Stranded

In early December, at least 50 stranded elk hunters had to be pulled out of the backcountry when a sudden blizzard dropped three feet of snow onto Coconino County, Arizona. Winds up to 78 mph blew drifts up to five feet deep, making roads impassable, knocking down trees, and driving the wind chill down through the bottom of the thermometer.
 

One fatality occurred when a Tempe firefighter sleeping in his tent was killed by a falling tree—a 70-foot ponderosa pine.  No one else was reported injured, although most were half-frozen and hungry.
 

Bad as conditions were, some hunters were unfazed. Colin Piburn told Havasunews.com, “This was just an ordinary snow-in. Everyone thinks we were stuck and lost.” Piburn and his hunting partners camped in the same spot they had for three years and were well-supplied. “If we had to, we could have stayed the whole winter,” he said.
 

Other hunters with less in the way of provisions tried to call for help, or abandoned their camps and attempted to hike to any nearby road.
 

Coconino County is 18,000 square miles, and the “weather was fine” when between 2,000 and 2,500 hunters went into the area just before elk season opened, said Gerry Blair of the Coconino Co. Sheriff’s Department. But as the coming storm showed up on the forecast, sheriff’s deputies and officers from Arizona Game and Fish went looking for campsites to warn the hunters. “We couldn’t tell them to leave,” Blair said, “but we warned them the storm was coming and suggested they move to a lower elevation.”
 

That was on the weekend prior to Opening Day.  By Tuesday, anyone who hadn’t moved or gotten out wasn’t getting out. “This was an amazing storm,” Shelly Shepherd of the Arizona Game and Fish Department said. “It dumped a lot of snow in a small amount of time. We haven’t seen this kind of storm in 10 years.”
 

The first calls to the Sheriff’s Department came on Wednesday, from family members worried about overdue hunters, and a few hunters who had cell phones. The search and rescue effort that ensued involved about 40 people, five public agencies and even a private aviation company that loaned one of its planes. 
 

Searchers used planes to locate campsites and snowcats, snowmobiles and/or helicopters, where possible, to extract those in need. The expectation of a second storm on the way added urgency to the efforts.
 

“At one time, we had 14 rescues going on simultaneously,” Blair said. “A lot of hunters were from Phoenix,” Blair said, “and did not really seem to understand the climate up here.” (Coconino County has elevations above 12,500 feet.) “We saw a lot of different levels of prepardness.”
 

As Blair pointed out, “Hunters can be determined,” and there were a few who did not want to leave, despite the arrival of a deputy on a snowcat or in a helicopter.
 

By Thursday, the effort was largely completed, although the searchers still had four planes in the air just in case anyone had been missed. There weren’t, but “There are a lot of vehicles, campers and equipment that will be left up there for the winter,” said Blair.
 

A week after the storm ended, Shelly Shepherd added, “Although temps have warmed up a little and we are seeing a bit of melting, the roads are still bad and will be closed by the Forest Service, if they haven’t already. Even if they were open there would be tremendous damage, sliding, rutting, etc. from people trying to get their rigs out.”
 

If This Happens to You

This incident shows a number of things about winter survival hunters should keep in mind:
 

1. Other than the one tragic fatality, there were no reported injuries, and a few people even declined to be rescued--which indicates a generally high level of provisioning. Many hunters had plenty of food and water, appropriate clothing, first-aid kit, fuel, maps and GPS, wood stoves and even generators.  Cell phones won’t always work where hunters go, but take one, anyway.
 

2. The rescuers set priorities based partially on how much food and fuel hunters had. Attempts were made to rescue those in greatest need first.  Logistics were a factor, too, of course.  You can bet those hunters who declined to be rescued were well-prepared and provisioned. If you have what you need, and depending on where you are, it is possible just to wait out a storm—though in this case, impassible roads still posed a problem.
 

3. Tell someone where you are going. When the Sheriff’s Department started getting reports of hunters overdue or hunters trapped in the high country, sometimes the location was known and sometimes it wasn’t. 
 

4. Research the area—Coconino County is rough, high mountain country. While the amount of snow they got during this event was unusual, sudden storms are hardly unknown at those elevations.
 

5. Prior to the storm, Sheriff’s deputies, Forest Service rangers, and staff from AGFD made personal contact with as many hunters as they could find and warned them about the storm.  Such a move is not an idle effort.  If you are camped somewhere fairly remote, and a deputy drives 100 miles or so to warn you and suggest that you move your camp, it might make sense to listen to him.