*** Sisters Wilderness Search for Two Hikers *** Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 11:55:13 -0800 (PST) From: Kiera Noelle Berggren To: gkleinba@oemd02.oem.state.or.us, gkleinba@darkwing.uoregon.edu cc: sar-l@IslandNet.com Subject: Re: Hikers in Sisters and avoiding CIS Hi all - I didn't mean to imply in my original post that that the two young men lost in the Sisters Wilderness had been found as of yet. The search had been called off as Georges had remembered and the location of the two men remains a mystery. When the snow melts enough this spring (or maybe summer), our group and some of the other SAR groups in the county (the Explorer Post, the tracking group, and hopefully a CARDA dog and handler on loan) will have a training mission in the region where we think the two might be. It will also serve as a recovery mission to help the two families bring this whole situation to some sort of closure. My original post was hopefully to generate some ideas as to how to deal with this situation and its known outcome. I think Robert hit the nail on the head in that most often we train to rescue a live person and encountering anything else tends to generate CIS. By referring to the subjects as "subjects" and not knowing very much about them I can understand how the impacts of CIS might be limited. I don't think watching the evening news generates CIS in most people unless the crashes and suicide bombs reported happen to involve someone they know personally. In the upcoming Sisters Wilderness recovery, the two hikers have received much publicity in the county as well as the state. The city of Eugene is pretty small and very much a college town (University of Oregon). When these two men were reported missing many people from the local SAR groups as well as the University came out to search and the story made a real impact on everyone involved. The families were here and really touched the lives of many of the searchers. For them, our SAR group would like to put an end to this and solve the mystery of what happened to them on that trip. I would guess the problem I forsee is that we now know the subjects too well for our own mental health. I was not involved in the original search, but having heard so much about them and their families from the news and members of our own group, I am worried that we will see CIS rear its head. Thank you for your comments and advice. They are much appreciated! Kiera Berggren kierab@darkwing.uoregon.edu Eugene Mountain Rescue Lane Co. SAR RAVES member - KC7NWB -------------------------------------------