Park Staff Seek to Lower Death Toll with Information
Search and Rescue Team training for glacier rescue. Photos courtesy of National Park Service
Allison Sayer - CRR Staff
At a meeting a few months ago, I heard a troubling statistic: An estimated one in 20,000 visits to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park (WRST) ends in a fatality. I talked with Ranger and Search and Rescue Coordinator Stephens Harper earlier this spring to learn more.
The number one cause of death within WRST is drowning. Although some of these incidents are related to boating accidents, many occur when hikers or hunters attempt to cross streams on foot. Other causes of injury and death have included falls, avalanches, hypothermia, and even suicide. Although bears are front and center in visitors’ psyche, bear attacks within WRST have been rare.
“It’s a scary statistic how many people died compared to how many people visited, but Wrangell-St. Elias is no more dangerous than any other big, wild area of Alaska. What’s dangerous is people trying to experience this place when they aren’t prepared.”
Harper wants to ensure all backcountry travelers use basic stream-crossing protocols. This includes unbuckling and loosening backpack straps before a crossing. If a hiker is swept off their feet, their backpack can make it impossible to stay above the surface and also creates an entanglement hazard.
Harper also emphasized that with stream levels being variable from day to day, hikers can encounter streams that are higher than they expected. He wants travelers to remember if a stream is too high to cross safely, “Turn around. Don’t drown.”
Harper said, “Time and time again people drown in Alaska with their backpacks secured to their bodies. If there is one message I would love to drive home, it’s this one: An emergency communication device, (satellite phone or texting device) should be removed from your pack and placed in a waterproof bag before crossing and kept on your body along with some survival gear. If you have to shed your pack during a fall and swim in the water, it’s important that you don’t lose these critical survival tools, even if you lose your entire pack downstream.” Over the past two decades, Harper has been instrumental in building a trained team of 40-50 locals and an incident command system within the park, partnering with the Alaska State Troopers who have official responsibility for SAR in the park. Harper is extremely grateful to the Alaska State Troopers, Denali National Park, the local EMS, local private guide services, and the Air National Guard. “We can’t do this without them,” he said.
Search and Rescue Team members search for a lost hiker in Skolai Pass.
Search and Rescue Team searching for a lost hiker in Skolai Pass.
“The thing that has driven me as the SAR coordinator to build this up and make these resources has been fear,” said Harper, “fear of lack of being prepared or having the skill, knowledge, and resources to quickly affect a rescue and save someone’s life when it is extremely time sensitive. When I first started working here, I realized we weren’t prepared to handle this ourselves. I was an Eagle Scout and the motto is: ‘Be prepared.’”
However, “The visitation levels have increased so our need to be prepared has increased over the past two decades. So it’s an unending thing. Alaska is very popular. The number of emergency medical or SAR incidents is usually directly correlated with the number of visitors.”
“It’s not just us seeing an increase in SARs and fatalities. It’s parks across Alaska. You’re probably aware the pandemic has increased the amount of visitors to parks across the nation. The trend is likely to continue. It’s a wonderful thing- they’re their parks and they should enjoy their parks. But last year was a big eye opener with a fairly big influx of people who had not done this before.”
Harper said the WRST team is putting focused effort towards “preventative” search and rescue. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” he said. “If we can do things that help educate our prospective visitors on how they can be better prepared to explore this big, wild area, that will hopefully reduce the number of SARs, injuries, and fatalities.” This past winter, staff from parks across Alaska have been collaborating on messaging and strategies to work together on this.
Search and Rescue Team searching for a missing hiker in Skolai Pass in gnarly, snowy conditions.
Harper credits personal interactions the team of WRST backcountry rangers have with prospective visitors over the phone as having saved lives. Many people know the backcountry rangers are skilled wilderness travelers who patrol remote areas of the park. However, another critical part of their job is being available to converse with prospective visitors. Personnel stationed at the national park visitor center in Copper Center are now trained to direct callers to backcountry rangers if they have inquiries about wilderness trips.
Backcountry rangers can provide detailed information about route finding, specific hazards, the best spots for stream crossings, and other critical elements of a trip. In some instances, staff have steered callers towards guide services or alternative itineraries if they appear to be completely unprepared for their initial goal.
Private companies can also vet their clients. Harper lauded Wrangell Mountain Air as being particularly direct in making sure clients have the skills and equipment they need for their itineraries.
Backcountry rangers sometimes receive real-time phone calls from people who are struggling within the park, often over satellite phone. Harper recalled instances in which visitors traveling on their own became “cliffed out” on various routes and were “freaking out.”
“In one case last year Elizabeth [Schäfer] literally talked them off a cliff and prevented the need for SAR and a helicopter. She knew exactly where they were standing and said, ‘Do this and you’ll be fine.’ They did that thing and theywere fine.” Real-time phone is not always an option, as many visitors do not carry a satellite phone, and many areas do not have cell phone coverage.
Search and Rescue Team training on the Root Glacier near Kennicott.
I asked Harper whether visitors’ perceptions of “time constraints” to finish a point-to-point route could lead to poor decision making. Harper said visitors’ backcountry itinerary should take things into account that could delay their trip.
For example, “Most of them do not have personal prior experience with glacially fed streams and rivers.They are usually at their lowest water level first thing in the morning. Planning on trying to cross first thing in the morning is what you should have in mind. That might not work out with the number of miles in your day or your plan to get to your pickup point the day you were hoping to be there. You’ve got to incorporate an appropriate amount of time to get from point A topoint B.”
Harper continued, “You cannot make the number of miles per day as you can in a more traditional area with trails. You’re lucky if you can do one mile an hour in the Wrangells. That is really important. Do not overextend and try to do way too long of a trip in a compressed time, in your five-day vacation.”
“The other part is more than likely where you got dropped off is a gorgeous and wonderful place to camp. If you decide, ‘This is more than what we need to try to accomplish,’ and go back to your drop off point- where you got dropped off is awesome! It’s a good place to land [a plane], day hike, be out there and experience the Alaska wilderness. Enjoying it should be the primary goal.”
The experienced pilots in WRST will fly a party’s route if they are not at their pick-up point, and will be able to find them as long as they are somewhere on the route. If they are not on the route, the pilots will call the park to initiate a search.
Search and Rescue Team members search for a lost hiker in Skolai Pass.
Fatalities take a toll on park staff, and require a large and compassionate team behind the scenes. Harper singled out Spencer Williamson, an expert kayaker who runs rivers searching for missing persons as part of his duties. “Spencer has been involved with at least three body recoveries as a SAR team member and has only worked as a ranger for one year.”
“That is something we talk to the other SAR team members about. It’s kind of a cool thing to be part of a SAR team. You can use your skills, it’s glamorous, it’s a good group of friends, and the training is fun. The reality is if you sign up to do this the likelihood of you finding somebody’s dead body is higher and higher the longer you do it. The psychological impact can be rough.”
He added that in cases where a rescue is known to be a body recovery, “we try our best to make sure that people who are performing that role are not people that have personal ties to that individual.”
“One of the things we do is critical incident stress management (CISM),” said Harper. “We do debriefings after every major incident and talk it through and get a lot out. If you don’t have a personal support system and you’re involved and you go back to your cabin and you’re just banging this experience alone in your head, that can be tough. The follow-through and support after an incident is important.”
Incident Management Team in training.
“The other side of the coin is the family members,” said Harper. “We have people who are trained family liaisons. That was something that 20 years ago we were unprepared for. The next thing people know is there’s a search and they’re hopping on a jet plane and arriving in Anchorage in two days.”
“[Family members are] arriving in the park and have a lot of questions. They need support - logistical support and mental support. It’s the hardest role on the incident management team. The family liaison has a level of personal impact and responsibility that’s really high. You’ve got to have a lot of empathy and tact to navigate it.” The family liaisons for WRST are Harper, Morgan Sobek, and Janice Maslen.
ANILCA requirements mean that there is no entry fee or permit system for Alaska’s younger national parks. “The good thing about that is, it’s freedom,” said Harper. “You’re allowed to do things here and experience things here in a way that is not possible anywhere else in the United States. But, with that lack of regulatory oversight and lack of requirements for permits is a lack of phone calls and face-to-face interactions.”
“There’s the messaging challenge- how do you get this information to visitors if we don’t have entry stations? Very few people who set foot in the park set foot in our visitors’ center. Most of them don’t. Social media is one the routes we’re pursuing. I see social media as a brilliant preventative SAR tool to get out to folks that are looking to come here. I don’t interface much with social media but I understand its importance in communication.”
Harper cites social media as being particularly important to broadcast real-time information about changing safety situations, such as avalanche danger or high river levels.
Locals in the area who cater to tourists can help, too. “Have those conversations about preparedness,” said Harper. “Think about these people as a friend or relative and they’re wanting advice from you. Make sure they understand the Park Service is available to provide information and answer questions. We absolutely want to help you to enjoy the national park and help you plan your trip.”
This winter, WRST has been working to create a spring and summer preventative SAR campaign using social media and other tools. The park website has also been updated to feature safety information prominently interwoven with backcountry information. A major goal is funneling visitor inquiries directly to backcountry staff, with the hope of increasing personal interactions between prospective backcountry visitors and knowledgeable staff. You can find more information at
https://www.nps.gov/wrst/planyourvisit/backcountry.htm
Photos courtesy of National Park Service
Disclosure: Wrangell St.-Elias National Park is a Copper River Record advertiser.