55 years later, North Valley Search and Rescue responding to a host of missions each year

In an inky black woods with northern lights glowing in the distance, a group of volunteers is literally learning the ropes in a steep forest of Douglas fir.

Instructor Deb Sullivan guides the 20-and 30-something-year-olds on how to use a ratchet pulley and properly secure ropes and other gear to a tree in order to haul a gurney up the slope.

It’s all part of their training as volunteers with North Valley Search and Rescue. The  Columbia Falls-based volunteer organization trains several times a month, both in the classroom and in the field.

On this night, the idea is to practice their response if a person is injured and they only have two or three people at a site and no air support to get the victim up a hillside, Sullivan explained.

Using a genius system of pulley and rope, a single person can easily pull a gurney up a hill, Sullivan explains. But getting the knots and the system correct takes plenty of practice, particularly on a cold night with just the light of a headlamp.

Sullivan, a Columbia Falls native, EMT and physical therapist by trade, has been with North Valley for 15 years now. 

When she first started she practiced tying knots in the dark, so she could tie one no matter what the environment or circumstances.

The organization was incorporated as a 501(c)3 in 1972, but the formation of the active volunteer group took place in 1970, when Bob Personett, 23, Columbia Falls, drowned in the North Fork of the Flathead River on June 29, according to a story in the Hungry Horse News in 2004.

They had just put in above Polebridge when the incident occurred. The others swam to the other side of the river, but Bob was caught in the boarding ladder on the boat, the 2004 story recalled.

Bob’s Personett’s mother, Bunny Personett, remembered “it was a long 40 days” before her son’s body was recovered. Bunny said “his brothers, nephews, other relatives and friends worked hard” in the watery search.

Founding member Jack Thompson recalled the volunteers “ran the river many times” during the following harrowing weeks. The search centered in the rough waters of the Coal Creek area. Pilot Bob Colby helped in the search, repeatedly flying over the area.

Bunny, who worked at Montana Veterans Home, talked to Supt. Dick Walsh. The former county sheriff said he “would get divers to go down.” Jack Von Lindern, Guy Heldstab and Don Elgin responded, and the body was located at the bottom of a log jam.

“Something good came out of it with the organization of North Valley Rescue,” Bunny recalled at the time.

In the 2004 interview, Jack Thompson said the rescue group “was formed right then,” when Dick Walsh got men together at the Veterans Home and suggested starting the organization.

Early members included Bud Darling, Harold Dumay, Jim Personett, Bill Walterskirchen, Don Elgin, Ken Downen, Don Gimbel, Bill Bartell and Stan Downen. Jack Thompson was one of the first presidents.

Today the organization is well-equipped to respond to just about any rescue situation in the North Valley, which has multiple mountain ranges and 114 miles of rivers. 

All told, there’s about 2,436 square miles of ground and plenty of water, like the 34-mile long Hungry Horse Reservoir.

The organization has several snowmobiles, a truck loaded with gear just for rope rescues, four wheelers, two jet boats and a host of other gear.

They respond to about 24 missions a year, noted spokeswoman Ruth Krager.

All told the organization has about 50 members, ranging in ages from their early 20s to late 70s, Krager said.

They train on an almost weekly basis in some facet of rescue and recovery. Of particular note is swiftwater rescue training, where volunteers learn to pluck stranded boarders and swimmers out of the area’s oftentimes treacherous waters.

In a typical year, they’ll spend about 2,500 hours on missions and 4,140 hours on training.

The bulk of calls come in the summer months, when the tourist season is at its height. August is often a busy month.

Times have changed as well. More people call from cell phones and not every call is a true rescue nowadays.

“We don’t have any judgment around those situations,” Krager said. “We’d rather they (hit the SOS) than not.”

If they do, a crew from North Valley Search and Rescue is ready to respond.

    North Valley Search and Rescue trainer Deb Sullivan, center, shows Elaine Scott rope techniques while Travis Whitfield, right, sets up a line.
  

    North Valley Search and Rescue Trainer Deb Sullivan, left, talks rope techniques with Brendan Seely, right and Travis Whitfield while Maya Zalewska works on a knot.