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Missing elk hunter found in forest
She survives a week in frigid temperatures with little to eat.
The Associated Press
November 5, 2002
ENTERPRISE — Searchers found a missing elk hunter alive Sunday after she went a week with little food, water or warm clothing in the frigid Wallowa Mountains.
Mischelle Hileman, 39, was found about nine miles northeast of Wallowa after being missing since Oct. 27, said Matthew Marmor, Wallowa County’s emergency services coordinator.
A BlackHawk helicopter from the 1042nd Medical Company, the Oregon Army National Guard unit stationed in Salem, flew her to St. Alphonsus Medical Center in Boise, where she remained in critical condition. A hospital spokeswoman said Hileman suffered from exposure and frostbite.
“I will simply say it’s a miracle,” Marmor said of Hileman’s survival in temperatures that dipped near or below zero during the week she was missing. “We are willing to accept the miracle.”
Hileman was wearing only a red fleece sweatshirt, pants, hiking boots and a baseball cap, but no coat. She had no way to make a fire during her long ordeal.
Marmor said one of the searchers, Bill Lehr, 44, of Wallowa was walking near the spot where Hileman was lying in a stand of old-growth timber, and Lehr called her name.
“She said, ‘Yeah,’” Marmor said. “She was conscious, she was in good spirits and good humor.”
Hileman had slipped and fallen the day she was reported missing and was unable to get out of a canyon, Lehr said.
She was about one mile from where she had planned to rendezvous with her father, Benny Hileman of Wallowa. She used up all the ammunition in her hunting rifle trying to signal rescuers.
Lehr said that when he found Hileman, she was breaking ice in a stream to get water.
Hileman told him she survived by eating berries and perhaps some moss, and had covered herself with fir and pine boughs to keep warm, he said.
“She had two different shelters that she made, and that helped a lot,” Lehr said. “But the length of time without any major food, lightly dressed, the severe temperatures. It is just amazing.
End article
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One lucky hunter. People who go into the mountains unprepared to stay the night or a couple nights keep S&R in business. Usually it's a body recovery.
She survives a week in frigid temperatures with little to eat.
The Associated Press
November 5, 2002
ENTERPRISE — Searchers found a missing elk hunter alive Sunday after she went a week with little food, water or warm clothing in the frigid Wallowa Mountains.
Mischelle Hileman, 39, was found about nine miles northeast of Wallowa after being missing since Oct. 27, said Matthew Marmor, Wallowa County’s emergency services coordinator.
A BlackHawk helicopter from the 1042nd Medical Company, the Oregon Army National Guard unit stationed in Salem, flew her to St. Alphonsus Medical Center in Boise, where she remained in critical condition. A hospital spokeswoman said Hileman suffered from exposure and frostbite.
“I will simply say it’s a miracle,” Marmor said of Hileman’s survival in temperatures that dipped near or below zero during the week she was missing. “We are willing to accept the miracle.”
Hileman was wearing only a red fleece sweatshirt, pants, hiking boots and a baseball cap, but no coat. She had no way to make a fire during her long ordeal.
Marmor said one of the searchers, Bill Lehr, 44, of Wallowa was walking near the spot where Hileman was lying in a stand of old-growth timber, and Lehr called her name.
“She said, ‘Yeah,’” Marmor said. “She was conscious, she was in good spirits and good humor.”
Hileman had slipped and fallen the day she was reported missing and was unable to get out of a canyon, Lehr said.
She was about one mile from where she had planned to rendezvous with her father, Benny Hileman of Wallowa. She used up all the ammunition in her hunting rifle trying to signal rescuers.
Lehr said that when he found Hileman, she was breaking ice in a stream to get water.
Hileman told him she survived by eating berries and perhaps some moss, and had covered herself with fir and pine boughs to keep warm, he said.
“She had two different shelters that she made, and that helped a lot,” Lehr said. “But the length of time without any major food, lightly dressed, the severe temperatures. It is just amazing.
End article
=======================================================
One lucky hunter. People who go into the mountains unprepared to stay the night or a couple nights keep S&R in business. Usually it's a body recovery.
