Outdoors
Rec
B
Saturday, October 30, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
SATELLITES & SEARCHES
Handheld devices that work
without cell signals proved their
value earlier this week in the
snowy Wallowa Mountains
Union County Search and Rescue/Contributed Photo
Volunteers donned snowshoes to reach a man stranded in the Wallowa Mountains on Monday, Oct. 25.
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
A search and rescue operation
tends to be considerably simpler
when you take away the search
part.
The handheld devices that link
to satellites orbiting Earth, and
allow people to communicate
even in places where cell signals
can’t penetrate, make it increas-
ingly likely that rescue crews,
before they start, will know pre-
cisely where they need to go,
Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash
said.
“They’re becoming more
common to have them out there,”
Ash said on Wednesday, Oct. 27.
While describing one such
recent episode, the sheriff, who
has been involved in many
searches since joining the Sher-
iff’s Office in 2005, was still
deficient on sleep after going 36
hours without so much as a nap.
Ash coordinated the rescue
of Robert Derald Borders, a
67-year-old Baker City man who
was stranded by an unusually
potent autumn storm in the Wal-
lowa Mountains earlier this week
that brought two feet of snow
followed by torrential rain and
winds strong enough to topple
trees.
Rescuers from Baker and
Union County search and rescue
teams reached Borders about
2 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 25.
He didn’t need medical treat-
ment and was able to ride his
Union County Search and Rescue/Contributed Photo
Deep snow made it difficult to use vehicles during a rescue operation in the Wallowa Mountains on Monday, Oct. 25.
horse back to the trailhead,
guided by the rescuers.
Although the operation was
severely hampered by weather
that in its severity shocked
even Ash, an experienced out-
doorsman, the sheriff said Bor-
ders’ use of a Garmin inReach
satellite device helped immensely.
The unit allowed Borders to
send text messages to friends,
who then alerted the Sheriff’s
Office to his plight about noon on
Sunday, Oct. 24.
Equally important, the device
pinpointed his location, so res-
cuers didn’t waste any time in
potentially fruitless searching.
“If we didn’t know where he
was, and had to search all that
area, that’s a multi-day event,”
Ash said. “Having that precise
location, we just had to figure out
how to safely get to him.”
Chris Galiszewski, coordinator
for the Baker County Sheriff’s
Office Search and Rescue team,
said the devices, which gener-
ally cost between about $300 and
$600, can truly be life-savers.
“We’re not guessing where
people are,” he said. “We know
where people are.”
Galiszewski said the satel-
lite devices are especially useful
in places such as Northeastern
Oregon where cell service is lim-
ited, or completely absent, in
many places.
The southern Wallowa Moun-
tains, where Borders was over-
taken by the storm, is one such
region.
Ash said he had only marginal
service on his phone even when it
was plugged into a signal booster
in his vehicle.
But the Garmin inReach and
similar devices sold by other
manufacturers use satellites,
which cover pretty much every
patch of ground on Earth.
With such a device, users can
send brief text messages — usu-
ally limited to 160 characters —
to a predetermined list of cell-
phone numbers, Galiszewski said.
The units also have an emer-
gency button that will send a
signal to a dispatch center, he
said.
In addition to the cost of the
device, users pay a monthly fee
for the satellite service.
Garmin, for instance, charges,
$11.95 per month for its basic
plan, which includes 10 text
messages.
See, Searches/Page B2
Handgun training class creates a new pistol fan
TOM
CLAYCOMB
BASE CAMP
K
erry LaFram-
boise, who owns
Watchmen Tac-
tical Training, offers
Handgun Training, Rifle/
Shotgun Training, Defen-
sive Training and Business/
Church Training. The other
day my wife, Katy, signed
up to take his Handgun
Training class. She wanted
me to take it with her but I
was going to be out of state.
I’d told her to take a .357
Magnum since a revolver is
simpler and more depend-
able. Well, Friday night she
called me to tell me about
the class. She was super
excited and told me about
the day and all that she had
learned. Then she told me
how all of the other women
in class were shooting Sig
Sauer 9 mm’s. She was
Tom Claycomb/Contributed Photo
On the first trip in to Stockpile Defense Zach is showing Katy how to
properly clean her pistol.
excited to the max, then
she blurts out: “Tom, I just
bought a new pistol” and
proceeded to tell me about
it.
Like I said above, when
I left I’d told her she ought
to use her .357 Magnum.
But that advice got thrown
out the window before the
wheels of the plane I was
in got off the ground. But
it didn’t end there. If she
bought a new pistol, she
needed a new holster, didn’t
she? Of course. Then she
needed a stout belt so it
wouldn’t twist when she
pulled out her pistol and of
course she’d need a black
belt and a brown belt to go
with her different outfits.
Then of course what good
is a new pistol if you don’t
have any ammo so she had
to buy plenty of that, didn’t
she?
Katy always tells me that
I’m the eternal tightwad
but we all want our wife to
jump off the deep end with
us and buy guns, fishing
rods and 4-wheelers, don’t
we? So I couldn’t say a
word to discourage delin-
quent behavior.
I was flying home
Friday night about mid-
night and she informed
me that we had to run to
Stockpile Defense which
is where she bought her
pistol so she could learn
how to tear down her pistol
and clean it, and then we
had to go shooting. (I think
I’m going to like this new
Katy). I had plane prob-
lems and spent the night
in Minneapolis and didn’t
get home until Saturday
midafternoon. Didn’t
matter, she picked me up at
the airport and it was off to
the gun shop.
I was freshly reminded
of why you want to deal
with local privately owned
businesses instead of big
box stores. The crew at
Stockpile Defense is over
the top on their service.
Zach took us in the back-
room and demo’d every-
thing she needed to know
about disassembling and
cleaning her pistol. They
made her feel like the only
customer in the world.
In the meantime, I just
got a Mantis X10 Elite
Shooting Performance
System. It is a cool deal and
would take a whole article
to explain. But in a nut-
shell, you can attach it to
your pistol, rifle or bow and
using an app, it can be used
for dry firing or live firing
to show where your shot hit
and how much you’re wob-
bling, etc. It’s a cool deal.
I’m going back to Stockpile
Defense today after I get
in a few articles and have
one of their experts on the
Mantis system teach me the
ropes.
Now the downside to
all of this. On the Mantis
System Katy shot a 94%
and me ... well, it was a lot
lower. I’ve had pistols since
the seventh grade but I’m
still a horrible shot with a
pistol. Maybe I better go
take one of Kerry’s classes.
Not only can my wife out-
shoot me, now I’m scared
to come home. Or at least I
may have to straighten up
a lot!
(This was a light-hearted
article but you need to be
proficient with your pistol.
Just this afternoon after
school my daughter was
going to stop by the Boise
mall to grab a birthday gift
for a friend. Thankfully she
had forgotten something
and had to run by home
first. At that very time the
shooting at the Boise mall
occurred.)