Teamwork integral to man’s rescue

Getting an injured snowmobiler to safety Friday night involved a grueling 13 ½-hour rescue in waist-deep snow and heavy fog on a ridge near Big Creek, Idaho.

When David Ross Schlotthauer’s snowmobile jumped a 25-foot cliff about 2 p.m. Friday afternoon, the 30-year-old Post Falls man was seriously injured and in shock. He had a possible broken leg, fractured pelvis and internal injuries, according to law enforcement. Two of his friends called 911.

Schlotthauer arrived at Shoshone Medical Center about 3 a.m. Saturday after a rope rescue and a toboggan ride down the mountain. He was later transferred to Kootenai Medical Center, where he was in stable condition Saturday night.

“The stars aligned just perfectly for him,” said Master Sgt. Cameron Aaron, a technical rope rescue adviser from Fairchild Air Force Base. “We worked together like a well-oiled team.”

Schlotthauer and his friends had left the trail on the ridge that divides the St. Joe and Coeur d’Alene River basins to snowmobile in deep powder, said Shoshone County Sheriff Chuck Reynalds. Schlotthauer was headed down an incline and missed the bench where he planned to stop, tumbling about 250 feet, according to authorities.

It took sheriff’s deputies about 1 ½ hours to reach the scene of the accident above Lake Elise on Cemetery Ridge. A deputy trained as an emergency medical technician started an IV at the scene and asked for additional medical help. One of Shoshone Medical Center’s emergency room doctors arrived to assist him.

Fairchild Air Force Base tried to send a rescue helicopter, but it was unable to leave because of dense fog. Instead, Fairchild dispatched a nine-person team from the U.S. Air Force Survival School.

The team arrived at the Cemetery Ridge trailhead at 7:30 p.m. Friday and was taken 10 miles by snowmobile to a ridge above the accident scene.

“I’ve been doing search and rescue for five years. … Nothing made me as nervous as last night’s snowmobile ride,” Aaron said. “We were basically riding the razor’s edge of the ridgeline. It was pretty hairy.”

Temperatures were right at freezing, with thick fog and heavy, wet snow. At 10:30 p.m., the team began pulling Schlotthauer 600 feet up the ridge in a basket-like stretcher. A toboggan attached to a snowmobile took him to the bottom of the Big Creek drainage, near the Sunshine Mine, where the Kellogg Ambulance was waiting.

In addition to Shoshone County Search and Rescue, many volunteers helped with the rescue, Reynalds said. Citizens with snowmobiles showed up to transport rescue personnel up the mountain. Local snowmobile dealers also provided machines, and Shoshone County sent a groomer to improve the trail to the top of the pass.

“People listen to the scanners in small, rural counties,” Reynalds said. When they hear of emergencies, they pitch in to help, he said.

People who play in the mountains don’t always realize the enormous effort that goes into rescues, Reynalds said.