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From: skimmer <skimmer_at_enter.net>
subject: [Paddlewise] James Kim search
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 14:32:08 4
Hi Brad,

Last year, I saw an account of the rescue of a senior citizen Inuit 
hunter by several young Inuit men that went searching for the 
overdue hunter. The hunter had gone out on a snowmobile. For 
reasons I don't remember, the hunter got stuck far out in the tundra 
in heavy snow. There were carabou heards in the area. 

After a time the rescue party found the abandoned snowmobile and 
tracks leading away from it. They tracked the old man but then lost 
the tracks in the blowing snow. they lost the tracks in the confused 
areas where the heards of carabou had passed through. 

Each time they lost the tracks, they set out making larger and 
larger circles around the last known track until they again found the 
hunter's tracks. After a long time and many lost and found tracks, 
they found the old man entirely disabled and near dead in the 
snow. 

They put the man in a sleeping bag along with three of the 
rescuers. They hauled them all back to a village on their 
snowmobiles. The hunter survived thanks to the stunning 
determination and skill of the young men that went searching for 
him.

--------

I expect that Mr. Kim will be found somewhere not too far from 
where his pants were found. I believe the only way to find him alive 
would be a search conducted along the lines used by the Inuit 
searchers. It would likely require many searchers radiating out and 
in constant communication with one another. Using dogs? I don't 
know how dogs do at tracking in snow. 

Chuck Sutherland
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From: Michael Daly <mikedaly_at_magma.ca>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] James Kim search
Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2006 16:12:55 -0500
skimmer wrote:
> Using dogs? I don't know how dogs do at tracking in snow. 


Pretty much as well as in anything else as long as it isn't melting quickly and 
washing away the scent.  Avalanche dogs can find people under several feet of 
compressed snow.  Foxes in the arctic hunt by scent and find smaller critters 
that burrow under the snow.

Mike
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From: Bradford_Crain <crainb_at_pdx.edu>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] James Kim search
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 14:38:58 -0800
According to news reports, dogs and horses were on standby,
but were not used because of the steepness and irregularity
of the terrain, plus the additional snow cover. One searcher was
injured yesterday, and had to be evacuated.

Bradford R. Crain
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Portland State University
724 SW Harrison St.
334 Neuberger Hall
Portland, Or. 97201

e-mail:  crainb_at_pdx.edu
phone: 503-725-3127
fax:       503-725-3661
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