Hikermore,

Yes, Arizona would be different than our situation around here. During much of the summer, it really doesn't get very dark, so the term "night search" is a bit of a misnomer. In late summer and fall it gets a bit more interesting. Thrashing through an alder thicket in the dark...in big bear country....is not always the wisest thing to be doing. In full on winter, it gets even more serious. Traveling in avalanche country in the dark can be very dangerous when you can't clearly see the terrain you are getting into. Even so, we have done some winter searches in the mountains, when we thought we could do it with an acceptable safety margin. In one case where there was a known (or so it was thought) location in the mountains, a team was sent in in the dark. Turned out they had moved, and weren't found till after daylight (found OK).

Each case is different. We had a recent ground search for a missing runner around the UAA campus. The search area was sort of half town, half thick woods, with deep snow. In Anchorage, the wilderness literally comes to the edge of town, and there are many trails leading from campus into the woods. In that case we had dog teams out at night, walking the trails. The next day we hit the area hard with ground searchers, and over flew with a helicopter. Even with that, due to the thick woods and almost a foot of new snow, the POD wasn't good. Turned out he was in the area (we still don't know exactly where). The next morning he wandered in, severly hypothermic, with frozen feet. A very sad story. See links below.

http://www.ktuu.com/videobeta/36bef123-e...-Missing-Runner

http://www.adn.com/2011/11/08/2160569/search-continues-for-uaa-student.html

http://www.adn.com/2011/11/21/2182727/doctors-amputate-frostbitten-feet.html