At 32 years old, Kate Matrosova hiked the Presidential Mountain Range of the White Mountains in New Hampshire carrying light gear for a day hike. Unfortunately, she never made it out alive. Rescue teams attempted to reach her after she activated her communications device, but to no avail. Kate Matrosova was discovered a day later.
Lieutenant Mark Ober is the Lieutenant for District 1 with the New Hampshire Fish and Game. He frequently responds to hikers in distress and develops search and rescue missions to find them. He is also a member of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Dive Team. In this episode, he discusses the mission to find Kate, the difficulties surrounding it, and his role as a supervisor.
Bob Mancini is an award-winning Conservation Officer in New Hampshire. He has been a member of the advanced search & rescue team, dive team, honor guard team and K-9 team. He was also a regular on Northwoods Law. He speaks of his role in the rescue for Kate.
Matt Holmes is a New Hampshire Fish and Game Conservation Officer. He was also a regular on Northwoods Law, and is part of rescue operations. In this episode, he discusses the attempted resume of Kate Matrosova with the rest of the rescue team.
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Here's What We Discuss:
- The return of John Nores
- Q and A on April 26th via Patreon!
- Start of Lt. Mark Ober interview
- Matt and Bob: goal to get to coordinates
- Half mile off trail to get to coordinates, meet with MRS team
- Too cold to function
- Matt and Bob stay for backup, MRS team moves in
- When she wasn’t found at coordinates, everyone moves back down
- Start of Bob Mancini interview
- Decided to patrol on snowmobile
- Raced back to get essential gear
- Disbelief of how someone could be out
- My “Oh Shit!” bag
- Forgot to change my socks
- We were prepared to do what was required
- Utilized snowmobiles and then hiked
- Fight the inner demons to try and save a life
- Propane in stove froze
- Hot water would have been like hitting the lottery
- Should have slowed down and been a better teammate
- Matt’s headlamp
- Wayne’s rule: don’t call me the night before
- Stay on scene on the trail, MRS goes to beacon
- Loud and steady wind
- Even if we knew where she was, it might have been a critical incident
- Kate was an accomplished hiker
- Gear has became better
- Start of Matt Holmes interview
- Predicted to be bad weather for a while
- On snowmobile patrolling all day
- Coldest and most dangerous rescue
- Eyes are on the mountains
- Wind blowing over the summits
- Glad to be in my cruiser
- At first I was angry: salt in an open wound
- Carrying gear for overnight stays
- Sun goes down, temperature goes down
- Glen’s issues: it wasn’t his night
- Matt was the leader of the operation
- We had to function as a team to do things we usually did alone
- One team to bushwack to point, another on the trail
- Barely got stoves lit, water couldn’t boil
- All layers were on
- If something went wrong, will have to build a shelter
- Nobody wanted to stop
- MRS team stayed, the rest moved out
- I feel good about what we did
- Plenty of reasons to not send anyone that night
- Feelings softened toward Kate over time
- Perfect storm of cold and wind
Credits
Hosts: Wayne Saunders and John Nores
Producer: Jay Ammann
Social Media/Marketing: Morgan Day
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