Sadly, I’m sure this story will bane the New Mexico Search and Rescue community for a long time, but it’s a recurrent storyline of ineptitude within New Mexico governmental agencies and needs to be told. My way of dealing with it is publishing it here. I’ve since skied and named the chutes where this tragic event unfolded in my NM Backcountry ski guide book adjacent to where the crash site was in honor of Megumi Yamamoto and to remind everyone of this tragic and unnecessary catastrophe.
So, now that I’ve been tarred and feathered, it’s my turn to tell the real story of the helicopter crash that killed an innocent girl and splintered the New Mexico Search and Rescue community. I’m not all about being sour grapes, but this is the kind of history that needs to be told. It’s a story of many actors but at the end of the day there’s lessons to be learned from tragedy, and take aways not presented here that should help move forward in a way that is productive. My hope is that this story isn’t repeated and that the bad actors are known.
Leave it attorneys to hold a hearing, where facts can be withheld and edited at will, and to conjure a story without the facts. Thank goodness for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and an internal investigation by the SAR Review Board, yes TWO Boards outside of those making the accusations, to make sure what actually transpired was recorded in black and white, without the corrupt opinions of Santa Fe bureaucrats being upheld as truth or “findings of fact.”
Yes, not only were myself and my teammates thrown under the bus but so was the entire Mountain Rescue Association (MRA) team from the Albuquerque Mountain Rescue Council (AMRC). It’s funny how people who wield power and control can make false claims and trigger an avalanche of bullshit whereby the innocent have to defend themselves against, without being held responsible for their actions. Well, now it’s time. This seems to be a common occurrence, so take care and heed the warning. This is only another instance how people from the New Mexico State Police and their incident command system are inherently much like others within the same community, like the New Mexico Medical Board. But I won’t go any further here. I’ll let you, the reader delve into the details that are not made public anywhere else except here.
Is it a mystery why people move away from New Mexico? Here’s a great example of why. Read through the attachments and read the final conclusions of the official NTSB report where an actual full investigation was actually performed. The following is a deep dive to expose the real facts and let this sink in.
NM SAR REVIEW BOARD REPORTS (PART 1 and Part 2)
This includes not only my account but also others who were present in the field that day and gave witness to what actually transpired.
(Part+1)+Initial_report_606_Mission
(Part+2)+Initial_report_606_Mission
Want to know why I wouldn’t send AMRC members into the field? Here’s the skinny:
It was June and the snowfields were still covered where we were told to search. Coming from Albuquerque where the weather was “T-shirt and shorts weather”, the request for a response from AMRC did not include to be prepared for winter conditions. The rogue storm dropped more than 24″-36″ in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, unbenounced to us. Therefore, backcountry ski/travel equipment was not considered by us in Albuquerque initially, and no specific request for “winter rated responders” was made by the NM State Police ICS Commander. A good analogy might be that told us to bring a spoon to a gun fight.
It was this information that was lacking in their briefing. Moreover, most of the team members were not avalanche safety prepared with the appropriate equipment to be able to consider sending them into harms way in these circumstances. I simply in no way would neglect or compromise the safety of my team.
When it comes to avalanches, there’s an old adage about new cold dry over old warm wet. It’s more common in the maritime snowpack, but the same/similar conditions can exist anywhere, and they definitely were produced during this storm cycle. These specific conditions increase avalanche danger by creating a faceted weak layer as an interface between the old and the new snow, simply put.
So, avalanche danger was at least Considerable, if not higher for the 24-48 hours during the mission. But don’t take my word for it, just look at any avalanche bulleting in the Pacific Northwest when the similar conditions exist, it happens all the time. Why didn’t the ICS team have avalanche conditions as a consideration? Well, it was June…in New Mexico, and they didn’t have avalanche training. Here’s what the ICS staff had no idea about and failed to respond to when I asked them directly during the briefing:
If you’re interested in avalanche education, check out our AIARE avalanche courses we’ve been teaching for over two decades in Santa Fe and Taos HERE. Extra, extra, READ ALL ABOUT IT! Don’t like reading? Watch this YouTube video instead: https://www.youtube.com/embed/51njl0n_dvI?si=CqhbN5J8UEXSkubX Stephen Attaway’s presentation to AMRC ~ the raw truth and time for those who accused me, my colleagues, and my team to be perpetually accountable publically. So look at those who made the false accusations and are unable to cope with emergencies of this magnitude to find the real story. Blaming me for the death of a pilot and an innocent girl who didn’t need to die is incomprehensible. The incident commanders on this scene were incompetent. Using me and my colleagues as scapegoats for the ineptitude of those truly responsible is unfathomable. Moreover, their statements were not just slander, but also seditious libel, written and published in official NM State Police records. Playing the Chief of Police as a pawn for a narcissistic outcome is just as despicable. These actions by those involved in making the false allegations has far reaching effects and has done major damage to the people involved, but I guess that’s the intent. I can only hope that there are lessons learned so that good people will continue to be able to help those in need. I’ve been burned at the stake without so much as an apology. I hope that nobody has to go through what I’ve gone through. “No good deed goes unpunished.“ I went on to provide rescues, sometimes as a solo rescuer when no others would respond. I traveled great distances and performed rescues when other teams were nearby and didn’t respond. Sometimes people who called me directly because they knew I’d drop everything to go get them, even providing advanced medical care at no cost. I’m not a hero or a villain, I’m just capable of going to fetch, anytime, anywhere, under any conditions, that’s the facts. That’s all I wanted to do as a career since I was a child, I make no apologies for that, and that’s all I should be accused of. Many years have passed since positive action should have been established to educate NM Search and Rescue personnel about backcountry travel in avalanche terrain. In fact, a decade after this disastrous SAR mission, a fatal avalanche took the lives of two men in bounds at Taos Ski Valley. But no matter what, “an avalanche has one job, and that’s to kill you,” Warren Miller…”and SAR members are not exempt,” Beverly; here’s an example of a tragic avalanche fatality of SAR members. No mandates have been made by NMSP to rectify the situation that uneducated SAR responders venturing into avalanche terrain continue a liability to others and themselves. Personal Note: Perhaps the most difficult thing for me on this mission was that I realized that Megumi’s boyfriend (who walked into Advanced Base Camp with the NMSP from the Spirit Lake side) didn’t even know she had died in the helicopter crash. Nobody told him. He was crushed when I gave him the bad news, and it crushed me to be the one to have to give the horrific news to him. “God help you if you need to be rescued in New Mexico” ~ Anonymous I hope rescue in the mountains of NM will be fast and efficient someday. Sadly, it’s a long way off.
NTSB’s OFFICIAL REPORT
