In brief: Rescued snowmobiler serves a reminder to all riders to practice safety
After the relief of finding a North Idaho snowmobiler who’d been lost in rough winter weather for two nights, the Shoshone County sheriff issued a stern reminder to the survivor and to all other winter snowgoers.
Barry Sadler, 54, of Mullan, went missing on Sunday after he continued riding alone in heavy snowfall conditions when his partner had departed for home. Sadler got stuck in a steep Montana drainage near the state line and spent the night out alone.
Five friends caught sight of a single track and descended into the creek on foot with rescue gear late Monday night. On Tuesday, they all walked out a rough five miles to reach snowmobiles.
Saddler said he survived by starting his snowmobile occasionally and crouching over the warm engine with a space blanket over him.
He couldn’t build a fire.
He said he was suffering the second night and thought he was a goner
Sheriff Mitch Alexander said riders need to be better prepared.
“I chewed him out because he’s riding by himself,” he said. “He didn’t have his survival gear. He didn’t have his avalanche beacon on. I also talked him into buying one of those SPOT satellite locators.”
The satellite locators can summon help while also providing potential rescuers a location.
Pacific seabirds dying
Scientists are trying to figure out what’s behind the deaths of Cassin’s auklets that have been found by the hundreds along the Pacific Coast since October.
Mass die-offs of the small, white-bellied gray seabirds have been reported from British Columbia to San Luis Obispo, California.
Julia Burco of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said the birds appear to be starving to death, so experts don’t believe a toxin is the culprit.
Researchers say it could be the result of a successful breeding season, unusually violent storms or changes in ocean chemistry.
Bird carcasses have been sent to a federal lab in Wisconsin for study.
Wilderness mine considered
The U.S. Forest Service is taking public comments on its approval of a gold mining company’s plan to reopen a 4-mile road in a central Idaho wilderness and drill core samples to find out if its claims are profitable enough to be mined.
Public comments are being taken on American Independence Mines and Minerals Co.’s plan in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Federal officials require claim holders to prove claims are profitable before mining.
The company already has three claims validated as profitable in the Payette National Forest.