By Mary Alice Murphy
Two groups of hikers spent Friday and Saturday's Christmas Eve trapped in the Gila Wilderness, but rescue arrived after the snow and windstorm passed, bringing a window of opportunity early afternoon on Sunday, Dec. 25, 2016, Christmas Day.
Marc Levesque, long-time member of the Grant County Search and Rescue Team, told the Beat that he, serving as incident commander, got the first call and activated a team on Friday afternoon, Dec. 23, to head out first thing Saturday.
A hiker from the first stranded group hiked his way out on Friday cross-country over rough terrain to reach the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument Visitor Center, where he alerted personnel to his group being trapped by high waters on the west side of the Gila River Middle Fork.
According to Levesque, this group of two other adults, two kids and two dogs from Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, had hiked out on Wednesday toward Jordan Hot Springs with the intention of hiking out on Friday.
"We set up the rescue team to go out first thing Saturday morning," Levesque said. "Late Friday evening, I got a second call from New Mexico State Police that another group was missing."
The second group's vehicle was parked at the same place as the first group's vehicles.
"The first group had been to and was returning from Jordan Hot Springs (which is accessible only by crossing the river several times) and had been trapped by a flooding and rising Gila River," he said. "The second group was four teenagers from Louisiana, who had driven 15 hours with the intention to hike to Jordan Hot Springs and out the next day."
Search and Rescue took hikers and horses to try to go in from Little Bear Creek, but the river there was also too deep. A rescue team headed out cross-country to the first group, but wasn't sure where the second group was.
"We suspected the second group was probably not too far away," Levesque said, "but we didn't know where."
The rescue team got to the first group Saturday afternoon by hiking cross-country and down to the river.
The second group was spotted about a mile-and-a-half away from the first group by a small helicopter on Saturday afternoon, but the helicopter didn't have the capacity to take them out.
Levesque said when the teens saw the helicopter they started climbing Big Bear Creek canyon. The Louisiana teens were told to stay in place and help would come as soon as it could.
"We got a helicopter from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and another from the New Mexico National Guard," Levesque said. "On Friday, since I knew the first group was in the Gila Wilderness, I got permission from the Forest Service to do whatever we needed to do, because it was definitely a life-threatening situation. It gave me a lot of options for getting them out."
"We had to wait out the weather system," he said. "They had rain, then snow and wind overnight Saturday. Our rescuers had to stay in place with the first group. I got information from the National Weather Service on when we might be able to get the two groups out. They were spot on for the window of opportunity and we extracted all safety Sunday afternoon. We all had a good Christmas present."
A Blackhawk helicopter hoisted out six adults, including the rescue team, two teens and the two dogs from the first group. A smaller helicopter from the Border Patrol was able to land and pick up the second group.
Levesque said all were taken to the Visitor Center where they warmed up and got food and drink.
One set of parents from Louisiana had flown to El Paso and drove to Silver City on Saturday hoping to get the teens out that afternoon, but they, too, had to wait.
"I checked my logs, and this was my 50th search and rescue serving as incident commander," Levesque said. "I've probably been involved in at least twice as many other incidents. This is the largest group, I've ever pulled out."
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"Grant County Search and Rescue is an all volunteer organization dedicated to training and willing to use our own personal resources to aid or rescue missing person(s) from the back country and mountains of New Mexico," the website http://gcsar-nm.org states. "The team was founded in the summer of 1978 and has been responding to Search and Rescue (SAR) missions since.
"The members of GCSAR come from all walks of life and various occupations and have a wide range of interests, experience levels and resources to offer the team.
"In 1991, Grant County Search and Rescue became a non-profit corporation within New Mexico and has a current federal tax-exempt status under IRS Section 501(c)3. Funding is very limited and comes from grants, member dues and donations."