Rescue at Denny Creek

I was part of a search and rescue effort of four hikers that were out testing their new winter gear up in the Snoqualmie Pass area near Denny Creek. The four set out on their adventure with a weather forecast of light snow shower with an accumulation of only 3 to 5 inches. The small group had met online and were carrying food and fuel for the entire weekend.
As Saturday came so did the snow flurries. Throughout the weekend the group had experienced an accumulation of 5 feet of snow. Trapped in their site with no snow shoes and avalanche danger extremely high, they were unable to move. It was Sunday afternoon that they made the call to 911 for help. At that time they started rationing their food supplies and stuck together. This was the smartest thing that they did.
Upon the King County Sheriff's request, a small team of Seattle Mountain Rescue folks assembled late Sunday night in an attempt to reach them. After breaking trail through sometimes chest deep snow, they reached the first avalanche chute. The team dug a Rutschblock pit. This is a simple test to determine the weak layers in the snow which will then tell you how dangerous the avalanche conditions are. Their results determined that it was extreme. They had to turn around which is one the of toughest things you may have to do when on a Search & Rescue mission knowing there are people in need of you help.
Monday brought more snow to the mountains, and also kept rescue efforts to zero. However the flurries stopped and it turned to rain. Another call was issued by the sheriff's department and at 7:00am I responded at Search Base. The Incident Commander wanted to have Explorer Search & Rescue personnel split up with Seattle Mountain Rescue members due to our experience with winter travel. We discouraged this because we felt we could move faster as a separate team. With three others and myself, I broke trail all the way to Horse Show Falls. This wasn't as difficult as you might think as the previous teams efforts from Sunday night helped out extensively. From there it was hard. I mean hard. I was chest deep in some areas in very wet snow and it was raining. Why am I doing this? I kept asking myself. I am using a day of vacation to come out an suffer in this crap.
It was at this time that the King County Sheriff's helicopter Guardian One flew over my head. I thought, "Ah Man, they're going to get them before I do!" Listening to the radio chatter, Guardian One had to return without them. Winds were too severe for rescue. They couldn't even get low enough to drop suppl es safely.
I scurried faster up with my team behind me. It was the seriousness of the IC voice and how worried they were getting about these four that kept me going. We reached a basin where Guardian One was circling and the area that we figured the party was. One of my team members did a whistle blast with his rescue whistle. No response. He did another and to our surprise all the way across the basin, the party blew their whistle back. Two of them were outside of the tent waving their arms with desperation. It was approximately 500 yards from our location. Tediously, we moved across the basin with care as to not post hole into the creek that ran under the snow in the valley. When I finally reached their site, there were hugs all around. I have been on a lot of search and rescue missions. The majority of them to this point were recoveries. Some of which, have haunted me in my dreams. Until now, I have never in my life seen somebody so happy to see me before.
The two that were outside the tent were cold, wet and hungry but overall, were in pretty good spirits. The two in the tent were however were in worse shape. The female in the party was shaking uncontrollably. All of her clothes were soaked. With my team mates already brewing hot drinks for them, I got her into some dry clothes. She stopped shaking in minutes. Her partner in the tent said that he could not feel his toes. I removed his light hiking boots and then his wet socks. All of his toes were purple with frost bite. He could wiggle them, but had zero feeling. I placed dry socks on him and put his boots back on. The team and I decided that it was best to get them moving as soon as possible. We relayed the vitals of everyone there to search base. It turned out that the individual with frost bite was also out of his heart medication for the past two days. Search base agreed that we needed to get them moving fast. It was nearing 2:00pm and daylight was ending soon.
I had carried an extra pair of snow shoes on my pack on the way in. Myself and two others gave up our own snow shoes, place all of them on the party and started the grueling march out. Post holing up to our waste, we were able to move along slowly. We kept stopping from time to time to take more vitals and to give them a break.
We reached the trailhead around 4:00pm and the party was placed in ambulances for further checks. The person with frost bite was the only one taking to the hospital. For me this entire mission was a success. For me, it made me realize that this was why I do it. To be able to use my experience in the wilderness to help others. I will never forget the look on their faces when I first walked into their site.