Missing Barrow snowmachiner found!! (Lakes, Kotzebue: house, purchase, wages)

[stiffnecked]

Snowmachiner found after three days missing on tundra: Rural Alaska | Alaska news at adn.com

Every time I read one of these stories I learn something new. Never thought about taking a handheld aviation radio with me. Makes sense though.

[SityData]

I'm so glad everything turned out so well. But..

VHF hand held, GPS signal type emergency transponder, YOU do not leave any village, without ever having one or more methods employed "just in case" because, Just in case is a daily occurrence here in the arctic. anything that can communicate with others. People don't realize, that even for well seasoned natives that know this land. Danger awaits out on that tundra every time you leave the village. Anything can happen with no warning.

To make matters worse, the temperature was below freezing, getting down to about 25 degrees, Mercer said. Any colder, and the missing man would have likely died, he said.

What a croc !! My; how some people just have to exaggerate. This was a native !! Don't get me wrong; I am thrilled that it all worked out for good. But you have no idea of how gifted these people are; and what they can endure. I'm sure you know Stiff. you've seen what happens. Oh sure . plenty of people up here die outside in what seems to be warm temps. But many are 'planned suicides' Get drunk and go outside and pass out in the snow.


When you have white out conditions; and it is pitch black; temps of 80 below zero! Winds screaming @ 60 MPH or higher; That's when the REAL SEARCH & RESCUE kicks in.

These people somehow go out there and find someone that is hundreds of miles away in those type conditions using "snow machines' & .... (you ain't gonna ever believe this) "brooms''!!

1983 - Feb. Kotzebue, a young boy 18 escaped from Kotzebue Jail dressed in t-shirt and jeans and sneakers. He dove through a window to escape jail. He stole a honda in Kotz and was headed back to Pt. Hope! Warnings were issued over the radio (Kotz) this was one very dangerous person. Flights were grounded and helicopters could not even get airborne. This person: ACL
He had been brought to Kotz from Pt. Hope for several felonies he committed In Pt. Hope Dec 82 -Jan 83 and was apprehended and arrested, after a long shoot out with swat/st. troopers from Barrow walking the village in Pt. Hope with M 16's. No one was hurt during a 3 hour shoot out in Pt. Hope but he was arrested and taken out of the village much to everyone's relief.

A 14 year old girl had been kidnapped and taken up river for more than a week and repeatedly rapped, an elder was rapped by this same young boy. & One other person was attacked and shot @ several times but did survive. when these people pressed charges with the police. The whole village turned against them!

So. "ACL" escaped from jail; stole a honda and was headed towards point Hope... As he approached the village of Kivalina he saw some hunters he knew and began to talk with them and such. When they were distracted. he hopped on a snow machine (stole it) and took off. By this time. A storm was brewing. He never made it to Point Hope. Very soon the temps dropped from 25 above to 60 below, the winds & snow began to blow ferociously, That night after midnight the call went out to the search & rescue volunteers in Point Hope. Go find him before he dies. ACL was stuck in that storm for 3 days with just a t-shirt and jeans and sneakers. OH they found him ..... he was barely alive and totally out of it delirious. Buried inside a snow drift he had crawled into to make a shelter. Some protection from the relentless winds.
Three days it took them to find, one person buried in the snow 60 miles from the village. He did loose most of his toes and some of his fingers. He spent 22 years in Jail and was released in 2002. Now he is carving ivory downtown on 4th. He is selling stolen ivory- stolen from natives (not us). ALL shop owners have shut him down. No one will purchase any of his work.

The natives have skills that no white person could ever acquire or ever hope to achieve. I was so impressed and blown away when the leader of Search and rescue told me how they do this.

I just cannot possibly ever comprehend; how you can go out there, in a white out when you can't see 6" in front of you .. and find.. anything. Much less a peson 60 miles away buried in snow. I've been out in white outs. I couldn't find the house arcoss the street.

I have spent many hours listening to these search & rescue people. Why do you carry brooms ? So we can find tracks. ?? What the heck does a track tell you I asked. All that does is say some machine went through there sometime.. They laugh. We know just by looking - WHOSE MACHINE made those tracks and we are lookiing for a particular set of tracks. But you didn't know what machine he was on or using. They laugh. there are only two ways to enter the village from Kotzebue. But you found him 60 miles from the village. I ask questions and they keep laughing at me. I sit there amazed beyond what words can express. I have a picture of what this looks like.












































Please!... go find my husband !!!

I will never ever in a million years ever comprehend how that is even possible.

[Lunabell]

It was pretty cold with the wind chills here this weekend. Not as bad as it is going to get, but it would have been a problem for someone without survival skills and proper gear. I had heard that he did have good winter gear on, though I have not run into a single local person who does not have that when they are planning to head out.

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by SityData

I'm so glad everything turned out so well. But..

VHF hand held, GPS signal type emergency transponder, YOU do not leave any village, without ever having one or more methods employed "just in case" because, Just in case is a daily occurrence here in the arctic. anything that can communicate with others. People don't realize, that even for well seasoned natives that know this land. Danger awaits out on that tundra every time you leave the village. Anything can happen with no warning.

The natives have skills that no white person could ever acquire or ever hope to achieve. I was so impressed and blown away when the leader of Search and rescue told me how they do this.

Some people have a better survival skill than others, just when you think someone can't pull it off, they amaze us. That is true all over the world.

When I was in the Coast Guard and we were doing search and rescue for people that fell overboard in the cold fall waters of the Great Lakes, we would find them treading water for hours after we figured they would be gone from Hypothermia.

Stupid stuff keeps them alive, women will fight on knowing if they drown they won't see their unborn grandkids, they will be in a daze when you get them and muttering about them.

One guy tread water for almost six hours in November, he fell off a ore carrier on Lake Erie. We were doing grids just guessing where he was last seen on the ship. It took us an hour to get out just to start looking in the dark of night, so we started launching parachute flares that light up the night sky and hang burning for about ten to fifteen minutes. What that does is gives them hope that someone is looking for them. When we got to him finely, we figure once we pull up to him, he like most people treading water for that long will assume they are saved and relax and sink... You have to be ready to dive in to pull them up or you lose them after all that.

Anyway, this guy kept mumbling about his car, his car, his car... on the way back to the station.

Stopped at the hospital to see how he was doing the next day and asked what the car was about... For twenty years he was paying child support and Alimony, he lived on poverty wages. He had just got done with that and bought his first new car and hadn't made the first payment yet... He knew he has to survive to make that payment or his ex wife won!

Younger people drown first that are in the best shape, they don't have the will to live life like someone who is out of shape and in their fifties or so. When the young person hits the water, they just say "I guess this is it" and lose hope... Older people do much better when it comes to that grasp on family, life and other things that got them where they are.

Life is amazing at times.

[Marty Van Diest]

Originally Posted by starlite9

Some people have a better survival skill than others, just when you think someone can't pull it off, they amaze us. That is true all over the world.

When I was in the Coast Guard and we were doing search and rescue for people that fell overboard in the cold fall waters of the Great Lakes, we would find them treading water for hours after we figured they would be gone from Hypothermia.

Stupid stuff keeps them alive, women will fight on knowing if they drown they won't see their unborn grandkids, they will be in a daze when you get them and muttering about them.

One guy tread water for almost six hours in November, he fell off a ore carrier on Lake Erie. We were doing grids just guessing where he was last seen on the ship. It took us an hour to get out just to start looking in the dark of night, so we started launching parachute flares that light up the night sky and hang burning for about ten to fifteen minutes. What that does is gives them hope that someone is looking for them. When we got to him finely, we figure once we pull up to him, he like most people treading water for that long will assume they are saved and relax and sink... You have to be ready to dive in to pull them up or you lose them after all that.

Anyway, this guy kept mumbling about his car, his car, his car... on the way back to the station.

Stopped at the hospital to see how he was doing the next day and asked what the car was about... For twenty years he was paying child support and Alimony, he lived on poverty wages. He had just got done with that and bought his first new car and hadn't made the first payment yet... He knew he has to survive to make that payment or his ex wife won!

Younger people drown first that are in the best shape, they don't have the will to live life like someone who is out of shape and in their fifties or so. When the young person hits the water, they just say "I guess this is it" and lose hope... Older people do much better when it comes to that grasp on family, life and other things that got them where they are.

Life is amazing at times.

Very interesting how some people make it and others don't.