NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Monday, August 30, 2010

INCIDENTS

Katmai NP&P

Weather Holds In Search For Missing Plane

Good visibility and clearing weather helped searchers yesterday in the ongoing effort to find the single engine floatplane carrying NPS employees Mason McLeod, 26, Neal Spradlin, 28, and Seth Spradlin, 20, and pilot Marco Alletto, which has been missing since August 21st. Five helicopters and five airplanes, including two flown by volunteers, were able to complete both grid and targeted missions within the 14,000-square-mile search area. A similar number are expected to participate in the search today. “All four of these individuals are skilled, tough, and prepared to survive in this environment,” said Superintendent Ralph Moore. “One soloed the Moose's Tooth, a multi-day technical rock and ice climbing route in Denali National park this past spring. At this point, with good weather holding, we are still hopeful of a positive outcome.” Planes entering the search area with the onset of hunting season are advised to be on the lookout for aircraft involved in the search effort. A minimum of ten aircraft will be in the search area daily. Dedicated and contracted Department of Interior aircraft, along with volunteer aircraft and aircraft from the Alaska Air National Guard, US Coast Guard, Civil Air Patrol, and Alaska State Troopers have participated in the search. The multi-agency effort includes the National Park Service, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Alaska Air National Guard, Alaska State Troopers, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Department of the Interior Aviation Management Directorate, Federal Aviation Administration, and National Transportation Safety Board, as well as local air taxi operators and others. As in all park operations, the safety of searchers and the public is the top priority. Inclement weather, limited visibility, and rough and varied terrain throughout the search area contribute to the complexity of the search. Anyone who was monitoring radio traffic or heard a signal from an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) on 121.5 MHz between August 21st and today around the Katmai/Kodiak area is asked to contact park dispatch at 907-246-3305. Visitors and staff who were in the Katmai/Kenai area during that time period are also asked to contact authorities whether or not they saw any evidence of an aircraft. Doing so can help determine where searchers should focus their efforts. For more information, please visit the HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/katm/parknews/newsreleases.htm" park website for updated information. A 3-dimensional map of the park is available at HYPERLINK "http://www.shadedrelief.com/tom/katm_pano.jpg" this website. [Adrienne Freeman, Kathleen Kavalok]

Virgin Islands NP

Park Girds For Hurricane Earl

The park began preparations last week for the arrival of Hurricane Earl and yesterday put ICS into effect (Lloyd Morris, IC). The Hurrican Hole storm mooring was opened to registered boat owners, who began putting their boats on the storm moorings on Saturday (the park can accommodate over 110 large boats in this area). Park generators have been filled with fuel, vehicles fueled, supplies purchased, and other ‘to do' list items completed. Resource management boats have been pulled out, tied down to trailers, and placed in the park's hurricane storage area in Cruz Bay. The park and its offices will be closed today so that people can stay at home and ride out the storm. Employees residing in park housing that the IC determines are essential will man phones, watch the weather, attend Virgin Islands emergency management meetings, and ride out the storm in their government housing units. On Tuesday, staff will report for duty. Monitoring of the next tropical system will immediately begin. [Mark Hardgrove, Superintendent]

Rocky Mountain NP

Climber Killed In 800-Foot Fall

Early on the morning of August 27th, park dispatch received a report of a probable climbing fatality from climbing ranger Kevin Sturmer. Sturmer saw the climber fall about 800 feet from the North Chimney route on the east face of Longs Peak. Park SAR personnel reached the victim's location on the Mills Glacier; he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter via radio link by the Boulder County coroner. An investigation is underway into the cause of his death. [Mark C. McCutcheon, Acting Chief Ranger]

Yosemite NP

Seriously Injured Climber Rescued From El Capitan

Park dispatch received a report of an injured climber on a climbing route known as The Nose on El Capitan on the evening of Tuesday, August 24th. He was a 47-year-old Korean national, part of a four-person Korean climbing team. Rangers were unable to communicate with the climbers due to a language barrier, so little information was available at the outset. It was eventually determined that he'd dislodged a large rock just below the Camp 4 bivy site, that he was in stable condition, and that he was unable to climb further. A helicopter short-haul mission was planned to extricate him from the rock face, but had to be cancelled due to the shear vertical wall at the climbing party's location. A small technical rescue team was sent to the top of El Capitan to lower an attendant to him, but that operation had to be suspended due to darkness. A plan was formulated by IC Shannon Kupersmith to send supplemental personnel first thing the following morning to support the lowering operation. On Wednesday, additional personnel were flown to the summit of El Capitan for the technical lowering operation. Prior to the start of the mission a spotter in El Capitan Meadow was able to communicate with the climbing party and determine that the man might be paralyzed in his lower extremities. Two medics who reached the scene stabilized the climber and packaged him in a litter. An alternate plan to immediately evacuate him from the wall using the "bean bag/short-haul" technique was employed. This technique involves sending a line from the hovering helicopter to the attendant/medic. The attendant/medic then retrieves a tag line attached to the short-haul line from the helicopter while the helicopter maintains a safe rotor distance from the vertical rock face. One attendant then attached himself and the climber to the short-haul line, which was followed by immediate release from the wall anchor. He was then flown to El Capitan meadow and medevaced to a hospital. The remaining members of the climbing team were unable to lower themselves off the route due to their lack of experience and also had to be rescued. Two additional lowering operations were conducted to evacuate the Korean climbers off El Capitan's 3,000-foot face. These operations were conducted on the hottest day of the summer to date, with the temperature over 100 degrees. [Dov Bock, Emergency Services Assistant Program Manager]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS. To see the full text, including images, NPS employees should go to the InsideNPS home page ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index). Non-NPS employees can see most of them on the NPS Digest page ( HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/):

Wilderness Stewardship - Park Science, the research and resource management bulletin of the National Park Service, is soliciting contributions for the winter 2011-2012 issue dedicated to the interface of science and wilderness stewardship.

Natural Resource Program Center - The National Park Service's Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) system recently rolled out a new design for the public website.

Glen Canyon NRA - Kym Hall has been selected to serve as the acting superintendent of Glen Canyon NRA and Rainbow Bridge NM. She replaces Stan Austin, who transferred this week to the superintendent's position at Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Photo.

NPS incident submission standards can be found online at the HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/waso/custompages.cfm?prg=45&id=8728&lv=2&pgid=3504" serious incident notification web page.

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Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).

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