Air, ground search finds 2 lost snowmobilers west of Bend

Two Bend men out for a snowmobile ride near Tumalo Mountain on Friday afternoon became lost late in the day, prompting an extensive air and ground search effort that included Air Force cellphone forensics experts and an Air Link helicopter crew that helped find the pair in good shape Saturday morning, officials said.

Shortly before 10:30 p.m. Friday, Deschutes County 911 dispatchers got a call from a Bend woman advising her husband, Seth Elliff, 40, and his friend Zachary Druckrey, 42, left Kapka Butte Sno-Park around 2 p.m. to go snowmobiling and were due back by 6 p.m. but had not returned, said Deschutes County sheriff’s Deputy Jim Whitcomb, assistant search and rescue coordinator.

The woman said she’d been unable to call either snowmobiler, as both cellphones were going straight to voice mail, Whitcomb said. Meanwhile, three friends had gone out on snowmobiles to search for the pair for three hours, without success.

A Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue deputy was notified a short time later and with SAR volunteers’ help began planning a search.

Sheriff’s deputies found the two men’s vehicles around 11 p.m., still parked in the Kapka Butte parking lot, Whitcomb said.

Searchers tried to ping both snowmobilers’ cellphones, with little success in terms of accurate location, the deputy said. More attempts to reach their phones went straight to voice mail.

The parking lots of Mt. Bachelor and the Edison, Dutchman, Swampy and Wanoga sno-parks were checked as well as ODOT’s west yard, to see if they had arrived at any of those locations.

Around 1:20 a.m., a friend of the pair who works for Central Oregon Adventures searched snowmobile trails 2, 6, 7 and 8 without success in finding the pair. Whitcomb said It was learned the snowmobile trails had been groomed overnight, and the groomer also had seen no sign of the missing pair.

Around 3 a.m., two DCSO SAR snowmobilers were deployed to search the trails and meadows south of Wanoga, where it had been common for Elliff and Druckrey to ride, Whitcomb said. But they weren’t found.

The Air Force Rescue Coordination Center was contacted to use cellphone forensics and help determine the two men’s location.

Their information placed the most probable location of the missing snowmobilers in the city of Bend’s watershed area, east of Tumalo Mountain. The latest cellphone activity, from shortly before 6 p.m. Friday, was received shortly before 5 a.m. Saturday, the deputy said.

Around 6:15 a.m., 18 SAR volunteers deployed to the area on snowmobile Trail 6, using snowmobiles and a tracked side-by-side. Two snowmobile teams, a ski team and two snowshoe teams were used to search for the pair in the watershed.

Around 7:40 a.m., Druckrey was able to call 911 after a couple of earlier, broken cellphone calls, Whitcomb said. Dispatchers were able to provide coordinates that were within a half-mile accuracy, helping confirm the prior cellphone forensics from the Air Force.

An AirLink helicopter was requested and headed to the area of the latest coordinates around 8:15 a.m., assisted by two SAR volunteers on board to help navigate and observe, Whitcomb said.

Shortly after 9 a,m., while conducting a grid search of the area, one of the missing snowmobilers was spotted from the air. Those coordinates were relayed to SAR ground teams, one of which found Elliff around 10:15 a.m., Whitcomb said. A second SAR team found Druckrey about 400 yards southwest of Elliff about 15 minutes later.

The two men were in good condition and not in need of medical attention. The SAR ground teams guided the pair back to Trail 6, arriving around 12:45 p.m., where a tracked side-by-side was waiting to take the pair back to Kapka Butte Sno-Park.

Search and Rescue officials learned the two men had been able to make a small warming fire and had brought food, water, a map and a shovel, Whitcomb said. They also had placed one of their cellphones in airplane mode, to help conserve the battery.

Elliff and Druckrey had been riding on Trail 6 and inadvertently traveled downhill into the Bend watershed terrain. Whitcomb said the men realized they were lost around 6 p.m. and didn’t know which way to go to ride out of their location.

U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officers were standing by at Kapka Butte to speak with the men and made arrangements to help with the removal of their snowmobiles on Sunday.