NOOBS!! 2 Lost Hikers in Holy Jim

Well we had at least 5 members there from my group alone

 

That's awesome!

Search and rescue, and a TW ride.. awesome combo. lol

 

phew!

 

Tw search and rescue ftw!

 

Kfi just partially redeemed themselves and interviewed two of the three that first found Nick including Ted.. No idea why they are still reporting that they were not part of the search party. I guess volunteers dont count. Lol

 

Props to all y'all who stepped up to help.

 

Awesome news guys, Matt, Havok, all of you guys are good people. The pissing match with KFI and the pro SAR bunch is just a stupid sideshow, if someone got lost tomorrow everyone should head back out like nobody's business.

 

Matt i seen your Tacoma on the news , on the link below theres a video

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...yndall-Jack-recused-Orange-County-canyon.html

 

Cool article!

 

Yup, and that's Brad's truck behind mine

 

Oh man thats awesome.. sheriffs were searching for Kyndall in your truck apparently. lol "I'm on TV, so I gotta act natural.. lemme look in this Tacoma.. nope.. not in there.."

 

Haha that's ME!! Not a Sheriff

 

Ooops! HAHA.. I just saw your back and they cut to the sheriffs vehicle and It looked like your truck was getting searched while you were out looking for Kyndall.

 

I thought it was a Sheriff searching ur truck LOL! Apparently not thats Matt looking for Kyndall Jack good try bro

 

LMAO that was when we had just gotten there, I was getting my gear ready before heading out.

 

Ha. It does look like a Sheriff is searching you truck..

 

Good job folks!

You are right, that sheer numbers of people searching can make a difference. Their hearts and tireless efforts are in the right place.

To give you some perspective, here are the challenges faced by Incident Command for when there are many public volunteers.

Early on, searchers are focused on finding clues to the missing person's whereabouts, more so at times than even encountering the people directly. Establishing where they left the trail, either by scent, or by visual tracking can be a HUGE advantage in establishing a likely direction of travel. Once there are large #s of public volunteers out searching, those clues are very hard to distinguish from all the other activity.

Sound Search methods - Early on, it is very likely the missing person(s) will be able to respond to sound calls. There is an organized method to that, whereby all the search teams call out or whistle several times, on que over a radio given command. The searchers also plug their ears during this moment. They are then stopped completely and silent for upto two minutes, to listen. The concept is then, if an search team can hear a response, both direction & location can be established as command knows where the search teams are. Search teams may even be spread out as individuals covering a large area. This can be very effective at night, as long as the terrain can be travelled safely at night.
You can see the challenge if this is done randomly by multitudes of folks, How do you differentiate a response from the subjects missing vs some other individual(s) calling out? As the timeline increases though with nothing found, the likely hood of the ability of a person to respond drops off, but that does not mean the calling/sounds stop, as those sounds can be a lifeline to the person, knowing that folks are looking for them.

I do encourage you to report into command if you would like to participate, and with patience, hopefully they will provide an organized task for you. That is definitely preferred. If you do go out searching, at the very least, let them know as precisely as possible where you have been, and what you did see; even if you only encountered other searchers, or found no clues; that information is still valuable to the search effort. If this information does not come in, the lack of information is as good as assuming the areas have not been searched.

Safety - I can speak from experience, that having large #s of folks out there, when you do not even know where they all are, or who they are, weighs heavily on the shoulders of the Incident Commanders. They bear the responsibility for the safety of the searchers, as individuals, and teams, as well as the bystanders. Checking in when you arrive, and checking out when you are completed and headed home for rest, is one simple task that makes their lives much easier. When people push themselves to exhaustion, certainly for the right reasons, they can become a risk to themselves, and their teammates, and become fairly in-effective at their job - finding clues to the whereabouts of the subjects. It is better to get some rest first.

Your hearts are in the right place, and as long as you can trust that the professionals, paid or un-paid, are out there also doing the best job they can, even when perhaps their methods, or actions don't make sense to the average person watching; there are methods and purpose they are applying. Co-operation and trust are vital for successful outcomes.

again well done.

 

Great post! Very informative, and I agree with you on all counts.

I initially reported to IC when I saw the photo of the hikers on the news. I recognized the male, because I had seen him in the canyon the day they went missing, just hiking along the road I was driving on. I gave a detailed report, and based on that, they began their search. It seemed after that, a flood of information poured in, and the search took a turn to a different part of the canyon.

Each time I went out, I informed an LEO or SAR member where I and my team were headed, our intentions, and a time which we will be checking back in by. I told them what gear we had, and how many people, and my basic identification info.

In the end, though not by my efforts, the hikers were found exactly where I had seen them walking, just up the ridge a few hundred meters. Very interested in finding out how/why they got lost, and even more importantly, how/why they were separated. But MOST important of all, how the hell did they manage to separate over BOTH sides of the canyon, when one hiker CLEARLY had to have walked across the main road to get to the other ridge.

I digress...I've rested up (slept 15 hours last night) and I'm just glad they were found.

 

Matt, your information was vital. It took the search planning from a Last Known Point (their car in the parking lot) to a Last Point Seen - a much preferred starting point for search planning. The fact they were found so seemingly close to the parking lot, that they were separated, and one person ignored a perfectly good trail or road in favour of going back into the bush is actually very common. The search planners use a tool called Lost Person Behaviour, a collection of stats categorized into activity and demographics, that help paint a picture of what direction, types of decisions, and how far away from a LPS they are statistically likely to be. They can use that information to define Search strategies.

Your efforts are also very important, even if you did not find them directly - remember you are looking for clues as to where they went, and not finding anything, but providing precise information on where you were & when, what you encountered, providing containment (trails surrounding probable search area, or attraction (sound, light) were all activities that brought about the success. A Team player!

on another note, after going through putting so much energy, and emotion into those days, you may find yourself (or not, everyone is unique) having weird little challenges or reactions adapting back to day-day (so called normal) activities - that's okay, it does take some time, and I encourage you to talk those experiences over with your teammates you were working with those days. You'll be surprised how similar/much you share in your reactions. Take care Matt.

 

Well big surprise... Anyone hear their press conference? Sounds like they were high as a kite
I mean

Very dehydrated. Just like lil Wayne was a week or two back when he had seizures.
They wanted to touch the clouds. And both started hallucinating and saw tigers and the girl thought he was being eaten by a python half the time.


lesson learned here-
ONLY TAKE ONE ACID TAB AT A TIME. Damn kids.