Corvallis woman injured in snowmobile crash at Elk Lake; Deschutes County SAR assists in rescue effort
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – A Corvallis woman was injured in a snowmobile crash near Elk Lake on Saturday, bringing out Deschutes County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue volunteers, some of whom were training nearby, to assist in her trip to the hospital, a deputy said Sunday.
Dispatchers received a call shortly before 1 p.m. Saturday regarding an injured snowmobile rider at Elk Lake Resort, according to Deputy Shane Zook, assistant SAR coordinator.
The 44-year-old Corvallis woman had been taken to Elk Lake Lodge, where staff notified dispatch, he said.
A team of four SAR volunteers happened to be training on snowmobiles near Mt. Bachelor, Zook said, and a Special Service deputy directed them to head to the lodge. Two members of that team also were part of the Search and Rescue medical team, he noted.
The first team arrived at the lodge around 1:40 p.m. and began assessing her condition, trying to keep her comfortable until she could be transported.
A short time earlier, the deputy also paged out more volunteers to respond to the resort with another snowmobile, towing SAR’s snow ambulance, to transport the woman to Dutchman Flat Sno-Park. They arrived at the lodge around 3 p.m.
The rider was loaded into the snow ambulance and with a medical attendant was taken back to Dutchman Flat, where a Bend Fire and Rescue ambulance crew was waiting to take the woman to St. Charles Bend.
