[pct-l] Donna S/Campy 051024: John Donovan Affair

[campydog at verizon.net (Campy)]

Hi Donna:

It was distressing to read about the slow law enforcement response in 
the John Donovan situation (I was told a few days ago that his body has 
now been found). I'm not personally hampered by any great knowledge of 
this unfortunate situation, but situations like this one didn't used to 
be that way. I was a volunteer on the Riverside Mountain Rescue group 
in 1961 to 1969 and then I finished my twenty years of mountain rescue 
experience with the China Lake Mountain Rescue Group. In those times, 
there was a specific deputy within the sheriff's department who was 
pretty familiar with the terrain, trail locations, weather factors, and 
the usual lost-person response from past experience. This "search and 
rescue coordinator" would start up an operation using his best judgment 
following a lengthy questioning of the reporting party. His response 
could be anything between an initial on-scene scan of the area by a 
sheriff's unit or a full-fledged callout of experienced SAR personnel, 
and I believe this part is still true.

Over time, SAR operation methods used in Riverside County may have have 
changed. Whatever is the situation there now, the apparent slowness in 
getting the search operation started is inexcusable. Ten days is a bit 
long. I can only guess that there may have been a disconnect in the 911 
call operator's response pattern which kept the SAR coordinator from 
being immediately notified. Under current guidelines, notification 
would be effectively forwarded even from calls placed within 
jurisdictions outside Riverside County based upon the obtained location 
information.

Although sheriff's departments  are responsible, each jurisdiction may 
have divergent SAR philosophies and organization. Riverside County did 
then, as well as now, employe RMRU and its hugely mountain-trained 
volunteers, while Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties had teams of 
paid employees. As an aside, we believed that our recreational climber- 
and American Red Cross first aid instructor qualified volunteer members 
possessed superior motivation and training compared with those 
possessed by paid personnel. We were trained in man-tracking by U.S. 
Border Patrol personnel at Campo, California, and helitac by VX-5 at 
the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center at China Lake. In any case, the 
available SAR teams should have been at least placed on standby.

In our own Inyo County there exists a smoothly operating "mutual aid 
agreement" interface with the (usually southern California) counties of 
origin of victims of mountain accidents occurring here in the Sierra. 
Rescue cost reimbursement is obtained from the home county so that 
fiscal matters should not affect our cash-strapped county's quality of 
response. The PCT, of course, is a prominent trail which is included 
and would be well-covered accordingly. Our sheriff's department could 
call upon not only the local Inyo County SAR team but also my old 
units: CLMRG most likely, and perhaps even the "high-altitude 
qualified" RMRU to respond as additional or backup resources. In fact, 
any Mountain Rescue Association member group could be summoned as a 
situation warrants. To these assets I might add the Indian Wells Valley 
Search and Rescue team, located at China Lake, as being the only Mining 
Safety and Health Administration approved underground team west of 
Idaho in the case of an incident associated with the several unmarked 
mines and mining prospects near the PCT's route through the southern 
Inyo and Kern Counties.

I hope that Riverside County has taken this unfortunate experience to 
heart. I can't imagine that RMRU would let this pass without suggesting 
a hard new assessment of reporting and response procedures. We as 
outdoors-involved persons need to make sure that we routinely 
understand that overdue hiker notification should be directed to a 
county sheriff's department. As mentioned, sheriff's departments derive 
their authority legally and this is so stated within the National 
Search and Rescue Plan. If a forest or park ranger happens to be the 
first person encountered by a witness, then that person would certainly 
facilitate the notification process and own-agency assets and resources 
may also be activated. By habit and for simple economics, authorities 
may hesitate to launch a full SAR operation upon first word when they 
have seen that a happy "walk-out" outcome had usually occurred within 
very similar situation parameters.

People have believed that they could improve the situation by first 
notifying the in-county SAR team (and SAR teams would love to receive 
such a heads-up), but this could still slow the search start-up 
process. The PCTA with its high interest in successful search results 
is however not an effective initial recipient of an overdue person 
report. Additional calls made via 911 or directly to the sheriff's 
department by PCT-L mail list individuals similarly would not add speed 
or emphasis to action planned or already taken.

Your point, Donna, is well taken that PCT-L members could be helpful if 
they are made aware and subsequently find themselves near the trail. 
particularly to provide additional on-the-ground information, or 
perhaps even extra eyes and ears in a search. If this should happen 
when a search operation base is already fielded, please first check in 
there to be acknowledged and receive direction as a casual searcher, if 
this is permitted, and not later possibly be mistaken as the subject of 
the search. Expect that off-trail search areas are likely to be totally 
closed to casual visitors, and the trails themselves possibly closed, 
for fear that visitors would clobber the subject's tracks or possibly 
become brand new search subjects themselves.

For the Trail,
Campy