2 snowmobilers call for help, rescued SW of Bend

Two Bend men riding snowmobiles southwest of Bend called for help Friday evening and were rescued from a canyon in deep snow, although it turned out they weren’t stuck but had decided it was too dangerous to keep going after nightfall, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said.

Around 6:40 p.m. Friday, Deschutes County 911 dispatch got a call from a man reporting two stuck snowmobile riders, said Deputy Aaron Myers, assistant search and rescue coordinator.

The caller said he and others had been riding with the pair, Aaron De Moisey, 40, and Jeffrey Manfrass, 35, earlier in the day and had agreed to meet them in the Kapka Sno-Park parking lot, as they were going to ride off-trail, Myers said The man said he got a call from his friends, who told him they were stuck in a canyon and could not get out.

Myers said the man was told by dispatchers to have his friends call 911, and one of them did, reporting they were in the city of Bend’s watershed, along Bridge Creek Trail.

Deschutes County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue volunteers were requested to assist the pair and three volunteers responded to Kapka Sno-Park and deployed on snowmobiles to the area of the reportedly stuck riders, the deputy said.

After getting as close as they could to the two riders from Trail No. 6, the three volunteers hiked about 1.2 miles on snowshoes to the riders’ location, reaching them around 12:35 a.m. Saturday.

The SAR volunteers provided the two riders with snowshoes and they walked out to the SAR snowmobiles and were given a ride back to the sno-park.

Once there, Myers said, it was learned the snowmobiles were not stuck. “However, due to the hazardous conditions within the snow-park, the terrain and snow conditions, the riders determined it was no longer safe to proceed, especially with night approaching,” the deputy said in a news release.

Snowmobile riders traveling through the watershed must stay within 100 feet of the groomed trail, Myers said. More information regarding this can be found on the United States Forest Service website at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprd3827727.pdf.

Sgt. Nathan Garibay said enforcement action, if any, would be decided by U.S. Forest Service law enforcement after they complete any investigation.

“Whether ‘mechanically stuck,’ they were in a position that made them ‘practically stuck,'” said Garibay, the county’s emergency services manager and assistant SAR coordinator.

“The Forest Service looks into these situations and takes a number of factors into consideration,” the sergeant added.

Myers wrote, “The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office would like to encourage those traveling into the backcountry to have maps and/or GPS to help prevent … entering into restricted and/or closed areas.”

“We also encourage those to have adequate supplies and be prepared to stay the night in the outdoors, if the need arises,” he added.