AK AK - Steve Keel, 61, missing from hunting trip, from TN - Aug 27, 2022

[RickshawFan]

BBM The walk from the tent to the vehicle was via the Winter Trail. They parked right next to it, and took it to their campsite. I doubt there are trail markers, but it's well marked on all of the topo maps

But is the Winter Trail a trail only in winter, i.e. when there's snow on the ground? Maybe it wasn't passable unless frozen?

 

[RickshawFan]

How is it marked outside snow season, when it is treacherous even though "maintained," according to this article from 2019.

With winter snow trails, North Slope Borough hopes to offer residents a safe path over tundra

“Near-deaths and freezing, running out of gas are some of the issues surrounding being able to go between communities,” said Gordon Brower, director of the North Slope Borough’s Planning and Community Services Department.

alaskapublic.org

They would have been better off using air transport, especially to remove their meat, IMO.

I gotta say "it's no walk in a park"!

I am curious how far from their night tent they hunted and how they navigated way out there. Finding a caribou path is easier with an outfitter to also help increase the odds of finding bulls.

Were they hauling unfrozen meat back to Fairbanks? It would have to be frozen to be transported home & BC's cache had been in the field several days.

Lots of questions without answers....

Good find, @WingsOverTX !

Key sentence in that article about the Winter Trail:

The borough said that once the trails are open, ideally they’ll be usable until the end of April or early May.

In other words, no snow, no trail. This is not a trail for late summer, though perhaps SK and BC misinterpreted and thought it was?

 

[Gardenista]

But is the Winter Trail a trail only in winter, i.e. when there's snow on the ground? Maybe it wasn't passable unless frozen?

No, it's there all the time. You can see it on a map

Home Page - Alaska Mapper

mapper.dnr.alaska.gov

 

[RickshawFan]

How is it marked outside snow season, when it is treacherous even though "maintained," according to this article from 2019.

With winter snow trails, North Slope Borough hopes to offer residents a safe path over tundra

“Near-deaths and freezing, running out of gas are some of the issues surrounding being able to go between communities,” said Gordon Brower, director of the North Slope Borough’s Planning and Community Services Department.

alaskapublic.org

They would have been better off using air transport, especially to remove their meat, IMO.

I gotta say "it's no walk in a park"!

I am curious how far from their night tent they hunted and how they navigated way out there. Finding a caribou path is easier with an outfitter to also help increase the odds of finding bulls.

Were they hauling unfrozen meat back to Fairbanks? It would have to be frozen to be transported home & BC's cache had been in the field several days.

Lots of questions without answers....

So, there were some strange happenings with the meat, apart from the fact that it was left lying out on the tundra because its owner couldn't carry it further....

—BC appears to have been working on it when SK went missing
—BC was working on the meat on a cooler (I guess, using it as a table); no idea how they're lugging a cooler around, let alone one that's full of meat
—BC dumped his meat in the lake (illegal and heavily fined): Field-to-Freezer Meat Care in Alaska, Alaska Department of Fish and Game
—the meat would have to be properly prepared and frozen for shipment home; I believe it has to be packed in special ice
—it seems to me, the odds of bad meat were VERY high
—it was not below freezing except sometimes

Usually, all these issues, logistics, transport, etc. are handled by local hunting outfitters.

 

[Gardenista]

In fact, it's so spot on with their base camp coordinates, my guess is that was their plan from the beginning

 

[RickshawFan]

No, it's there all the time. You can see it on a map

Home Page - Alaska Mapper

mapper.dnr.alaska.gov

But, IMO, that doesn't mean the trail isn't snow season only. It's likely called Winter Trail for a reason. I'd not want to be counting on it in summer: it might go straight through a bog.

 

[WingsOverTX]

So, there were some strange happenings with the meat, apart from the fact that it was left lying out on the tundra because its owner couldn't carry it further....

—BC appears to have been working on it when SK went missing
—BC was working on the meat on a cooler (I guess, using it as a table); no idea how they're lugging a cooler around, let alone one that's full of meat
—BC dumped his meat in the lake (illegal and heavily fined): Field-to-Freezer Meat Care in Alaska, Alaska Department of Fish and Game
—the meat would have to be properly prepared and frozen for shipment home; I believe it has to be packed in special ice
—it seems to me, the odds of bad meat were VERY high
—it was not below freezing except sometimes

Usually, all these issues, logistics, transport, etc. are handled by local hunting outfitters.

Maybe the meat spoiled before BC could possibly donate it? Subsistence practices by native communities welcome donation of meat from hunts.

Logistics for the meat went sideways when SK disappeared & the focus was on trying to save his life, I suppose. That's a shame.

Another outcome that is a forensics teaching point after this event, IMO.

JMO

 

[RickshawFan]

No, it's there all the time. You can see it on a map

Home Page - Alaska Mapper

mapper.dnr.alaska.gov

I'm not sure how being able to see a winter trail on the map means it's there in summer time? Can you explain?

There are trails all over that are only usable in one season or another. Vermont has a VAST network (hundreds of miles) of trails like that. There's no right of way on those except in winter. And then, there are snowshoe trails all over, and ski trails. These are not trails except in snow. But can you see them on maps? Sure, 'cos you might be using the map in winter....

The Winter Trail may be safe passage when there's no snow, but I don't think we can assume so.

 

[RickshawFan]

Maybe the meat spoiled before BC could possibly donate it? Subsistence practices by native communities welcome donation of meat from hunts.

Logistics for the meat went sideways when SK disappeared & the focus was on trying to save his life, I suppose. That's a shame.

Another outcome that is a forensics teaching point after this event, IMO.

JMO

You have to remove the meat from the field even if it's spoiled, as far as I can tell from the regs I linked.

 

[neesaki]

Maybe the meat spoiled before BC could possibly donate it? Subsistence practices by native communities welcome donation of meat from hunts.

Logistics for the meat went sideways when SK disappeared & the focus was on trying to save his life, I suppose. That's a shame.

Another outcome that is a forensics teaching point after this event, IMO.

JMO

Seems it boils down to Killing animals for sport.
And look at the outcome. All the loss of life. Worth it?

 

[WingsOverTX]

Seems it boils down to Killing animals for sport.
And look at the outcome. All the loss of life. Worth it?

RBBM
I don't think that was the intended consequence here. I also don't think it was the personal motivation of SK & BC.

Many Alaskans hunt moose & other animals annually to provide food for their families and communities.

Turning this particular set of circumstances into a debate about hunting seems counterproductive and off-topic to me.

A man has lost his life & may not be recovered from wilderness. There is much potential blame in any analysis of this tragedy but IMO nature always has the upper hand in any man vs nature encounter. And yet adventure still calls people to take chances & always will.

It is impossible to mitigate all risk no matter who we are or what we do. I try to bear that in mind.

JMO

 

[OddOneOut]

No, it's there all the time. You can see it on a map

Home Page - Alaska Mapper

mapper.dnr.alaska.gov

I once found out the hard way that a trail marked on a map isn't necessarily visible on the ground.

 

[neesaki]

RBBM
I don't think that was the intended consequence here. I also don't think it was the personal motivation of SK & BC.

Many Alaskans hunt moose & other animals annually to provide food for their families and communities.

Turning this particular set of circumstances into a debate about hunting seems counterproductive and off-topic to me.

A man has lost his life & may not be recovered from wilderness. There is much potential blame in any analysis of this tragedy but IMO nature always has the upper hand in any man vs nature encounter. And yet adventure still calls people to take chances & always will.

It is impossible to mitigate all risk no matter who we are or what we do. I try to bear that in mind.

JMO

I’m an animal lover. But also a people lover. At this point, regardless of my views on killing animals for sport ( which is much different than killing them for survival) my main concern is recovering SK.
So maybe we can at least agree on that.

 

[RickshawFan]

RBBM
I don't think that was the intended consequence here. I also don't think it was the personal motivation of SK & BC.

Many Alaskans hunt moose & other animals annually to provide food for their families and communities.

Turning this particular set of circumstances into a debate about hunting seems counterproductive and off-topic to me.

A man has lost his life & may not be recovered from wilderness. There is much potential blame in any analysis of this tragedy but IMO nature always has the upper hand in any man vs nature encounter. And yet adventure still calls people to take chances & always will.

It is impossible to mitigate all risk no matter who we are or what we do. I try to bear that in mind.

JMO

As far as I can tell, @neesaki was referring to game taken for sport, and not hunting for survival by local indigenous folks.

I’m not sure we can lump those two categories together as not being relevant to the discussion.

The local folks in AK evidently are more cautious when they’re out in the tundra. We’ve seen several that say they only go out there in winter because it's so dangerous. And evidently, it’s local standard to carry a satellite communicator.

This sense of risk, IMO , is exactly what may have made the survival difference in this case. When you're hunting for survival, your life is paramount. When you’re hunting for sport, survival is not the focus of the activity; you may take precautions, yes, but it’s not what preoccupies you. The be all and end all for sport is a prize and inconsequential for life. For locals in AK, the whole goal is survival.

IMO this impacted crucial decisions in this case, that were, indeed, life and death concerns. They just weren't perceived to be.

To add to the dimension here, the science of “lost person behavior” places hunters in a separate category. Hunters go missing in different ways than other users of backcountry. This would have shaped the SAR response, and may shed light on where SK went.

 

[RickshawFan]

I once found out the hard way that a trail marked on a map isn't necessarily visible on the ground.

There are roads like that, too. Google will send you on them, routing you to catastrophe.

See: Indiana woman rescued from Nevada mountainside reveals new details

 

[Gardenista]

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[RickshawFan]

The tent in that photo is a different one than CS shows he was using, so maybe this snap is at the hunting camp, not the base camp.

A moment later. Yes, must be the hunting camp. There are two sets of antlers, and only one ever made it to the base camp.

That tundra has some beautiful colors. No matter how pretty, I wouldn’t want to be doing anything in that wet terrain in cotton pants, let alone baggy ones. Not even just hanging out…

 

[OddOneOut]

There are roads like that, too. Google will send you on them, routing you to catastrophe.

See: Indiana woman rescued from Nevada mountainside reveals new details

I found one of those roads too only it was on a Rand McNally map (before internet and GPS). The map showed it as a scenic route. It turned out to be a one lane dirt track cut into the side of the mountain with no markings or guardrails. I tried to find it on Google Maps but apparently it no longer exists.

 

[RickshawFan]

Since we have a momentary lull....
This missing person event is why I recommend learning backcountry skills from old timers, and not your buddy. If you and your buddy learn from each other (and maybe even egg each other on), you may find yourself in an echo chamber of experience, falsely believe you are skilled, and become complacent when high risk is in the wings. You may have mutually reinforced poor skills, and at some point, you will likely end up blind to danger.
Old timers often have information that is contrary to what you learned from your buddy. You are likely to learn that you over-estimated your skill. This matters.
We really shouldn't be looking at Backcountry 101 shortfalls in this case, because these two buddies were "experienced" and had hunted together many times, friends are saying. Red flag for missing Backcountry 101 skills!
This happens often in WS wilderness cases, IME, especially the ones that puzzle us intensely and involve fatalities. Examples are: Dingley (Spanish LE faulted lack of experience and inadequate footwear), Gerrish & Chung (elementary miscalculations), Matrosova (elementary miscalculations), and Clements (missing at Clingman's Dome returning from a hike almost at the parking lot; it started to cold-drizzle, and she only had a cheap poncho on her instead of rain gear, so she would have got soaked very fast; the result was hypothermia and not found for a year).
I love it when I read news article where SAR (or State Fish and Game) comments on how the person they rescued "did everything right". What the rescuee experienced is an accident, pure and simple despite their skill. These must be very satisfying events to SAR.
So, yeah, learn skills from old timers you maybe aren't friends with, go out with experienced local clubs, or take a trip with a rough-it organization, like the Sierra Club.
Sierra Club has a trip to North Slope Alaska. Anyone?

 

[Snoopster]

Since we have a momentary lull....
This missing person event is why I recommend learning backcountry skills from old timers, and not your buddy. If you and your buddy learn from each other (and maybe even egg each other on), you may find yourself in an echo chamber of experience, falsely believe you are skilled, and become complacent when high risk is in the wings. You may have mutually reinforced poor skills, and at some point, you will likely end up blind to danger.
Old timers often have information that is contrary to what you learned from your buddy. You are likely to learn that you over-estimated your skill. This matters.
We really shouldn't be looking at Backcountry 101 shortfalls in this case, because these two buddies were "experienced" and had hunted together many times, friends are saying. Red flag for missing Backcountry 101 skills!
This happens often in WS wilderness cases, IME, especially the ones that puzzle us intensely and involve fatalities. Examples are: Dingley (Spanish LE faulted lack of experience and inadequate footwear), Gerrish & Chung (elementary miscalculations), Matrosova (elementary miscalculations), and Clements (missing at Clingman's Dome returning from a hike almost at the parking lot; it started to cold-drizzle, and she only had a cheap poncho on her instead of rain gear, so she would have got soaked very fast; the result was hypothermia and not found for a year).
I love it when I read news article where SAR (or State Fish and Game) comments on how the person they rescued "did everything right". What the rescuee experienced is an accident, pure and simple despite their skill. These must be very satisfying events to SAR.
So, yeah, learn skills from old timers you maybe aren't friends with, go out with experienced local clubs, or take a trip with a rough-it organization, like the Sierra Club.
Sierra Club has a trip to North Slope Alaska. Anyone?

I'd personally like to thank you @RickshawFan (although I think I might have already done this previously) for this advice. I've gone for local hikes and the conditions aren't extreme. It would be easy to convince myself that I have become a pretty good hiker. Of course I've only hiked in local conditions. I'm sure I would fail in extreme conditions, whether involving altitude, desert, mountain, extreme cold, jungle, heavy hilled woods, swampy, etc. I just don't know what I don't know. And I know it. (for the most part, but I'm sure I'll give myself credit for some things I naively think I know. )

I have learned so much on this thread and other hiking and off-grid threads. So thank you and others yet again. You save lives with your advice.