Double-teaming it

By Ron Burtz

Custer and Pennington County Search and Rescue (SAR) teams collaborated in an effort to find a lost hiker on the Black Elk Peak trail system Saturday night. Teams from both agencies converged on the mountain from several directions and finally located the man on Trail 4 some nine hours after he had set out for the summit with two friends.
According to an account on the Custer County SAR Facebook page, the search began at 7 p.m. after one of the lost man’s two fellow hikers had dialed 911 from a cell phone. The call was received by Pennington County Dispatch in Rapid City so the Pennington County SAR was called out. They, in turn, called in Custer County SAR for support. As it turned out, both teams were needed.
Upon reaching Sylvan Lake, the Custer team encountered the two young men who had called in the report. They said the three of them had started up the Trail 9 that day at about noon and reached the summit by mid-afternoon. Becoming separated at the top of the mountain, the two men had later come down Trail 9 expecting to find their friend along the way or at the trailhead. When that didn’t happen they called 911.
They reported their friend’s only cold weather gear was a sweatshirt which had been adequate during the day but not in the colder conditions after dark. Calls to the cell phone of the missing man were going to voicemail.
From past experience, SAR members knew they needed to clear the trails by sending teams up each possible route to the summit because they know that if a lost person gets confused in the dark and misses a turn he may be on any one of several trails in the Black Elk Wilderness.
“In years past we’ve had people who were expected at the Sylvan Lake trailhead turn up as far away as Horse Thief Lake near Mt. Rushmore, so we...sometimes have to cast a wide net,” the post said.
Pennington County SAR began ascending the trails on the north side of the mountain and sent a search dog team over to where the Custer SAR was deployed. The dog team went up Trail 9 on foot followed by one of Custer’s UTVs and began tracking the lost person’s trail toward the summit.
Meanwhile, Custer County SAR sent an ATV team up Trail 4 which passes Little Devil’s Tower before continuing to Black Elk Peak, while other teams and law enforcement checked other trails and trailheads to see if the man had possibly come out somewhere else along Needles Highway which is currently closed for winter.
The ATV team went as far as it could up the snowy trail to the area of Little Devil’s Tower, then continued on foot toward the summit of Black Elk Peak. Just past the Wilderness Boundary on Trail 4, they suddenly encountered the lost man, crouched on the ground on one side of the trail, trying to stay warm.
The man was visibly shivering in temperatures that had fallen to the high teens but was otherwise in good condition. He was quickly given some dry clothes, a hat, gloves and heat packs to put in his pockets and chest area. He rapidly consumed a bottle of water and snacks that were offered.
After notifying the search command station by radio that the hiker had been found, the team began walking him down the mountain on Trail 4.
In interviewing the man on the way down to the waiting ATV and UTV, the team learned he had left his cell phone at home that day. He had expected to hike down with his friends after reaching the summit, but lost sight of them in the rough terrain. He had waited on the trail for a while below the summit then hiked back up to the top to look for them again. When it began getting dark, he started down on his own. Rescuers concluded he had missed the junction of Trails 4 and 9 which explained his location when found. SAR officials say he did the right thing by staying in one place on the trail after realizing he was lost.
“Obviously this young man wished he’d brought a pack with more clothing, a flashlight, food and water, cell phone and so on,” said the social media post. “This was his first hike to the summit of Black Elk. We’re pretty sure next time there will be more preparations made. We’re just glad this one came out the way it did, as the outcome if he had to spend a night in the woods at this time of year might have been pretty severe.”