Missing person SAR: Green Wall Rapid, Illinois River
- Nicole Smedegaard
- 16 hours ago
- 30 min read
This is my firsthand account of the private party effort that launched to aid in efforts to search for whitewater rafter Gabriel Vaughn, reported missing on Monday Feb 16, 2026. My narrative is shared with permission from Gabe's family, but it's not his story, its the story of the "search and rescue" trip.
The Search Party
“There’s a lost person (in the woods?) on an Illinois trip, I have limited info but want to invite you into the loop if appropriate.”
It was Monday night around 9:00 p.m. when I got that text from Ryan and called him right back. It sounded like a boating party camped at Green Wall was in satellite coms with Aaron Babcock. I called Babcock and he said he was in direct satellite communication with Aaron Erdrich, who had last seen a member of their party, Gabe, leap from the raft at the eddy at Green Wall, swim to shore and leave on foot up the creek into the woods on river left. That was hours ago and he hadn’t returned before dark. Gabe’s party had made camp at the point last seen and looked for him up the creek that night, finding Gabe’s paddle up the creek, but no other sign of him. People in the boating community started sending the Missing Person Sheriff Report around online, it stated “Gabriel Vaughn was last seen around 4:15pm on Monday, 2/16/26 during a rafting trip near Green Wall Rapid on the Illinois River. He was wearing a blue dry suit with a helmet and a life jacket. He left his group to go hiking in the woods with plans to hike out from the location towards the Chetco drainage.” For anyone familiar with the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, a hike out to the Chetco would actually be a hike further in to the wilderness, an especially dangerous place to be with no camping gear, falling overnight temps including snow, and no knowledge of the area. Logically this description did not make sense and it was immediately clear that Gabe was in trouble. Green Wall is not a place people hike out of.
I told Babcock I could be ready to launch a downriver Illinois trip to help search first thing Tuesday and that I would be on standby to leave as soon as help was requested. I wanted to go right away since it takes a whole day to boat the 18 miles to Green Wall, and at the low water of 750 cfs it would be extra slow. I checked the weather and there was snow in the forecast, the first low elevation snow in months. The only week of winter this year. Later in the week, a big dangerous flow spike during a rain on snow event. This is about the worst forecast possible for an Illinois trip; not enough water followed by way too much. I went out to the garage and grabbed all my overnight boating gear and threw it in the truck willy nilly and got to bed by midnight. The next morning we checked in early. Aaron said we were going to wait it out Tuesday in hopes that Gabe would return to camp where Erdrich and Kelsey were waiting. Gabe’s party would split, two of them staying camped and the others boating out, looking for Gabe downstream from river level. We would launch early Wednesday if Gabe was still not found near camp.
With a whole day to plan, I spent Tuesday gathering agency contact info, food, extra supplies and rescue gear. I reached out to the Josephine County Sheriff's Office to request a satellite phone and drone, the sheriff gave me the contact info for the Jo Co Search and Rescue coordinator, Maria Valdez. Jo Co SAR said they didn’t have any tech gear to lend, and that they were not able to get SAR volunteers in there on foot currently, due to weather and no trails. I got a cold call from Kayla, and she let me know that Gabe's brother Jonathan (Jon) was flying out to help with the search and would arrive around midnight. Kayla said Jon didn't have any boating gear with him, just a helmet, but that he wanted to go with us downstream to help search. I gave her Babcock’s number and agreed to figure out a plan to get Jon down river to help search for his brother. I talked to Neil Guthrie, who I know from Redwood Rafters, he wanted to help. He and Abby got a dry suit from Kokatat for Gabe and agreed to be our support base and shuttle. I packed some dry bags for Jon to put his food and clothes in. Ryan also found us an extra dry suit to bring on the trip, on loan from Redwood Rides, the outfitter in Gasquet. I got my friend Paul to bring us a spare PFD. I had my boyfriend, Sean, stop on the way home Tuesday night and buy road flares. I got another call from a safety kayaker, Alex Szecsey, who was with Neil and ready to come along. Bob Noyce with the JoCo map team and I chatted about possible routes Gabe could take from Greenwall on foot, so that he could advise SAR. We decided it was very unlikely that Gabe would be on the north side of the river, due to the cliff at Greenwall and the danger of crossing the river in a large rapid. We spent Tuesday night inflating boats, packing dry bags, texting everyone and getting ready to drive away at dark o clock in the morning. Our meetup time at the Rays in Selma was 6:45 a.m.
It was dark and snowing when we left my house, the roads had no tracks and we were pulling a raft trailer so had to go slow. We got there early and another kayaker, Andrew Morrissey, was already there with a long boat. He had driven all the way from the Gorge and is somebody who had worked with Gabe at River Drifters. When the other rigs showed up, we transferred the kayak and talked a little bit about the plan and the supplies. We (luckily) realized that Gabe's brother Jon did not have any overnight gear. Jon figured he could use his brother Gabe's tent and sleeping bag whenever we got there. We decided as a group that that was probably a risky plan, since we did not know if Gabe's gear was actually still at camp, what he had, or if it was dry. Luckily, Neil had an extra sleeping bag in the truck and Babcock waited until Rays opened at 7 and bought a blanket and a sweater as extra gear. We also realized we had no large pot for boiling water even though I had brought a blaster and a propane tank. We bought a mixing bowl from Ray's as well. The woman checking us out at 7:00 a.m. must have thought we were crazy people. Maybe we were.
We drove into the one lane Illinois River Road with two trucks and two trailers and Jon’s family following us. The road had actually been plowed, which was amazing! There are residents out there so it makes sense that they would plow it, but it was pretty early in the morning and so we got very lucky that the road was passible at all in the fresh snow. We drove all the way to Miami bar and Jon's parents saw us off after I gave a quick safety talk. They thanked us so much and watched their son boat downstream, now both of their boys were on the Illinois River. Paul and Neil had generously offered to drive our trucks back out from Miami bar, so they drove away with Gabe's parents as we launched. Snow was plopping off the Creature Craft onto Babcock and Jon.
We didn't have much reason to believe that anybody could make it upstream of Pine Flat on foot in the given time frame, so Pine Flat camp was the first place we stopped to look around and there was no sign of anyone being there recently. I did however find a hot water kettle which I took with us for later. The next stops we did were around some sandy beaches looking for footprints, but it turned out they were only deer footprints. We did a thorough sweep of Klondike camp on river left. It didn't look like anyone had been there since the last high water. Moving downstream, our group established a whistle blast system, using two short blasts as a call and response so that if Gabe were nearby, he would know a boating party was passing. 3 short whistle blasts would be for emergency within our team, and 3 long whistle blasts would be for finding Gabe. Nearing Green Wall, we pulled over at Purple Rock to chat again about our search team safety, staying together, and searching in pairs. We also discussed approaching Erdrich upon arriving at camp, and making sure to give supportive contact first and consider his needs before bombarding him with questions. We agreed that Babcock would be the point person to go talk to Erdrich first, offer him extra food and warm and dry gear and see what shape he and Kelsey were in after a night there alone.
While rowing downstream, I had a lot of time to think through possible scenarios. I came up with some questions to try and figure out what our search pattern should look like. Did Gabe have navigation with him (like a phone or map?) If he did, he might see that the Tin Cup Trail picks up on the Chetco side of Tin Cup Pass and could be a route out. If he did not, then there would be no reason for him to think hiking south toward the Chetco (like the Sheriff’s poster stated) would be an exit route. More likely, he would choose to go downriver toward takeout or upriver toward put in. Did he have a lighter? If he did, we might look for smoke as a signal or signs of old fires. Ability to make a fire would also increase his likelihood of survival. No fire, and he would certainly have hypothermia after Monday and Tuesday nights in the snow. With hypothermia, he would not be able to get as far, meaning a smaller search radius for us. With the altered mental status that comes with moderate to severe hypothermia, he would not be making any logical decisions, which really meant he could be anywhere his legs were strong enough to take him. He could have even gone into the river. I think the big one for everybody, was what state of mind was Gabe in? After he ran into the woods, was his mental state going to stabilize or deteriorate since he was last seen? Was there a chance he might just walk himself right back to camp?
Erdrich and Kelsey had stayed at camp in case Gabe returned. Arriving to the Green Wall scout, we all parked up top and walked down through Prelude. While Aaron was talking to Erdrich, we scouted. Setting rope safety for each other above the main drop, Sean and I ran our boats down through Prelude one at a time. We parked in the middle of Green Wall at the main drop and unloaded our gear there and carried over slippery wet rocks, it was pretty late in the afternoon and we had just over an hour of daylight to get camp set up that night. My shoulders ached from the 18 mile day. Jon wanted to initiate a search right away, in the creek, while he was still in his dry suit. The rest of us agreed, although the immediate area had already been very thoroughly searched by Kelsey and Erdrich. Jon took a radio and Babcock went with him up the creek to Gabe’s paddle, which at this point was our best idea of last known location on Monday. It was fairly far up the creek, maybe 25 minutes relatively easy walking, but before the waterfall where terrain got steeper. Jon came back and we spent the evening getting warm and dry, finding firewood and gathering in the stove tent for the night. Everyone went to bed early and we made a plan to get up and get going and spend a full day searching by foot on Thursday.
The morning was pretty rough. I woke up several times in the night to shake the tent because wet snow was collapsing it onto my face as I was trying to sleep. Everything was covered in wet snow in the morning and it was blind and slippery on the smooth boulders that made up our “camp.” People had varying ideas and resources of how to get ready to do a foot-based search. Andrew had brought a bunch of high visibility clothing for us. Alex had a VHF radio. I had six walkie talkies to keep communication within the group tight. We all ate breakfast and got dressed. We met and discussed our resources. Some of us in dry suits would focus in the bottom of the creek, searching under logs and in deep pools and literally climbing around in the water. Others put on hiking boots and rain bibs and got ready to do more of a land-based search on the banks and then up any draws or trails going up from the creek. We assembled whistles, lighters, radios, headlamps, food and water and headed out to reassemble at the paddle location.
We paired off and started searching upstream of the paddle location. Then we saw smoke, Sean and I ran over to find a log with a brand new very small fire underneath of it. I radioed to find out if Andrew, who was in the lead, had built the fire, it seemed too recent to be Gabe. We heard back that yes, Andrew had built the fire. At this point it felt to me like our search party was about to have some issues and disorganization, maybe even an argument. OK, I was mad about it. I felt making a fire was an illogical choice and it had given me false hope for a second. Then we heard Jon yelling. He found Gabe’s helmet in the creek. Everyone had spread out at this point but we were all able to gather back to Jon within 5 minutes. Jon had found Gabe's helmet in the ferns tucked away on a rock shelf right next to the creek bed behind a giant boulder which was difficult to see. The helmet is green; it would have been easy to walk right past it. The helmet had a GoPro on it, but the battery was dead. With this new information that now two pieces of gear had been found in the creek bed, we had a pretty good indication that he was sticking to the creek and we agreed that the creek was the most likely place to look for him for the rest of the day. We hooked up the GoPro to my charging pack and cable which I had with me and I put it in my fanny pack. I sent the GPS coordinates of the paddle and the helmet to the Josephine County SAR coordinator. Erdrich and Andrew went back to camp to wait there as a base if we found any new information and needed extra gear brought up like the hypo kit, first aid, etc. They turned around and headed down.
The remaining six of us all started up the creek and got around the waterfall, which is a small falls but a pretty good obstacle to climb around. I slipped and fell in the water. Eventually we came to the two forks. The forks are the furthest upstream that Gabe's original party had searched for him and at this point we were starting to get into heavier snow and the banks were too steep to exit the creek anywhere but straight up the drainage. At the forks we split into two groups. Kelsey, Babcock and Jon going up the major tributary. Alex, Sean, myself going up the minor tributary. We made sure each party had one of the long-range Rocky Talkies. We agree on a meet time. Everybody would be back in camp no later than 5:00 p.m. Each of us would respectively choose a turnaround point based on how long it was taking us to make upstream progress. My team traveled up the creek until it was too steep and snowy. We were crawling on our hands and knees. I wanted to make sure we had enough energy to get back safely. I had fallen in the creek several times at this point, and had soaking wet feet, as did the other people. Smartly, Alex had worn his river shoes, which were wet anyway and good on slippery rocks. We were getting cold and tired and had seen not a single footprint or sign of Gabe I the gravel creek bottom. Alex had found some big cat prints. Several inches of snow on the steep banks would have covered any signs of Gabe had he been there days ago. Going any further up seemed like a poor use of our time. We covered 3 miles (round trip).
We sat in the snow and watched the last 5 minutes of the GoPro recording, it was helmet cam footage of Gabe hiking upstream in the creek, then it turned off. He seemed to be quietly singing to himself, something about you… you …you.. getting out of here together. His voice sounded faint and scared. Not much help, but it showed he was still headed upstream while he had his helmet on. I took a piece of pink survey ribbon and a sharpie and wrote a note, marking the location as the furthest upstream my land-based team had been able to search. I marked it as a waypoint on the InReach. I tied the pink ribbon to a tree branch over the creek and we started heading downstream after radioing to Babcock that we were turning back. For me it felt heavy, like a failure, to turn around. There was so much snow though, that maybe Gabe would have also been forced to lower elevations if he was still ambulatory. Once we got back to the place Gabe's helmet was found, we felt confident it would take us less than an hour to get to camp. We then regrouped and had some food and decided to do a more thorough search of the banks leaving the creek bed, down here where it was less steep. This area was wide enough to take multiple routes up and out on creek left. It was also brushy. The right was a cliff. Sean noticed a broken log, it looked like a location where somebody could have stepped on the log, the log broke and then they slid down. But other than that we saw no signs of anything other than our own tracks. We bushwhacked two at a time up the hills, searching for places Gabe might have broken out of the creek bed and headed up to the ridge. There were many downed logs which we checked under, we checked under boulders, at one point we found an overhanging creek bed rock that looked like a bed had been made under it, but it was only big enough for a small deer. We saw no signs of other gear of his.
The US Coast Guard helicopter flew over the south side of Green Wall up to Tin Cup pass and over the creek all afternoon. We made contact with them via VHF radio which Alex had brought and knew how to use. The helicopter was notified that we were in search teams of three people each, wearing high visibility clothing. The helicopter spotted us and headed up the creek from us. They let us know when they ran out of gas and had to return to base and call it quits for the day. Eventually we went back to camp. We got warm and dry and Andrew and Erdrich had a nice fire going for us. That night was difficult emotionally, as the other search party showed up and also had found no more signs of Gabe. Jon took some time for himself by the river. We were all thinking the worst and that our search was going to be unsuccessful and we were out of time. I cried for Gabe that night in my tent while everything was silent. We had agreed to leave the next day, to make sure we were out of the Illinois drainage before the predicted spike in flows came through on the weekend.
The next morning, getting out of camp was a little hectic, everything was soaking wet, sandy, covered in poison oak, and we had gear laid out everywhere to “dry”. Sean and I still had to run our boats through Green Wall and then eddy out at the bottom to load up our bags. Everyone pitched in and we got it done and were headed out around 9:30. That morning as we headed down from Green Wall, the most difficult rapids section of the trip came in quick succession and were tight and technical. I had some trepidation about Little Green Wall but it went ok. The boating team had to keep their eyes on the water, but Gabe's brother Jon was riding in the back of Babcock's Creature Craft and continued his two whistle blast calls between every rapid and visually scanning the banks. I personally started scanning the water column, focusing my search on retentive eddies, the outsides of bends, sieves and undercuts of midstream boulders. I had definitely lost hope for finding Gabe alive at this point, as he had been out in the snow for four nights. We were just coming through the rapids above Submarine Hole when we heard three long whistle blasts from behind us, which was the agreed upon signal for notifying the party that Gabe was found. I saw something blue up on the bank and eddied out, letting Sean and Alex who were right in front of me know that I could see Gabe and we all needed to get pulled over to river left. Erdrich, Kelsey and Andrew were downstream of us and they had gotten ahead of us enough that they did not see us pull over. They immediately noticed that the rest of the group was no longer with them and they stopped on river right above Submarine Hole to wait for us in the scout eddy. As soon as I realized we had found Gabe, I sent a message to SAR, to Gabe's mom, and to Neil, our land-based coordinator and shuttle driver. I then messaged the GPS coordinates after I hiked up the bank to get to where he was. I brought the hypothermia kit with me. A sleeping bag, a bivy sack, a space blanket, and a jet boil stove and fuel.
The Rescue
Jon ran up the bank to help Gabe down to the water's edge. Amazingly, Gabe was smiling and talking and hugging his brother and looked like he was in good spirits all things considered. Gabe stated that he couldn't feel his feet and he thought he might have broken both his hands. I looked at his hands and they were swollen, red, scratched and bruised, but nothing seemed deformed. I asked him if his clothes were dry under his dry suit and he said yes everything but his shoes which had water in them. We got the hypo kit and we put a sleeping bag under him and a sleeping bag over him and put a bivy sack around him with a space blanket. We debated changing his clothing right then or waiting until the hospital to get his shoes off. I was worried about exposing his feet or doing more damage while getting the booties off. After we waited a few minutes and got confirmation that the helicopter was coming to our location, Gabe requested that he take his dry suit off, he wanted to get his wet feet out. When we started taking his dry suit off, he actually was not that dry underneath, it had no neck gasket and his sweater was damp although not soaked. We peeled the suit off his feet and he let us know that booties were only a size 8 even though he wears a size 11 and that it would be difficult to get the booties off. It seemed painful for him as we pulled them off. I considered cutting but it seemed like an unnecessary risk. His feet were swollen. There was a lot of water in the booties. When we took his socks off, we could see that he had cold damage to his feet, they were badly discolored. We told Gabe not to look. We put dry socks on him and the dry sweater that Babcock had bought at Rays. We put him back in the sleeping bag and he ate some snacks. We warmed up water using a jet boil and he had a liter of warm water that he was able to hold down even though he said he was feeling nauseous. I asked him what happened and he told us that when he realized he was in trouble, had started heading downriver to takeout. We talked about getting him out of there and let him know he was going to go straight to a hospital where they could rewarm his feet. We told him how happy we were to find him and how amazing it was that he had survived. He said that he spent the first night under a log and the last three nights under rocks, none of which were good! He asked about his van and his boating gear. Gabe's brother Jon held him the whole time, keeping him warm with his body heat and reassuring him.
It was clear that he would not be a walking anywhere further based on the condition of his feet. This meant that if the Coast Guard helicopter could not land at our current location, we would transport him by raft to a better location downstream. While this sounds like a convenient option, he was already hypothermic and even putting him in a dry suit (which we had brought extra of) with dry layers, sitting in the back of a raft getting splashed in February is only going to exacerbate hypothermia. Additionally, our party still had one of the most difficult rapids to run. The technical difficulty of navigating Submarine Hole is on par with Green Wall at the flow of 750, and we had rafts which were potentially too large to fit through the pinch point on the bottom left of the rapid. Why did we have rafts that were too large for this water level? Well, the creature craft is especially designed for Rescue, it has a seat behind the rower which a passenger can be seat belted into. I know this goes against everything we're taught in Whitewater, never attach yourself to the boat! However, the creature craft has been specifically designed to be unflippable. This is not to say it can't be on its side, or that the participants won't get wet! You absolutely still get splashed or could even be partially immersed if the boat were surfing or stuck on its side. The rescue design gives the Creature Craft the ability to accommodate a passenger with an altered mental status or somebody with physical alter abilities. This particular craft is small as far as Creature Crafts go. But it is still quite wide to fit through the narrow pinch point at the bottom of Submarine Hole. What were the real risks of strapping Gabe into this craft if the craft then did not then fit through the slot? If it came to that, we would need a solid plan.
By the time we repackaged Gabe into two sleeping bags to put him in the litter, he was warm enough that he was steaming, and stated that he could start to feel all his toes. He wanted to wear a helmet to ride in the litter up to the helicopter, so Jon gave him his. As the helicopter hovered, we covered Gabe in the bivy sack and laid over him to keep it from flying away and protect him from the moisture being sprayed from the river. The helicopter did several reconnaissance passes and Alex made contact via VHF radio. Alex placed a road flare in the location he thought would be a good landing spot, but actually the helicopter was able to come right to where we had Gabe and hover there. First, they lowered a rescuer, then they dropped a litter. We lifted Gabe into the litter and they sent him up, it was super loud and river spray was misting everywhere under the rotors. The litter was spinning and man I hope I never have to get into a helicopter!
The Coast Guard was also able to take Jon, they clipped a red harness on him and the Coast Guard rescuer koala bear clung to him and they were hoisted up together. The heli headed for a hospital in Coos Bay which has a landing pad. The rest of the party had a group hug, packed up our stuff and headed down to run the last big rapid, Sub Hole. Andrew, Erdrich and Kelsey were waiting there. Sub hole is a menacing rapid at this low flow, I was worried my cat boat wouldn’t fit at the pinch point at the bottom. I squeezed through backwards. Babcock did a nice job of wedging the Creature Craft through. It was a relief to be past the rapids and to have Gabe on his way to the hospital. We still had a very long day of rowing in cold conditions, but made it to the takeout by 3:30, pushing hard.
When we got to the takeout, members of Gabe's original party had come back to greet us, they had ribs and hot drinks and a fire going at takeout. Our shuttle drivers were already there as well and everyone helped the downriver team carry our boats up from the water and de-rig. The members of Gabe's original party made plans to spend the night on the Oregon coast and go see Gabe in the hospital. Sean and I headed back to the Rogue Valley hoping to get home that night. Aaron Babcock loaded up with Neil and they went back to Gasquet. Gabe and Jon’s sister was there to meet us at the takeout as well, she had picked up Gabe's van and collected all of our contact info.
Conclusions
Driving back that night, in spotty cell service, it was emotional to look through the social media posts and news articles that I had missed while out on the river searching. News articles using him as click bait, with really nothing to say or just making up a narrative. People announcing that Gabe had been found alive. News saying he was a missing hiker. The joy of his family sending thanks to the rescue team. Notably, people overlooking to send thanks to the members from Gabe’s trip, who also made sacrifices and needed community support. Also, people placing blame, speculating, and demanding to know what happened. Today, we are just drying out all of our gear and trying to wash the poison oak off everything. I’m following up with SAR and Coast Guard and Gabe’s family. I’m thinking about how to best follow up with my write up, to respect Gabe and his family and provide some insight to the boating community and rescue community. I think when there is a near miss or a fatality, people genuinely want know what went wrong so that we can do better next time. That is why the Accident Database exists on American Whitewater, so we can learn.
I think that there are very few people who have the appropriate skills, gear, endurance and local knowledge to launch a low water Illinois trip in the middle of a winter storm and then spend a whole day on foot in a trailless rugged and snowy drainage. The important thing is, to do so without creating more victims or problems. Everyone who went in to help understood the risks and accepted the burden of what we might or might not find. Whitewater boating is a community that takes care of its own. I did not know Gabe before this trip. It didn’t matter, people who boat the Illinois are automatically my family and I will help if I can. It’s my home river. Babcock and I discussed the rescue party/ search party size and both agreed that a small and skilled group who is familiar with the area would be preferable to trying to bring in a bunch of people without boating experience. When it became an option to take Jon, of course we did. Babcock shouldered the responsibility of taking Jon in his Creature Craft and looking out for him. These were less than ideal conditions, and rescuers without warm gear and good decision making are in danger of becoming hypothermic themselves. Between the entire group, we used every single pair of dry socks that we had. We needed to be smart as well as skilled. We needed to have unanimous decision making. Group cohesiveness was everything.
Prevention
Everyone wants to know WHY. Why would a boater hike off into the woods at Green Wall with no supplies? Why would someone leave their group and not return? What were the contributing factors to these life threatening actions? Could it have been prevented? I had all these thoughts too. I don’t know. I’m not sure Gabe even knows. When we found him, he told me, “I’m going to make better life choices.” I fully support that. He’s alive, so he will get to tell his own story if he wants to. And if he doesn’t want to, then we need to respect that. I can't imagine his mental state, before or during the ordeal. Obviously, someone leaving the trip like he did was beyond making poor choices, he was to the point of having an altered mental status. My only take aways are: show up prepared, know your group, do the best you can and don’t give up.
Medical Considerations
Cold and Wet = Hypothermia. We learned later that Gabe had not brought appropriate winter boating and camping gear, which likely led to him being cold and wet long before anyone realized he was struggling. I ended up carrying out his sleeping mat, which was a thin rubberized yoga style mat, soaking wet. Most rafters carry thick waterproof insulted “paco”-style pads. The yoga mat would have provided no insulation from the cold ground, and meant that he was sleeping on a cold wet surface the night before disappearing. It also sounds like he had brought a “sheet” instead of a sleeping bag. I suspect that with a dry suit with no neck gasket and inefficient overnight gear for the conditions, Gabe had probably been cold and wet for two full days before his disappearance. I'm sure his group's stove tent was a crucial piece of gear for someone without a sleeping bag. Early intervention and prevention are key in hypothermia patients.
From the NOLS Blog: How to Prevent Hypothermia in Cold Climates:
Key Signs of Cold Stress:
· cold sensation
· shivering
· normal mental status
Key Signs of Mild Hypothermia:
· impaired ability to perform complex tasks
· fine motor shivering
· apathy
· slurred speech
· “the umbles”
Key Signs of Moderate Hypothermia:
· uncontrollable violent shivering
· worsening of “the umbles”
· increased stumbling
· altered mental status
Key Signs of Severe Hypothermia:
· shivering stops
· muscular rigidity
· decreasing mental status that progresses to unresponsiveness
· decreasing pulse and respiratory rates that may become hard to detect
· possible ventricular fibrillation
If you want to follow up more in depth on educating yourself about hypothermia, I suggest reading the paper from Wilderness Medical Society, Practice Guidelines for the Out-of-Hospital Evaluation and Treatment of Accidental Hypothermia. First Responders may also choose to carry the Cold Card.
More Resources: Psychological first aid
I want to raise awareness about psychological first aid training in light of this case study as well. Responder Alliance states, “Psychological First Aid (PFA) is a simple, field-based system used to support patients who are experiencing distress or trauma. It’s not designed to replace clinical care, but allows us to intervene on scene, enabling early mitigation of stress.” Psychological first aid is not only for trip members in crisis, it is also for survivors, for SAR teams, for family, and community members in the aftermath of trips gone wrong. Similar to a WFR class or CPR class, people can now be certified in psychological first aid. Responder Alliance offers online courses.
Search Group Preparedness & Agency Cooperation
We brought so much extra equipment with us. I had brought enough food for 10 people for 2 days, just in case we ended up meeting up with a hike-in county SAR team. The other consideration in bringing the extra food was in case the weather forecast changed or we were in the middle of an extrication and ended up on the Illinois while the water spiked to above runnable flows, as predicted for the weekend. My plan if stranded during a high water spike was to literally just camp it out a few more days and eat like a king. We had also brought extra warm gear and extra sets of clothes to change into once our land-based search outfits were soaking wet from stomping around in the brushy snowy creek. We brought extra drysuites and PFDs in case Gabe had lost his and needed to be transported in a raft. We got lucky, the helicopter pilot was a pro and was able to hover right over the bank where we found Gabe. We didn’t have to transport him by boat, and we did all fit through the slot at Sub Hole…barely.
Know before you go: what river are we running? The Illinois has a reputation as being a difficult and remote river. It is storied with an old timer rafter death and rescues from high water at Green Wall in 1998. Analysts speculate that the 1998 high water death can be partially attributed to the swimmer's torn neck gasket in his dry suit, which would allow it to take on water while the victim was swimming. Conditions change fast in the Illinois River canyon. But given the correct measures of technical gear in good working order, knowledge of the river/ flow prediction and skillset to run class IV/ V rapids, it is actually a very reasonable run for expert members of the boating community, such as Gabe and the boaters on Gabe's trip. I would dare say 750 cfs is an easy flow for small boats, which is what their party had. I would not rate it as class V at that flow except for the remoteness factor. This was my 30th Illinois trip, I’ve been between 150cfs and 3,600 cfs in different craft. My favorite connoisseur flow is 2,500. The thing is, it’s not just a whitewater trip, it’s a wilderness camping trip. This is a good reminder to everybody to make sure to take extra gear on winter trips and to check in with everyone before launching and during the trip to see if they have what they need. Our secondary search team almost made a huge gear mistake with Jon, who was going to rely on using Gabe’s gear at camp. When Gabe’s party realized he didn’t have a sleeping bag, they offered to share. When we realized Jon needed overnight gear, Neil gave a sleeping bag and Babcock shared a tent. Our secondary search party brought an extra sleeping bag as part of the hypo wrap kit, something I learned in a NOLS Wilderness First Responder course. “Know before you go” includes the river info, but also the groups’ skillset and preparedness level.
Some really excellent decision making happened and some amazingly selfless volunteer efforts were made and I want to recognize those people. One) The fact that Kelsey and Erdrich elected to stay camped at Greenwall for four nights was huge. This allowed our secondary boat based search team to have continuity of information and they showed us all the areas already searched and where the paddle was found. They were able to provide insight about Gabe’s altered mental status leading up to his disappearance. It also provided smoke, so that if Gabe had seen the smoke he could use it to navigate back to camp. They kept a fire going the whole time, knowing he would be hypothermic if he was able to return. Two) Communication. The walkies, Garmin InReach and VHF radio communication devices were key. I was really impressed with Alex, who brought the VHF marine radio and had the appropriate channel (16) to hail the Coast Guard Heli directly. Without these, our ability to send the GPS coordinates for pickup would have been impossible. We were able to request that the Thursday heli search focus on the south side of the river. Also important was being able to communicate to the heli directly about how many members of our search party were on foot in the drainage, so that they knew what they were looking at and when they saw us in the creek they didn't think we were Gabe. The only thing we wish we could have gotten a hold of is a drone, especially with heat seeking capabilities. A drone would have allowed us to travel down river in short increments and then search up each bank much more thoroughly. There's a lot of area that can't be seen from the river. Maybe we can get some grants going to get our SAR teams some tech gear for the future. Andrew did bring a drone, but had issues with it working at any distance due to no cell service so we were not able to use it. I know drones are not allowed in Wilderness, but that is to protect the experience of the wilderness users, and we were the only ones there. I would have gladly faced any backlash associated with drone use if we could have had one to aid in the search to bring Gabe home.
Overall Gabe’s group and our secondary search group did everything we could given the info on hand, conditions, and resources available. Incident prevention and preparedness are the big take aways in my mind. Gabe’s party had a lot of great safety equipment for winter camping, even a wood stove tent and Starlink satellite. (The Tuesday downriver party had to take the starlink with them). They kindly left the wood stove tent and all their extra food and supplies. It could have been helpful to have a Satellite capable phone with our secondary boat based search team. I think that as satellite tech improves, we will see a lot more of it used in SAR. As a commercial guide I have mixed feelings about satellite connectivity in the wilderness, but after this trip I am convinced that it is a necessary tool and the use of it on commercial rafting trips will need to be a cultural and ethical discussion. Another important link in the chain to success is that Erdrich called immediately when Gabe disappeared, knowing that in the difficult terrain and cold weather, they were going to need help. Erdrich’s trip having communication and using it early was a very important first step to get the downriver team mobilized.
In the end, it felt like pure luck or an answer to prayers that Gabe was in a location that Jon could spot him. Honestly, we almost missed him. Jon was in the last boat, it was the last day the Coast Gurad heli could fly, we had to leave the river corridor before the weekend. If our boat based search team hadn't launched at all, then he likely would not have been found. The Illinois river corridor through the Kalmiopsis Wilderness is not an appropriate section for the average fair weather rafter or even for the county SAR team and it would have been impossible to continue sending rafting parties downstream with the coming high water this weekend. The sheriff's department made the correct choice to not try to send officers or SAR in via the river, it would have been a mistake resulting in more problems. The conditions were terrible.
Josephine County Search and Rescue and the Coast Guard did an excellent job of communicating with us; responding and keeping us notified of what was happening with the helicopter search and with the ground teams trying to come in from the west side out of Coos County. I discovered later that US Coast Guard and National Guard are the only ones with hoisting capabilities. For evacuations from river canyons, be sure to request hoisting capabilities to get one of these free services. Depending on the location and availability, if you don’t request a hoist, you could get Mercy flights in the Rogue Valley or Life Flight Network in other parts of Oregon. I’ve heard that Mercy flights get first crack at incoming requests from Rogue Valley 911 call centers (Public Safety Answering Points), unless it is something they can’t do, like hoisting. Because our heli evac request went straight through the Josephine County SAR Coordinator, they already knew the terrain would call for the ability to hoist. Coast Guard was already prepped to come search for the day and about to fly when we sent them the news that it was an extraction. We once again got lucky that the weather window was favorable to fly. On the east side of I5 you can request hoisting and it may get forwarded to Kingsley Field Air National Guard Base in Klamath Falls with their Blackhawk. On the West side, you will get US Coast Guard.
Gabe's family was amazing to come out and help search for him, we wouldn't have found him without his brother Jon. Jon never stopped searching, he joined an Illinois trip using borrowed gear (besides his helmet) with just one year rafting experience as an Ocoee guide under his belt. I can’t imagine, out of all the perspectives, how crazy the entire trip was for Jon. I’m wishing Gabe the best possible recovery and I know the medical side of the ordeal is far from over. I am including the link to the fund to help Gabe’s family with the expenses. As a thank you to the boating community who supported Gabe’s search and rescue, Gabe’s grandmother, Judith Looney, has put together a scholarship fund for 3 students to come take a Swiftwater Rescue Class this spring. What a meaningful way to give back to the boating community, to build up the safety skillset of upcoming members. I’m repeatedly impressed with Gabe’s family.
Final thanks to:
Aaron Erdrich and Kelsey Barnes, who camped 4 extra nights at Greenwall and never stopped searching.
Neil Guthrie, who supplied a truck and trailer, radios, battery bank, gloves, spare PFD, sleeping bag and more to launch Alex, Jon, and Babcock and pick them up, over 14 hours of driving total.
Paul Barbian, who shuttled Sean and I into Put in at Miami Bar and brought another spare PFD.
Josh Isenagle, who drove to Agness to pick us up on Friday and last minute watched our dog.
Aaron and Mariah Mink, who sent me with hundreds of dollars of freeze dried food just in case.
Abby Guthrie and Kokatat, who loaned a drysuit for Jon to wear.
Maria Valdez, Josephine County Search and Rescue
Jay Kircher, US Coast Guard, North Bend Station
Bob Noyce, Josephine County maps
Redwood Rides, who provided spare drysuites
Kayla Reneau-Parrent, Jon’s girlfriend, communications between family and search party
Kenny, who brought ribs to takeout haha.
Gabe’s family! Who would do anything for him.
References:
Giesbrect GG. “Cold Card” to Guide Responders in the Assessment and Care of Cold-Exposed Patients. Wilderness Environ Med. 2018;29(4):499-503.
Zafren K, Giesbrecht GG, Danzl DF, Brugger H, Sagalyn E, Walpoth B, et al. Wilderness Medical Society practice guidelines for the out-of-hospital evaluation and treatment of accidental hypothermia. 2014 update. Wilderness Environ Med. 2014;25(4 suppl):S66-85.