlu River logging road! The RCMP helicopter landed on the road and Richard Cutbush, cold, tired, dehydrated and hungry, was helped back into the relative warmth of the chopper. Amazingly he had survived six days without food, clad in only blue jeans and a sweatshirt, and had not even succumbed to frostbite.

A waiting ambulance in Squamish took Richard to the Squamish Hospital where he was treated for dehydration before being quickly released.

Richard returned to the Squamish SAR Base to tumultuous applause from both his group of friends and the sixty or so gathered searchers. After speeches thanking the SAR personnel for all their efforts Richard was drawn to the sight and aroma of chicken soup and trays of hot lasagna, something he had not experienced for the past six days. Accompanied by large plates of food and his group of close friends Richard then left for home. 

Richard's survival was based primarily on his wise decision to stay in his snow-bound vehicle, using the engine for heat for the first two days - until his fuel ran out, staying dry and drinking meltwater off the vehicles tail-lights. Unusual in this mission is that Richard was able to monitor the searchers efforts via the news reports he heard on his truck's AM/FM radio.

Prepared by: Martin Colwell  Lions Bay Search & Rescue