Dan Ramos

Stranded by Snow - Saved by ACR and the USAF

Name: Dan Ramos
Product Name: acr Personal Locator Beacon
Date of Rescue: 10/28/2010
Saved By: US Air Force, Fairchild Air Base, Idaho
Lives Saved: 4

Idaho, October 2010 PLB Rescue Story By Dan Ramos My long-time hunting partner, Bill, and I had been planning a hunting trip back up to Sherman Saddle in Idaho, above the Lochsa River on the Lolo Motorway. We would leave home one week before our sons would arrive. My son, Dan Jr. is a high school principal in Oroville CA, and Bill's son Jacob was a senior in high school. The first week that Bill and I were camped at Sherman Saddle, it was warm and we did not see any elk. Dan Jr. and Jacob arrived in Idaho on Saturday night October 23, 2010. Sunday morning it started raining, turning to snow Sunday evening. The forecast predicted a snow of 3-4 inches and clearing Wednesday and Thursday, but it snowed off and on Monday, during the night, and by Tuesday, it was almost too deep to hunt. Tuesday we made the decision to pull camp on Wednesday morning and get out of there. We had not seen any elk for 10 days, and the weather report said Wednesday and Thursday it was not supposed to rain or snow. We went to bed knowing were going to pack up in the morning. It was 20 miles back to Saddle Camp and another 9 miles down to Highway 12 at the Lochsa. When we got up at 3-a.m.Wednesday morning, it had been snowing all night and there was a foot of new snow on the ground. The trailer and back of the pickup were close to the door of our big army tent. When we finally rolled up the tent, the ropes were all frozen. There was snow on the rain skirt. The tent was 3 times larger than it normally was dry packed. We had to put the wood stove and tent in the back of my pickup instead of in the camp trailer. Dan Jr. and Jacob loaded their gear in Dan's pickup, which had been parked in the same spot since he got there. I put chains on my rear tires right off the bat, backed up to the trailer, and as I tried to get the rear stand off, the jackscrew snapped. Bill and Dan Jr. used a crescent wrench and un-bolted it. I hooked up but was not able to pull the trailer out of the snow. Dan Jr. gave me some heavy-duty chains for my front tires. Bill and I took off out of camp, a steep climb out about 150 yards. We spun and slid but we made it to the top, to the Lolo Motorway, Forest Service Road #500 and turned east. Heading west would have meant going over Rocky Ridge, where the snow was likely to be even deeper. The next ½ mile was slow going. My ½ ton GMC pickup just could not pull the trailer in the deep snow, about 18" deep. Dan Jr. was not having any better traction. We got to a small ravine and decided we would have to abandon our trailers. We got out our chain 10' 5/16 and a large towrope. Dan Jr. had a tow strap. We also had a good hand come-a-long. With no jack on the front, it was hard to move the trailer but we winched it off the narrow road. We unloaded the Polaris 4 wheeler off Dan's trailer. The trailer was next to a tree so we all tipped it up and cabled it to the tree. I took a picture of the camp trailer with the license plate showing. I really thought I would never see it again. One thing I did get out of the trailer was my freighter pack frame. Just in case down the road we needed to pack anything out. I did not know it but Dan Jr. took the license plate off the flat bed trailer. We started out again in the two pickups, heading for the lookout at Chimney Butte. It was a steady incline to Liz Saddle. The snow was getting deeper. My pickup's rear end slid off the road to the berm. We got the winch out and got it back on the road. Dan Jr.'s rear end slid off the road. We were able to anchor to a tree and get it back on the road. Dan Jr. had a long tow strap, a long tow rope, and I had a 10' 5/16 chain along with the hand winch we were able to get side pressure on the pickups to get them on the road again. The whole road was slanted away from the bank to let water sheet of the road. I slid to the edge of the road two more times. One time after shoveling the snow away from the front of my pickup, I put it in gear and nothing. We were leaving transmission fluid on the snow. Another time I looked down at the tachometer and we were going 4000 RPM. After leaving the trailers, we only moved 2½ miles more on Wednesday. I slid off the road with my rear end 3 times, got stuck once and had to hand shovel so many times we lost track of. I got stuck once where we had to jack up two wheels, and cut down a small tree to get blocks to put under the tires. We finally came to a place in the road that we decided this was as far as we are going, as the snow was already 2 feet deep. Dan Jr. pulled up behind me and we told him that this was as far as we could go. We were going to slide off the road or break an axle. It was 4:30 in the afternoon Wednesday. We all knew I had brought my ACR Personal Locator Beacon on the trip. I showed it to Bill early in the first week when I was getting organized in the tent. We decided to sleep in the trucks and set off the beacon Thursday morning. We ate MRE's for dinner that evening and slept in the pickups. Dan Jr., Jacob, and I slept in Dan Jr.'s. crew cab, and Billy and his dog, slept in my pickup. Thursday morning I woke up early around 3:30 am, and at 6:35 am, I activated my ACR Personal Locator Beacon. At first, we had a red light, then a green light, and it would beep every so often. We did not know if it was working or not. (Later, I found out that the Air Force received the signal and called my wife back home in California at 6:45 a.m., only 10 minutes after I activated the PLB.) During the morning we were saying today is Thursday and our families would expect to hear from us on Sunday and would not start to worry until Monday, four days later. I got in my sleeping bag and took quite a few naps during the day. The afternoon before, a plane had flown over us about three-four miles away. I had a signal mirror but we were below the ridge and in the shade. On Thursday, it was overcast with no sunshine to get a reflection off the mirror. The day went on. At 12:30, it had been 6 hours and no help in sight. We decided we would wait out the day and then examine the situation. Dan Jr. was thinking of walking out Sherman trail down to the Lochsa River, Hwy 12. If someone or two would walk out, I thought we might have better luck walking out Westward toward Weippe or Pierce. Should run into someone at Beaverdam Saddle or Mussel Shell out hunting for the weekend. We were 20 miles to Saddle Camp on the Lolo Motorway and 9 miles down to Hwy 12. We were around 20 miles from Mussel Shell. Hoping to run into someone there and not have to walk all the way out. We will never know how this story might have ended if one or more of us had attempted to walk out through the deep snow. At 1:10 pm Thursday afternoon, a USAF rescue helicopter appeared over the ridge. They had just come from another rescue of a father and daughter who had been stranded out on a hunting trip for four days. As the USAF medic lowered himself down, I said, "No one is hurt, we are just stuck." At this same time, four snowmobiles pulled in. They were forest rangers from Clearwater National Forest Search and Rescue. They had encountered snow as deep as three feet coming over Castle Butte. The US Air Force 36th Rescue Flight team airlifted the four of us out and the Huey rescue helicopter dropped us off at the Grangeville Airport where they refueled for their return trip to Fairchild Air Force Base at Spokane, Washington. Shortly after, a second Huey flew in with Sergeant Brownell. He had brought Bill's dog that was left on the ground when the first Huey took off, and had retrieved Jacob's rifle that we left behind on the Polaris 4x4. About this time, the Clearwater sheriff got a call from the USAF in Virginia because my beacon was still giving off its signal. They had me open the PLB and disconnect the batteries to stop the signal. From the airport, we telephoned a good friend of ours, Guy Burke in Kamiah. Guy was great. He put us up for three days, fed us like kings, and contacted an experienced dozer operator, Melvin Lovebaugh, to plow the road back up the mountain to retrieve our rigs. Melvin Lovebaugh and his son brought his D3 Cat, and after driving over 100 miles on the pavement, he had to continue 20 more miles on unpaved snow-covered forest trail back to where we left the pickups. This 75-year old logger was on the dozer for 26 hours altogether. With his help, we were able to get the pickups and trailers out. We made it back to Kooskia Idaho. After paying Mel for his services, we went back to Guy's house to get cleaned up and left for home around 6:00 pm Sunday night. We arrived home at 4:30 pm Monday afternoon, November 1 at my house near Orland, California. Thanks to the Personal Locator Beacon and the US Air Force 36th Rescue Flight team, we all got home safe.

We want to extend a huge thanks from all four of us to the employees of ACR Electronics, Inc. and can never fully express our appreciation of the US Air Force 36th Rescue Flight team, Fairchild Air Base. You all contributed to a successful and happy outcome. The Personal Locator Beacon will always be part of my hunting and camping gear.
Thanks, Dan Ramos, Dan Ramos Jr., Bill Schoch, Jacob Schoch

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