Two Eagle Scouts find missing hiker

[Aquila calva]

Posted on Tue, Jan. 16, 2007

 

A routine hike and a rescue

Minnesota brothers come to the aid of a woman stranded five weeks in the mountain wilderness of southwestern New Mexico

 

BY TAD VEZNER

Pioneer Press

 

Before Saturday, the Kottke brothers could count on one finger the number of times they'd encountered other hikers while exploring the mountainous wilderness of southwestern New Mexico.

 

But last weekend, they found and saved Carolyn Dorn, a 52-year-old South Carolina woman so weak and desperate for an offered feast of Tang and ramen noodles that she could barely move her fingers.

 

On Saturday, the seventh day of their nine-day hike through the rugged Gila National Forest, the Rochester, Minn., natives heard a faint cry echoing across the nearby Gila River: either "help" or "hello," or possibly just a startled bird.

 

Both brothers were Eagle Scouts; they'd spent many days at the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center on Minnesota's North Shore. Albert Kottke had spent 50 days in the Yukon on a single hiking trip.

 

But as for the rugged New Mexico land, where they have hiked for three years "It is serious country," said Albert Kottke, 24, who is pursuing a doctorate in civil engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. "You're either in the valley, scrabbling over loose cobbles, sand and mud, or up in the hills, hiking over the hard lava layers" of volcanic deposits, sometimes reaching elevations of 9,000 feet.

 

When the pair saw Dorn shamble into view across the river, "It was a weird wave that she did to us her hand was more off to the side. Just bad form," said Albert Kottke, whose parents now live in St. Paul. "So we waved and kept going. Just kind of kept watching her."

 

When they got close enough to actually see her condition filthy, hunched over, cheeks sunken, fingers curled from malnutrition they didn't waste time with pleasantries. This was obviously the woman a friend of the Kottkes had mentioned while dropping them off at the start of their hike: the one who went missing Dec. 6, on what was supposed to be a two-week camping trip.

 

It was now Saturday, Jan. 12, and the woman had more than doubled her stay, even after more than 100 searchers and three dogs, looking for three days over Christmas after the discovery of her parked car, had not been able to find her in the 3.3 million-acre forest.

 

"I haven't eaten in three weeks" was the first thing the 5-foot-tall woman told the Kottkes after the brothers one 6 feet 5 inches and the other 6 feet 2 waded across the thigh-deep river.

 

They fed her. Gathered firewood. Gave her 2 pounds of food nuts, granola, an energy bar, dried apples and cheese, two liters of filtered water and one of the four paperback books they had brought: Michael Connelly's "Chasing the Dime," a crime-mystery about a technology firm.

 

"It wasn't really related to the situation much," said Peter Kottke, 20, a geological engineering major at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "But her eyes lit when she saw it."

 

And then, as a thunderstorm rolled in, the brothers raced for the nearest highway 20 miles away, or three days of travel at their regular pace.

 

They hiked until they couldn't see, made camp and talked about the stranger wondering how she had gotten there.

 

"I don't know if she really understood what she was getting herself into. She was dressed in waffle-print long underwear," Albert Kottke said. Cotton long johns flew in the face of a Minnesota adage the brothers knew well: "Cotton kills," because of its tendency to freeze when it gets wet.

 

"Her tent was a Wal-Mart tent for children, not adequate protection from the elements. I really wouldn't want to be caught in a rainstorm in that," Kottke added. She wasn't filtering her water and had no iodine tablets.

 

And worst of all, "no map," he said.

 

They rose at dawn and made it to the road by noon, crossing the river 13 times, 20 miles of hard scrabble in less than two days. Finally, a family dropped them off at a Highway Patrol post in nearby Silver City.

 

As civilians, they couldn't ride aboard the Black Hawk helicopter the New Mexico National Guard brought in for the rescue after they pinpointed on a map where the woman was. And they haven't heard from the woman since.

 

But authorities tell them she is doing well recovering from hypothermia after nighttime temperatures dipped well below freezing.

 

The helicopter crew, using night-vision goggles and a U.S. Geological Survey map the brothers marked, rescued Dorn before dawn Sunday and flew her to Silver City, where she was hospitalized. Her condition was not released.

 

"It is a miracle she came out alive," search-and-rescue coordinator Frankie Benoist said.

 

Dorn's brother-in-law, Stan Cornine who traveled to Silver City from South Carolina during last month's search told the Las Cruces Sun-News that Dorn was at home in the outdoors.

 

He described her as "very much a free spirit," who sometimes wouldn't contact her family for a year or more. He said, however, she had called before heading to Silver City, telling her family she was going West.

 

As for how the brothers were feeling, physically, "It was just like any other hike," Peter Kottke said. "You're sore, your feet are tired. You just want to kind of rest."

 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Tad Vezner can be reached at 651-228-5461 or tvezner@pioneerpress.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

2007 St. Paul Pioneer Press and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.twincities.com

 

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/16468724.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

 

[jr56]

Yes, a good story. Of course the version I read the other day in the liberal press, didn't mention anything about the 2 being Eagle scouts.

[FScouter]

Maybe because earning the Eagle rank as a youth years ago has nothing to do with the story? Why did they also fail to mention the men were members of 4H years ago too?

[SR540Beaver]

Let me tell you what bothers me about this story. A few weeks back, several experienced guys go up Mt. Hood in winter to do a fast and light ascent. They get caught by bad weather. The search and rescue is all over the news 24 hours a day. They all die and two bodies still have not been recovered.

 

This lady has been missing since December 6th and the search was called off a couple of weeks ago. Thank goodness she was found and saved.....but why wasn't this a story like the moutaineers? Was it because they were doing something exciting and extreme instead of mundane like camping?

 

The first I heard of it was yesterday after the guys stumbled across her.

[kenk]

The problem was that she didn't leave a trip plan with friends or family, nor did she even leave a note in her car. The searchers didn't know whether she was "out there" or had simply left her car there and left the area. They clearly had no idea that she'd planned to be backpacking for two weeks - I'm guessing they assumed she was a hiker.

 

If she had left a plan they'd at least have known where to look for her. If she'd left it with friends or family, they'd have at least started searching a few days earlier.

 

The reports say she made camp to wait for the flood water to subside, but it didn't until long enough after her food ran out that she was too weak to move. I'm guessing that is also how she became dehydrated - too weak to get water. She must have been very close to death when the hikers found her.

 

If she'd invested in a personal locator beacon she probably would have waited for the water to go down, and when it didn't and her food started running it out she could have activated the beacon. She would have been rescued in short time.

 

Ken K.

[Aquila calva]

During a radio interview yesterday on Minnesota Public Radio (you can look it up if you are interested), Peter Kottke said the lady had made camp in a very protected area, out of the wind, but it was also out of sight of where they were hiking, on the other side of the river. Peter said she had expressed disappointment that no one had come searching for her. The young men didn't know what to say at that point, but found out later that a searcher had been about 300 feet from her camp, but didn't find her.

 

He went on to say that it is most important to tell family and friends exactly where you are going before setting out on such an adventure.

 

Good advice for all.

[Eagledad]

>>Maybe because earning the Eagle rank as a youth years ago has nothing to do with the story?

[Venividi]

The brothers being Eagle scouts adds a nice bit of info to the article, but personnaly I wouldn't draw the conclusion that any article that didn't include it was due to the press being "liberal" - which in the context of the response comes across as perjorative. Perhaps that reporter had a length limit for the article and was at that limit; or the reporter didn't think to ask about any scouting related background, or any number of other reasons. I don't see anything to be gained by assuming that it was due to a "liberal" press.

[SR540Beaver]

Venividi,

 

It is obvious that you have accepted the brainwashing by the MSM. The plan is moving along as designed.

[local1400]

Kenk-Personal Locator Beacon? She should have invested her money in some training. Her own stupidity for not knowing what she was doing and then just call 911 when you are ready to die? People like her dont belong in the woods UNLESS or UNTIL they are experienced and there are plenty of places to get that. Kill the tv- people are watching and doing too much these days.

[EagleInKY]

Thanks for chiming in Barry. I was scratching my head at FScouter's response. Why did they not mention that they were members of 4-H a few years ago. Well, maybe because the 4-H didn't teach them anything about survival skills, or first aid, or dehydration, or how to find your way when you are lost, or.. or,...or,...

 

Now, don't get me wrong. I like what the 4-H does. My wife worked for them for several years. But there's nothing in the 4-H programs I've seen that would remotely prepare them for this.

 

Seems like FScouter has drank the coolaid too.

[CalicoPenn]

Depends on the 4-H program. I worked as a counselor at a 4-H summer camp in Maine for two seasons. I taught...first aid, survival skills, camping, backpacking and hiking skills. Took the kids sea kayaking, canoeing, mountain climbing. All the things I taught Boy Scouts.

 

In all the coverage of President Gerald Ford's funeral, how prominent was any mention that he was an Eagle Scout? In all the press about Buzz Aldrin when he walked on the moon, how many times was it mentioned that he was an Eagle Scout? How many articles about Mayor Bloomberg of NYC mention that he was an Eagle Scout?

 

I certainly see the point that it might have been nice for the media to mention the Eagle Scout connection but the national media were concentrating on the story of the woman who was rescued, not the rescuers. The Pioneer Press is a Minnesota Paper - a Local Boy's do good story - not surprising that it mentions they were Eagle Scouts. That story was more about the rescuers, not the person rescued. Different focuses, different stories.

 

I call for an end to this whole "liberal media" claptrap. Consider that if this so-called "liberal media" bogeyman were out to get the BSA, it would mention in every article about certain rather unpopular people that they were Eagle Scouts. But like above, how many articles written about Fred Phelps, funeral protestor extraordinaire, mention that he was an Eagle Scout? Or Marion Berry, former drug using mayor of Washington DC?

 

We should use this story with the lads (and gals) in our units as an example of how the skills being taught in Scouts are useful beyond the here and now, rather than criticizing the press for not making mention of something that isn't necessarily germaine to the story.

 

CalicoPenn

[FScouter]

It was an interesting tidbit in one news account that the two men that simply happened upon the woman were Eagle Scouts. Another news account didnt not mention that. Maybe I drink too much Kool-Aid, so somebody please explain what liberal press has to do with not mentioning Eagle ?

 

The Eagle angle to the story might have been more newsworthy if the men had actually rescued the woman, or used their Scouting skills to save her life. They didnt have to pull her from drowning, or split a broken leg. They didnt fabricate a litter to carry her out. They didnt build her a shelter. They werent lost so they didnt have to navigate by the stars. They did what any other person would have done, Eagle or not: give her some food and water and go for help.

 

The fact that they were Scouts may have been lucky for the woman in that they may not have been hiking cross-country so deep in the wilderness if they had not learned the love of the outdoors through Scouting.

[Gags]

Maybe I missed this particular memo, but is finding a lost hiker, giving her food and a book, and then leaving her alone (as a thunderstorm rolls in!) standard operating procedure for search and rescue?

 

I understand using the buddy system, but if a woman is too weak to wave her hands for help, and you know she's been gone for weeks, wouldn't it be wiser for one person to stay with her? Yes, normally splitting up is bad, but common sense (to me, at least) says either to not leave her behind, or have one person stay with her to make sure she's eating and taking fluids ok.

 

Any thoughts on this aspect of the story?

 

Thanks,

 

Gags

[local1400]

Well Gags, she'd been there 3 weeks now, what's one more day? Suppose that one stays/one goes as you suggest, the one who goes runs into trouble, the one who stayed decides three days and no help, I gotta go. So brother two goes, and something happened to him and now you have three lost souls! Unless they call 911 on their cell phones.