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

[WingsOverTX]

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?

Send pics of your Sierra Club trip to the North Slope (and don't forget your Garmin). Lol

 

[RickshawFan]

Send pics of your Sierra Club trip to the North Slope (and don't forget your Garmin). Lol

Haha! But ya know, after seeing those beautiful tundra colors at SK’s hunting camp, I’m much more tempted than I was.

 

[neesaki]

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 was fascinaged with the Sierra Club back in the day. I had dreams of going on long backpacking Outback adventures. This was in my early 30’s. We went on a few, not that long though due to work .

Once was up Mt. Hermit in New Mexico. We were told it wasnt that long a hike.Well, We were young and strong then at least. It ended up being what seemed a straight up hike with constant switch backs. No problem, until it starts hailing on us about half way up. This was before internet and Accuweather.com, BTW. So, we were on our own.

Same way when we hiked the Ozark Highland trail. We had camped out, then without warning it was snowing. The wet kind. We had warm enough clothes, but nothing but skimpy ponchos to shield from the wet snow. So We had to keep on going for the next 10 miles or so without stopping or I think we’d have frozen.
Still, wouldn’t take anything for those times. Those were the days.

 

[OddOneOut]

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?

Good advice. It doesn't have to be real "wilderness" or "backcountry" to get in trouble. I went for a walk with a friend in a local "reserve." I hadn't been there before, but she had. There were two trails both going in a circle. The shorter circle trail was within the larger circle. We got there too early. The office was closed so we decided to take the shorter trail. Long story short, we got lost. Our short walk turned into an all day hike with no provisions. I figured if we kept following the trail counter-clockwise we would end up back at the beginning and we did. However, after walking for about half an hour, my supposedly experienced friend started panicking and wanting to turn off onto side trails in other directions. The trail was poorly marked and there was no marking at the end of it. We were headed around the same trail a second time when I realized something looked familiar. I told her to standstill while I back tracked. About twenty feet back I found the path we had come down from the office. Good example of "lost behavior" from my friend too.

 

[WingsOverTX]

Haha! But ya know, after seeing those beautiful tundra colors at SK’s hunting camp, I’m much more tempted than I was.

Unlike some who have posted here, I find the tundra to be a very interesting landscape. It is so fragile & unique.

 

[RickshawFan]

@neesaki Yep, those were the days! These are some GREAT examples of how to get OUTDOOR experience IMO. and, yep, I had some wild Sierra Club experiences, too.

There were also Sierra Club moments above my comfort zone, but I learned!

 

[RickshawFan]

Unlike some who have posted here, I find the tundra to be a very interesting landscape. It is so fragile & unique.

I am, too. I’m not certain I’d want to hang out in it, though. Those colors have me mesmerized. For me, deserts are like that, too (e.g. Big Bend). It takes me a while to adjust to the subtleties when at first it looks dull.

 

[RickshawFan]

Good advice. It doesn't have to be real "wilderness" or "backcountry" to get in trouble. I went for a walk with a friend in a local "reserve." I hadn't been there before, but she had. There were two trails both going in a circle. The shorter circle trail was within the larger circle. We got there too early. The office was closed so we decided to take the shorter trail. Long story short, we got lost. Our short walk turned into an all day hike with no provisions. I figured if we kept following the trail counter-clockwise we would end up back at the beginning and we did. However, after walking for about half an hour, my supposedly experienced friend started panicking and wanting to turn off onto side trails in other directions. The trail was poorly marked and there was no marking at the end of it. We were headed around the same trail a second time when I realized something looked familiar. I told her to standstill while I back tracked. About twenty feet back I found the path we had come down from the office. Good example of "lost behavior" from my friend too.

Totally can happen. Great story. Thanks for sharing! This happened to me recently, too. The trail disappeared into a clearcut. By mistake, I had wandered out of the Park.

When you think you’re lost, it changes your brain. This is why, to me, it doesn’t really matter what SK would likely have done, being him, except maybe it was his personality not to register at all that he needed help, so he elevated his danger.

I really think SK’s “experience” may have worked against him. It takes humility to recognize you need help and that you are out of your depth. I’m unclear that he had that facility. Declining the GPS and Zoleo and assuming you could rely on a bizarre, vague, set up with the poles is revealing IMO.

I was thinking about this last night…I really don’t think SK was alive beyond evening of the day he got lost, no matter how robust he was. IMO by then, he would have succumbed to the elements. He really didn’t have anything to sustain life beyond that: warm clothes that would stay warm, 10 essentials, food, experience, and familiarity with the terrain (which might have let him relax a bit). And his brain would have been firing weird, he would have been burning calories like crazy, he would have been wet…

My hope is that SK didn’t suffer long.

 

[RickshawFan]

Does anyone know anything about sonar? They’re wanting to use sonar in this case.
There's the recent Rodni case, but that involved a car. A car could suddenly end up in deep water.
If I stepped in a lake or water up to my ankles in the wilderness, even in the dark, I imagine I’d recoil. I can’t wrap my head around walking into a lake by accident. So, IMO using sonar in the SK case would be off the mark.
It would be different if that tundra lake had cliffs all around it, because you could step off a cliff, but judging from CS’s videos, it doesn’t. I doubt it’s deep, either.

 

[RickshawFan]

Send pics of your Sierra Club trip to the North Slope (and don't forget your Garmin). Lol

I’m saving up for the new iphone. I use my current one for fall detection. But the new one has satellite communication in the absence of cell service. But, you’re probably right that in some contexts, the Garmin inReach is de rigueur (Maybe the batteries last a lot longer and it does better in challenging weather than an iphone?).

 

[RickshawFan]

I wonder if SK could have shot himself by mistake? I don't know anything about guns, but maybe if he'd been alerted (real or imaginary), the gun would have been set to go off, and it could have happened?

 

[OddOneOut]

Totally can happen. Great story. Thanks for sharing! This happened to me recently, too. The trail disappeared into a clearcut. By mistake, I had wandered out of the Park.

When you think you’re lost, it changes your brain. This is why, to me, it doesn’t really matter what SK would likely have done, being him, except maybe it was his personality not to register at all that he needed help, so he elevated his danger.

I really think SK’s “experience” may have worked against him. It takes humility to recognize you need help and that you are out of your depth. I’m unclear that he had that facility. Declining the GPS and Zoleo and assuming you could rely on a bizarre, vague, set up with the poles is revealing IMO.

I was thinking about this last night…I really don’t think SK was alive beyond evening of the day he got lost, no matter how robust he was. IMO by then, he would have succumbed to the elements. He really didn’t have anything to sustain life beyond that: warm clothes that would stay warm, 10 essentials, food, experience, and familiarity with the terrain (which might have let him relax a bit). And his brain would have been firing weird, he would have been burning calories like crazy, he would have been wet…

My hope is that SK didn’t suffer long.

I've felt from the beginning that this would end up being a recovery. The cold, wet, and barren landscape were/are all against him. I've wondered if the being too tired to carry his prize (meat) back to the camp was really a sign that something was going wrong with his health. I don't think he went far that day. I suspect he is not far from camp. He could have collapsed in a shallow place and not been seen due to the camouflage clothing.

 

[Baddux]

Too much overthinking on this one IMO. You have a 61-year-old male who was experiencing symptoms of fatigue the prior day, to the extent that he could not complete a routine task. The symptoms of fatigue were the symptoms of heart failure. He tried to tough it out, made a few decisions in terms of direction during a hypoxic state that led him astray of his pole sight system. He suffers a myocardial infarction and just drops dead. The terrain is up there with the most extreme and dangerous conditions in the world. SAR does the best they can with the resources they have and maintain a safe operation for the search party that includes areas that experts would not traverse because they are too hazardous. He is not found due to the complexity and danger of the terrain. Many such cases even in populated areas have also denied discovery right under the feet of searchers because nature.

 

[Armchair63]

The North Slope Borough Search and Rescue team formally announced Monday night the decision to formally suspend the search for 61-year-old Steve Keel. Keel, of Dover, Tennessee, was officially reported missing Aug. 28 during a hunting trip in Alaska.3

Alaskan officials end formal search for missing Tennessee man

Keel, of Dover, Tennessee, was officially reported missing Aug. 28 during a hunting trip in Alaska.

www.wsmv.com

 

[Armchair63]

This is not an MSM. I hope it is allowed
I hope they did a lot of studying in I preparation for this trip
Dead horse outfitters.spells it out as what to expect while on your hunting trip. It is not for the faint of heart.

CARIBOU | Deadhorse Outfitters

www.deadhorseoutfitters.com

 

[Howl]

I’m saving up for the new iphone. I use my current one for fall detection. But the new one has satellite communication in the absence of cell service. But, you’re probably right that in some contexts, the Garmin inReach is de rigueur

Interesting. I was on my local mountain bike forum a few days ago lamenting that Garmin InReach doesn't support Chrome (only Windows and MAC) so I can't at the moment do a firmware update on my InReach Explorer.

Thanks for posting about a new IPhone that will have sat communication! I'll check it out.

This is what a poster had to say in response to the discussion about InReach: "Cell phones today are starting to employ low earth orbit satellite connectivity. This will be limited only to sending small text messages, not surfing the web, but it will provide the "always connected" experience for people that they currently get from things like Spot [or InReach]. The tracking capability won't necessarily be there (at least not officially or immediately) but it will eventually get there. But for a sizable chunk of their user base, the "connect to help in an emergency" is far more important."

 

[WingsOverTX]

This is not an MSM. I hope it is allowed
I hope they did a lot of studying in I preparation for this trip
Dead horse outfitters.spells it out as what to expect while on your hunting trip. It is not for the faint of heart.

CARIBOU | Deadhorse Outfitters

www.deadhorseoutfitters.com

Even when using an outfitter, it is definitely left up to the individual to determine if they can withstand the rigors of hunting on the North Slope in terms of fitness, limited food options, proper equipment & emergency preparedness, to list a few.

Of course, sudden injury or ill health is not foreseeable, making contact with local authorities before hunting & maybe having an airplane rescue backup plan in place when you arrive very good ideas.

Many lessons to be learned here. The number one being DO NOT GO ALONE any distance in such a remote environment where a mishap can lead to disaster very quickly.
JMO

 

[RickshawFan]

In a case like SK's, he could have had an AppleWatch with fall detection linked to an iphone with satellite communication. He falls over with a heart attack in the middle of nowhere, and the call to SOS is automatic.
I am guessing how this would work.
I have fall detection on my current AppleWatch and it works through my phone. It doesn't even require cell service on your watch. My senior friends are getting these and ditching LifeAlert! If I hike with a cell signal, I could fall and have the Watch get my phone to automatically call 911, after checking in with me.

 

[RickshawFan]

Too much overthinking on this one IMO. You have a 61-year-old male who was experiencing symptoms of fatigue the prior day, to the extent that he could not complete a routine task. The symptoms of fatigue were the symptoms of heart failure. He tried to tough it out, made a few decisions in terms of direction during a hypoxic state that led him astray of his pole sight system. He suffers a myocardial infarction and just drops dead. The terrain is up there with the most extreme and dangerous conditions in the world. SAR does the best they can with the resources they have and maintain a safe operation for the search party that includes areas that experts would not traverse because they are too hazardous. He is not found due to the complexity and danger of the terrain. Many such cases even in populated areas have also denied discovery right under the feet of searchers because nature.

I don't think we'd have a way to pinpoint diagnosis, but IMO there are many conditions which would cause exactly this sequence of events.

 

[Baddux]

I don't think we'd have a way to pinpoint diagnosis, but IMO there are many conditions which would cause exactly this sequence of events.

For sure. I’m not sure the of the specific diagnosis obviously, but something that had some warning signs from the day before and was sudden enough for him to not to be able to request help by gunshot or otherwise.