*** Multi-Day Search finds Two Backcountry Skier-Clinbers, Deceased ***

From:  Martin Colwell
Email: sarinfo@mindlink.bc.ca
Date:  21st June 1997

Sumallo Valley, Sunshine Village, B.C.
Near Manning Park/Skagit River Valley, N. Cascades.

Monday 16th June 1997.
Late Monday evening Hope Search & Rescue received a call from the Hope
R.C.M. Police that two backcountry skiers were overdue from a Sunday ski
trip in the Sumallo River Valley region, at the head of a series of
logging roads behind the (closed) Sunshine Ski Village. The two male
missing skiers: Tomasz Zarzecki, age 27, of Port Moody, B.C. and Jacek
Sikora, age 31, of Vancouver, B.C., were reported missing by family
members in Burnaby. B.C..

A preliminary night search of the logging roads resulted in the subjects
vehicle being found parked at the head of the Sumallo River Valley, on a
short spur-road leading westwards towards the side-valley beneath Mount
Ridout (elev. 8029ft/2440m) and Silvertip Mountain (elev. 8550ft/2610m).

Tuesday 17th June 1997.
The subjects vehicle was searched by the police and a North Cascades
climbing guide and topo map of the region were found, however no climbing
equipment was found and none of the local routes were marked in the
guidebook. A police dog searched the area near the subjects vehicle.
Twelve searchers from Hope Search & Rescue searched the two
major subalpine snow basins at the head of the Summallo River Valley,
while helicopters swept the main valley and the alpine headwalls below the
7600ft elevation Mount Rideout-Silvertip ridgeline. Steep snow filled the
headwall's major gullies and the upper valley basins, while the forested
lower valley was free of snow. No tracks were found on any of the old snow
in the alpine basins.

Ground searchers reported finding orange peel low on a logging road leading
east towards a logging clearcut known to provide safer and easier access to
the valley's alpine ridgeline. 

Wednesday 18th June 1997.
Hope Search & Rescue requested mutual aid from the neighbouring Central
Fraser Valley and Kent-Harrison SAR teams. A mobile Command Post vehicle
was set up at Sunshine Ski Village. Twelve searchers were then despatched
to various assignments in the upper Sumallo River Valley and in the lower
elevation (5500ft/1680m) of the Rideout-Silvertip side valley. By late
afternoon a team searching close to the subjects vehicle found two pairs
of skis, cached in the forest approximately 50ft from the vehicle. At this
point it was considered that the subjects would probably be hiking, and not
skiing, somewhere in the region. A total of 24 searchers were deployed
during the day.

One team of searchers followed the Sumallo logging road up through the
easterly logging slash while three more teams searched the Rideout-Silvertip
western side valley. Two of these teams traversed the snowfans below the
Rideout-Silvertip headwall while the third team swept the forested hillside
from an old logging spur on the opposite side of this valley. A police dog
team assisted in searching some of the snow basins, during which the officer
suffered a slide down the snow, fortunately without sustaining any injury.
Helicopters continued to sweep the Sumallo valleys and mountainsides. By
late afternoon heavy cloud at the 6000ft region precluded searching the
upper mountain slopes, forcing the search teams to retreated and search the
slopes at a lower elevation.

During the early afternoon the Hope SAR team requested the SAR Resource Kit
from Vancouver and put out a request for additional mutual aid, for both
searchers and search management. By late afternoon three senior members of
North Shore Rescue flew to the search site for a briefing and analysis,
while the SAR Resource Kit was made ready for deployment.

Thursday 19th June 1997
By 0800hrs the SAR Resource Kit and 25 more alpine-skilled searchers from
Lions Bay, North Shore Rescue, Coquitlam, Surrrey and Whistler Search &
Rescue joined the local SAR teams at Sunshine Ski Village to provide a
total of approximately 30 searchers, one police dog team, 8 search
management and 15 or so local support personnel. Two helicopters, two
ATV's and four large 4-wheel drive trucks provided local transportation.
Two major television news teams began to cover the incident in more detail.

The main Resource Kit Command Centre was deployed in a large hall at
Sunshine Village while two helicopters and numerous 4x4's were used to
prepare an Advanced Base camp 5km further up the Sumallo Valley, beside the
subjects vehicle. A communications tent, cooking shelter and two large dome
tents were erected at advanced base by 1100 hrs, during sporadic rain
showers. Small rivulets flowed around the Advanced Base camp while fairly
heavy cloud concealed the mountain tops above 6000ft.

Nine assignments were prepared and three alpine search teams were
helicoptered high onto the Mt. Rideout, Silvertip Mountain and the eastern
valley ridgeline, as breaks appeared in the cloud. One alpine team was
deployed up the eastern logging slash to the ridgeline while the remaining
search teams performed a number of lower elevation assignments to
gridsearch the valley bottom within 1 km of the subjects vehicle, and to
search the two alpine bowls beneath the Rideout-Silvertip ridgeline.

By mid-afternoon the cloud had thickened and was gradually descending,
placing the three alpine teams in a somewhat hazardous, low visibility
condition. GPS's were used to fix their positions but extremely steep
headwalls precluded any short cuts down to Advanced Base. The only
alternative was to navigate the entire curving ridgetop eastwards towards
the logging slash, a 2-3 hour traverse.

During the early afternoon the intial planning process, physical evidence,
incident history and a detailed terrain analysis were re-examined. It was
concluded that only relatively low POD's had been obtained on the previous
days and that no ground searching had been performed in the very steep
middle to higher elevations. The subjects vehicle was re-searched and an
ice axe protector and a gas receipt were found. The gas receipt placed the
subjects enroute from the Chevron gas station in Sumas at 6am on Sunday
15th June '97. This evidence indicated that the subjects were probably on
scene by approximately 9am Sunday, and probably planning to perform an
alpine climb, perhaps with the intial access by skis.

The field search teams were asked to look for evidence of ice-axe marks,
while the subjects North Cascades Climbing Guide and map, both authored by
Fred Beckey, were re-examined. It was determined that both Mt. Rideout and
Silvertip Mountain could be quickly, but steeply, accessed from the western
side-valley and that the same general route could be used, up the headwall,
as the main access to the ridgeline to both summits. This headwall had
three access options: the eastern gully, the middle rib or the western
face, the latter of which led directly to the 6700ft Rideout-Silvertip col.
The Beckey map marked all three options as routes on the map. It was felt
that the eastern gully was the most likely option: searchers had stated
that this was the first gulley reached on entering the side-valley, it was
still filled with snow and it was at a lower angle than either the rib or
headwall. Based on this analysis it was decided to fly a helicopter up the
eastern gully, as high as the lowering cloud ceiling would permit.

Within minutes of sweeping the gully by helicopter what appeared to be
tracks were discovered. higher up the gulley a body was then spotted, in a
natural fall line from the gully above. A second helicopter flight then
re-searched the gully and found a second body, jammed in a bergschrund,
approximately 100ft below the first body. The area was very steep, full of
loose rock and hard snow, and with cornices above. The cloud was continuing
to descend and visibility was gradually worsening. It was approximately
1600 hours and with three alpine teams still remaining to be evacuated
from white-outs on the ridgeline above, it was decided to postpone the
body extrications from the gulley until the following morning.

By 1800 hours two of the three alpine teams had managed to reach the safety
of lower elevations, while the Lions Bay alpine team continued to carefully
work their way through the white-out, eastwards along the ridgeline. A
helicopter made a number of forays towards this team and on one ocassion
spotted them through a break in the cloud. However the steep terrain and
swirling cloud precluded a pick-up, so the helicopter returned to remove
its doors, to facilitate a faster 'hot load'. A few minutes later the
'copter was able to pick up this last team through a small gap in the cloud
and bring them to the safety of Advanced Base. With the exception of a
small support group all personnel retired to the town of Hope for
debriefings, a meal and to plan the technical body recovery for the next
morning.


Friday 20th June 1997

Under the direction of North Shore Rescue and Lions Bay search management
four alpine recovery teams were prepared: One team would prepare anchors
and be responsible for on-site safety, two teams would be responsible for
one body recovery each and a medical backup team would remain at the
extracation site, in case of any injuries to the rescuers. By 1000 hours
the four teams were hover-exited on-site and snow pickets were placed to
provide anchors for the recovery. The extrication proccess was performed
in two stages; to remove the bodies from their present positions and to
place them in an area where they could be lifted out in a cargo net below
the helicopter. A small amount of snow and pebbles fell during the
extrication but no serious problems were encountered. By 1200 hrs both
bodies had been removed from the site and were flown to Advanced Base for
examination by the police and the coroner. The four recovery teams were
lifted off the steep loose rock and snow-filled gully without incident.
By early afternoon the process of packing up all the equipment had begun
and the search operation was concluded.

During a final debriefing in Hope Hope Search & Rescue and the R.C.M.
Police thanked all the participants for their help in this difficult and
tragic incident.

PEP Task #'s 981014 (rescue), 981052 (recovery)
RCMP File # 97-2844
ASE# 800036, 80040, 80043, 80044

General Comments, Considerations and Recommendations

1. The SAR Resource Kit needs a dedicated towing vehicle to be assigned for
urgent deployments. The Lions Bay and North Shore vehicles were both so
loaded with equipment and personnel for the incident that they would
likely have been seriously overloaded trying to pull the Resource Kit's
trailer up the steep hills east of Hope. 

2. The trailer needs a secure site closer to the North Shore Rescue
equipment cache. The time and logistic problems of moving two sets of
equipment from different locations across town made it problematic getting
even a moderately rapid deployment initiated.

3. Cell phone communications could not be made out of Sunshine Ski Village,
even with the use of the Resource Kits extra power and directional antenna.
Even the satellite dish cellphone could not make a connection. Not
withstanding this assigning a satellite cell phone to the Resource Kit
should be considered. (Washington State have two units assigned to
emergency response).

4. the TRIM map download protocol needs to be finalised. These maps were
urgently needed and we were forced to use the subjects own US map - sealed
police evidence - for two days.


The coroners report staterd that one subject had a broken pelvis and was
unconscious at the time of death. The second subject - jammed in the
bergschrund - had six broken ribs and probably died within two hours of
the fall.

Prepared by Martin Colwell
Lions Bay Search & Rescue

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