*** Severely Hypothermic Hunter Rescued ***

From: Chris Reed, creed@smith-intl.com
Home address:
181 W. 300 S.
Spanish Fork, Utah 84660
Home: 801-798-9065
Work: 801-370-4243
Work FAX: 801-377-4289
Utah County Sheriff Search and Rescue, Utah, USA

I am new at using the Internet and it has only been the last couple of
weeks that I started reading the SARINFO BBS.  Please register me.
I like what you are doing and the information in your BBS is obviously
written by knowledgeable SAR minded people.

Utah County Sheriff Search and Rescue had an interesting search for a
38-year-old missing hypothermic hunter a few weeks ago where a rescuer
could have been shot at. The hallucinating hunter's thoughts before he
was found were interesting and worth passing along to other SAR members.

Russell Glather was reported missing Friday night, October 25.  He was
hunting in the Crooked Canyon area just south of Strawberry Reservoir
near the border separating Utah and Wasatch Counties. It rained and
snowed Friday night, up to two feet in places, and the temperature was
below freezing.  SAR units from both counties, officers from the Wasatch
State Park, Sheriff's deputies, American Rescue Dogs, and two aircraft
participated in the search, totaling nearly 50 searchers.

The hunter was dressed in Levis, cowboy boots, an orange nylon parka and
a stocking cap. He did not have anything more than his gun and a knife.
Where have we heard that before? He failed to meet his buddy at the
pre-arranged rendezvous on the Strawberry Ridge after the morning hunt.

His friends searched for him without success so their tracks confused the
search. Wasatch County Sheriff Search and Rescue had been unable to find
him and they requested assistance from Utah County on Saturday afternoon.
Wasatch did not have any snowmobiles available because they had a second
large search in progress in another part of their county for two more
overdue hunters.  They asked Utah County SAR to search the jeep trail
from Indian Creek to Crooked Canyon along the Strawberry Ridge Trail.

Search and rescue members on snowmobiles took foot teams to the saddles
above Streater and Crooked Canyons that were to be searched to the east.
G.P.S. receivers were used to locate the saddles because the visibility
was below one-hundred feet due to blowing snow. It was 2100 hours before
any of the foot teams made it down to the pickup points below. The
snowmobile team continued along the ridge and checked out the PLS and
their prearranged meeting area before returning to the command post.
All field personnel were back to their vehicles by 2300 hours.

The search for Russell resumed early Sunday morning. The weather
conditions had improved. The sky was clear and it was warmer. Utah County
SAR's assignment was to check out Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Water
Canyons that dropped off to the west from the Strawberry Ridge.

Two fixed wing aircraft coordinated with ground teams and they directed
foot and snowmobile teams into objects or areas they felt needed to be
looked at.

At about 1000 hours, two Wasatch Parks Officers on ATV's found tracks
crossing the Strawberry Ridge heading towards the west where no searchers
had been, friends or SAR. They did not have the necessary personnel or
the equipment to mount a ground search and they asked the approaching
Utah County ground teams to handle it. The tracks were heading into
Fourth Water Canyon so that team was assigned to the track.

The Strawberry Ridge Trail was packed down so transport time was quicker
than the day before. A K-9 team and three tracking teams were dropped at
the saddles above their respective canyons by 1200 hours.

An aircraft was assigned to circle overhead as a radio relay and to
guide the ground teams. In mid-afternoon, the Fourth Water Team found a
pack of cigarettes matching the victim's brand, and about twenty minutes
later a rifle. The plane worked in close to the ground and in about 10
minutes spotted a lone hunter without a gun. The hunter was on his feet
and a few hundred yards off a dirt road that was two miles in from the
Rays Valley Road. The pilot reported that the hunter appeared to be the
one who was making the tracks.

The pilot continued to direct the Fourth Water team in to the lone hunter
while Lieutenant Dick Casto, Utah County Sheriffs Office Emergency
Services Coordinator, drove up Rays Valley Road and then in on the dirt
road. With the help of the aircraft, Dick was directed into the closest
point and from there he hiked to the lone hunter.

Dick said later that when he found Russell, all that Russell could do was
cry on his shoulder. Russell was very weak, confused and he was totally
disoriented. He did not know how long he had been out or what day it was.

Later, after he warmed up, he told Dick what had happened to him. He shot
a deer and got disoriented while tracking it. After cleaning the deer,
Russell realized he was cold, wet and totally disoriented, and he said
knew he was in trouble. He remembered the first night because he covered
himself with pine boughs and built a lean-to of them. He did not remember
the second night.

An example of his confused state was obvious when he said there was
ambulance crew up there near him that would not help him and that all
they did was take his money and practice backing up the ambulance. He
said he knew he was hallucinating and that he had to force himself to
stay awake and not lie down. He saw a person in a white sheet that kept
circling him and who would not respond to his cries for help. He was
afraid to shoot at the ghostly figure in case it was really was a person
and not a hallucination. A hunter in that state of mind could have shot
a rescuer. Just one of things I will think about in similar situations.

The Fourth and Fifth Water teams joined on the hunter's tracks and they
found his pine bough lean-to. In addition, they found the tracks of a
large cat that had been circling the shelter. They said the paw prints
were 3-4 inches in diameter. Wow!

A SAR EMT helped Russell into warm clothing and applied heat packs while
Dick transported him to a waiting ambulance at the Sheep Creek Truck
Stop on State Road 89 between Spanish Fork and Price. They had to cut
his boots and socks off his feet. The socks were solid ice that peeled
off his feet like clam shells when they were split. All of Russell's
finger tips, toes and a portion of a hand were purple and black and he
had a body core temperature of 91 degrees F.

Russell ended up ten miles from camp. In his disoriented state he
completely crossed over the Strawberry Ridge instead of going to it and
returning down the same side. The save was a combination of good search
planning, the aircraft, the ground teams and a lot of good luck.

Last week I did a SAR presentation at a local grade school. I used this
incident as an example of what not to do in a winter environment.  A 12
year-old-girl raised her hand and asked if I helped search for her
uncle, Russell Glather.  She said Russell was probably only going to
lose some toes, but no fingers. She went on to say that he is "accident
prone" because search and rescue had to also get him a few years earlier.
Lucky man!

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