2/22/2025 - Mock Mission

The mission consisted of multiple people lost in the woods while snowshoeing. One of them was a snowshoer who was well prepared. 

Incident command had no contact with anybody in the party. Their vehicle was found in a parking lot. We had pings from their cellphone.

The weather was overcast with warm temperatures (30-35 degrees). The snow was well consolidated and had not changed for several days. 

 At base, we were put onto multiple teams. I was put into a grid-search team. We were assigned our grid. 

We travelled out to our search grid via snowmobile. Prior to beginning our search, our team lead determined two things: 

    1) Because the snow was consolidated from many days ago, the snowshoers tracks would be easily visible. 

    2) The likelihood is very high that if they had entered our grid, it would be from one of two grid sides: One side was against a snowmobile trail. The other side bordered another search grid. To make the grid search more targeted, the FTL asked the snowmobiles to run along one side of the trail (on the snowmobile trail) and see if any snowshoe marks had entered our grid. 

We began our search along the side that borders another grid. This would likely have us find snowshoe tracks as they entered the grid. 

We began our search. 

We came across showshoe tracks that (As the FTL predicted) entered our grid from the neighboring grid. There was a great deal of discussion once the tracks were found. 

Should we go into tracking mode...or should we continue type-2 searching? 

 The conversation was very strong in favor of tracking, however, in my learning I learned that grid searches are to search the entire grid. I expressed a minor difference in opinion, but let the FTL know that I am good with their decision either way. 

The decision was to switch to tracking mode and start following the tracks. I think about this decision point often. We found tracks. Should we follow the tracks, or should we continue grid-searching? If we follow the tracks, we *should* come across the subject; However these tracks could lead us to the edge of our grid or even to a 3rd party that went home several days ago. 

My concern was if we follow the tracks and they lead across the grid and then off the grid....then what do we do? If we follow the tracks and they take us on a wild path, what do we do? There was opportunity for a wild goose chase. If the tracks lead to a 3rd party, what should we do? My concern was tied to successfully "clearing the grid". 

 If we continued a Grid Search, It could very easily end up taking longer to find the subject. We would ultimately find the subject if they were in our grid, however a back-and-forth search may not be the most beneficial. 

What would you do? 

 Here is what happened: 

We followed the tracks that led us at an angle away from our current trails. The tracks made a turn and headed back into where we were actively searching. 

We performed a sound sweep. The subject answered. 

The location of the subject ended up being right in the path that we were headed on our Grid Search. If we had continued our Grid Search, we would have found the subject. When we followed the tracks we found the subject. 

Would either way have been faster? I am still unable to decide. 

Our FTL did a great job; They cut down the search by having the snowmobiles check one side of the grid and start on a likely adjacent side. I am sure they made the right decision with following the tracks, however this question still lingers with me: What if the tracks that we chose to follow led us astray?  

Ultimately, we performed care on the subject and escorted the subject directly out to the snowmobile trail. We were picked up by snowmobile and taken back to incident command. Why does this question bother me? I am not sure.