SF New Mexican:
Out of the wild. Local hiker gets lost in the SF National Forest, Atalaya Search and Rescue finds her. They don’t say here, but she’s lucky she didn’t get those torrential rains to multiply the risks of hypothermia. Her dogs were a big bonus. This season, always carry rain gear, and a little insulation. Many’s the time I’ve taken a short hike on the Winsor Trail, starting in bright sun, to have a dark stormcloud leap over the ridge ... leaving no time to hustle back down the trail to the car before the hail-adorned floods of Noah begin and the temps drop 30-40 degrees.
Comments:
I will take you up on that. I need to update my CPR (Adult and Child) certs. I thought the article mentioned the other agencies, but perhaps I’m thinking of the original “news bulletin” on the head of the SF New Mexican page. Certainly this was not a one-agency rescue; none are.
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You are right, she was truly lucky to be alive.
Just to complete the record, though, the search mission was run by Santa Fe Search and Rescue (santafesar.org). It was a huge mission, with sixteen three or four person teams (on horseback, on ATV, on foot, perhaps with search dogs), plus support staff and the State Police helicopter. I personally saw people there from Philmont SAR, Albuquerque Mountain Rescue, Los Alamos Mountain Canine Corps, Atalya SAR, and St. John’s SAR, and I’m sure there were others. Also, radio support from Los Alamos CD-1 was essential, because there were always mountains in the way of radio contact. My shift was 10:30 pm to 9:45 am, and I was leaving as the second shift was forming, so I don’t have a count for the total effort, but I expect close to 80 people were involved.
My assignment was several miles upstream along the Rio Nambe from where she was found, but everywhere was totally saturated from the afternoon downpours. I can’t imagine how she was so lucky as avoid them. Our search more or less assumed that she might be hypothermic and unresponsive. In the end, her only injury came when she tripped running to meet the team that found her.
If you are interested, we meet right around the corner from you, at the Eldorado Community Center, at 7:00pm, the second Thursday of every month.
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