A developing situation in the frozen north land:

http://q13fox.com/2016/04/11/rescuers-try-to-find-skiers-stuck-on-alaska-glacier-for-days/


It will be interesting to learn more about this unfolding situation...

An update:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/rescue-team-closer-hikers-stranded-alaska-glacier-38331607

Quite a contrast to the previous situation discussed previously, although low tech snow caves are involved. What does one carry on a glacier day trip? any provision for bad weather that disrupts your schedule?

I always count on the unexpected emergency, and carry the necessary gear. On a glacier, I would carry shelter/warmth, water, and signalling as the priority items. You just never know what can happen.

An update on the situation: http://www.adn.com/article/20160412/rescue-team-gets-closer-hikers-stranded-kenai-peninsula-glacier

It sounds like they had some sort of tent, which didn't last long in the weather. They are now dug into a snow cave. A PJ team hopes to reach them today. The article says the PJs parachuted in, but I think that is an error. My understanding is they were inserted by helo at a lower elevation (as far up as the helo could get in the weather). It will be interesting to get the whole story after they are rescued.

I would probably start with about the same that one would carry on a day climb of a glaciated peak such as Rainier or Hood. Then add a few extra items because of the remote location. There is always a problem deciding how much to carry on a day trip.

Parachuting onto a heavily crevassed glacier, as Bear Glacier apparently is, is not my idea of fun. I'll take the helicopter, thank you....

If the weather would not allow a helo, they definitely did not parachute in. A helo can handle worse weather than a parachute can.

New update:
http://www.ktuu.com/news/news/helicopter...o-land/38987658

A helo was able to spot their location from the air this AM, but was still unable to land due to weather. A peloaded text this morning from the subjects indicated they were OK.

Hopefully the PJs will be able to reach them today.

Okay... so the protocol is for the rescuees to sit tight in their cave and let SAR come to them, rather than the rescuees moving to a lower elevation. Makes sense -- hug a tree. If the rescuees tried to go to the helo, SAR would end up with a moving target.

Does self-rescue (to a lower elevation) have any role whatsoever? If a helo can drop off a team at lower elevation they could do a pick up. What if the rescuees had good comms with SAR?

There isn't really any standard protocol. It is totally situation dependent. Self rescue is always worth considering, but other factors can come into play. I don't really know too much more about this specific incident than has been published, but here are some things to think about:

How strong are the search subjects at this point? Remember, they were out on a day drip on Friday. So they have been holed up in difficult circumstances for 4 days beyond what they thought was a day trip. They may be significantly weakened by this point. If they are reasonably sheltered in a snow cave, it may make better sense to stay put and let rescue come to them.

If they move, how easy would it be to rendezvous with an approaching SAR team? If visibility is poor, they could walk right past each other on that glacier. Since the rescuers have their coordinates, again it might make more sense to stay put.

What is the terrain like between them and the rescuers? They were dropped off, apparently for a day ski (in more mellow terrain?), high up on the glacier . As the photos with the articles show, the lower part of the glacier is heavily crevassed. A team of 2, even if roped up, can have a very difficult time if one falls in a crevasse. If we assume they are already cold and weakened, extricating someone from a crevasse would be even more difficult.

Note that the team of 4 PJs are the gold standard for rescue. They are Air Force Spec Ops, and are super fit, and highly trained. I assume they landed on the glacier with the full expectation that it might take several days to reach the subjects, and brought the appropriate gear for a multi day mission.

In this case it probably makes good sense for the subjects not to move. Other situations may call for a different answer.

Good news! The were rescued successfully, apparently in good condition, by helo:

http://www.ktuu.com/news/news/helicopter...o-land/38987658

I'm speculating here, but it looks like the PJs probably had two plans going. Given a break in the weather, pick them up by helicopter. If no break in the weather, have a ground team going in as well. Sounds like the weather cleared before the ground team got there.

I missed the part about the PJ's being dropped off 15 miles from the snow cave; that is a long hike in those conditions. I like the overall plan; Plan A would be to pick them up directly with the HH-60. But they simultaneously activated Plan B with the PJ's hiking in, rather than waiting for Plan A to fail and then activating the back-up -- which could make for a very long delay. I wonder if the AF can write this off as training...

Yes they do. That seems to be a commonly misunderstood thing about the PJs. Note here I'm using "PJ" to refer to the whole operation, which includes the Pararescue guys, the Pave Hawks, C-130s, and all their support. In Alaska these are all components of the 176th Wing of the Air National Guard. The primary mission of the PJs is combat search and rescue, and in recent years at any given time a portion of the unit has usually been deployed "down range" in actual combat operations.

Like any combat unit, when not actually deployed in combat they are training for combat. Experience has shown that for their specialized mission of combat search and rescue, civilian SAR provides some of the best, most realistic training possible. Hence PJ units, both in the lower 48 and Alaska, intentionally allocate a portion of their training budget to civilian SAR missions. Thus civilian SAR is an intentional and integral part of their training plan.

Alaska is ideal in this respect. We have very difficult terrain, bad weather, and a very high frequency of missions. The air crew get to fly in very challenging conditions. The PJs get to keep their medical skills sharp by working on real hurt people, under true field conditions. About the only thing lacking from actual combat SAR is nobody is shooting at them. In my opinion it is a win/win for us taxpayers. The PJs get the most realistic training possible, and we civilians get our behinds saved!

Note that they don't necessarily accept any and all civilian SAR missions. For example for a purely medical mission, they won't take it if a private medevac company is available, capable, and willing to take the mission. Likewise for rescue missions, if the Alaska State Troopers can handle it using volunteer SAR teams the PJs will typically not get involved. And providing rescue support for other military training operations is always their priority over civilian SAR.

In southern Arizona, SAR used the capabilities of military helicopters to good effect on several occasions, and the military charged it off to training. The Air Force birds were particularly valuable because of their hoist capability. lives were definitely saved that would have been lost if alternative means of extrication would have been employed...

Doug beat me to it, posting this story. Note that this is the same incident covered in the Once more into the arctic thread. Mods might want to consider merging the threads?

Some more details on this story:
Skiers rescued from Harding Ice Field hoped their snow cave wouldn't become a tomb
Sounds like except for not having a shovel, they were reasonably prepared. They had a tent, sleeping bags and pads, a stove, and a locater beacon (sounds like an Inreach).

Note that having a snow cave slowly sag inward is not uncommon with a cave dug in soft snow, and lots of new snow being dumped on top. I've had that happen.

As noted above, the one critical thing they didn't carry was a shovel. A shovel is an absolutely key survival item in big snow country. Other than that they seemed to be quite well prepared, both in gear, and (crucially) in attitude. True survival is always graded pass/fail. They passed.