[pct-l] PCT Thru-Hiker Missing in Glacier Peak Wilderness

[Eric Lee (GAMES)]

Andrea wrote:
>
Unless
you have worked in the past with trying to coordinate a missing hiker report
to 3 different Counties up here you don't just call one time.
>

At the risk of starting another "thread from hell" (which I DO NOT want to do, so please let's keep this reasonable!), I think Ken is absolutely right - in situations like this, everyone should do their best to avoid panic and to avoid making the problem worse.  Sometimes in emergencies people can get the idea that *any* action is better than no action at all, but that's not always true.  Some actions are directly counter-productive.

I understand that Disco wasn't in a great situation there in Stehekin to coordinate a missing hiker report.  I also understand that the SAR responsibilities are somewhat fractured across various agencies and it's hard to get them all on the same page.  I appreciate those difficulties.  However, having possibly hundreds of people flooding the phone lines with the same (or possibly significantly different) third-hand information can actively make the problem worse, not better.  As Ken wrote, SAR operations depend on clear, concise, and timely communication and deluging them with noise probably won't help.

So instead of just criticizing from my armchair, I'll offer a concrete suggestion - the next time this sort of situation comes up (that is, a general request to relay important information to the authorities), the first person to pick up the phone should also send a response to the list saying, "I'm taking care of it, I'm the point person, no one else needs to do anything.  Here's what I'm doing, and I'll post follow-ups as I have them."  That way we can make sure that action is being taken while also not causing problems that make things worse.

Remember in an emergency it's not enough to just do *something* . . . it needs to be the *right* something.

Eric