NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

INCIDENTS

Glacier NP

Three Men Rescued After Overnight Stay On Mt. Brown

Three men who were stranded overnight on Mt. Brown on Sunday night made it off the mountain yesterday morning and are all in excellent condition. On Sunday, 18-year-old D.H., 18-year-old J.M., and 20-year-old J.N., all from Kalispell, Montana, attempted to reach the fire lookout on Mt. Brown, which is located northeast of the head of Lake McDonald. The three men started out on snowshoes at about 11 a.m., planning to ski down before dusk, but ran out of light before they could get off the mountain. Around 6:30 p.m., one of the men was able to reach a family member via cell phone and report that they were stranded. The family member notified Flathead County dispatch about an hour later. The men were not able to provide an accurate location, so rangers and members of the volunteer Flathead County Search and Rescue team started searching for them around 9 p.m. Visibility was very limited due to wind and snow. Searchers covered high probability areas, scanned for signs of fire, and used whistles to try to locate the men. Ranger and search and rescue volunteers spent the entire night looking for them, but without luck. In the early morning hours on Monday, a ranger sent a text message to one of the men, asking him to call 911. The man did so, thereby making it possible for Flathead County dispatch to get a latitude and longitude pinpointing their location. The men reported that they had been able to make a fire, shelter in place, and were doing well. With an exact location, a group from the Flathead Nordic Ski Patrol and an NPS employee headed up to meet them. At 10:30 a.m., the ski patrol made contact and found that all three men were in excellent condition. Everyone was off the mountain by 11 a.m. Ranger Gary Moses was IC. [Wade Muehlhof, Public Affairs Officer]

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/):

Virgin Islands NP - A park historian traveled to Spain last summer to research and document the impact the Spanish had on the Virgin Islands before the Danish, French and English began moving into and dominating the region.

Office of Communications - Director Jon Jarvis talks about climate change with author Michael Lanza on The Big Outside webpage and it's a worthwhile read. A link is provided.

Isle Royale NP - Edward A. (Mike) Hickey, the park's chief marine engineer, will be retiring on December 31st. Ed has been the chief engineer aboard the 165-foot Ranger III for the past 20 years. Photo.

Grand Canyon NP - On December 7th, Mike Ebersole, interagency aviation officer for Grand Canyon National Park and the Kaibab National Forest, was honored by the Department of Interior with two awards. Photo.

Blue Ridge Parkway - Ann Childress will hang up her flat hat on December 31st after more than 33 years of devoting heart and soul to the National Park Service. Photo.

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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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