Not sure where you got that from, Alpental patrol both paid and volunteer were active in that incident from the start.
My statement was gained from first hand quotes from leaders and members of the Mountaineer group who were in close proximity to the accident, at the time they met up with the first group(s) responding to the accident. This statement didn't suggest, and was certainly not meant to, cast aspersions on the Alpental patrol or any others in the rescue chain, who were responding in dangerous conditions with unknown threats in a most timely manner. Without getting into an in depth treatise on rescue procedures, I do know that the first responsiblity of the rescue coordinator - the Sheriff - and site leaders, is to prevent further injury or death to the rescuer and searchers. Secondly, to manage the rescue in as timely and resource efficient manner as possible. That being said, my comments reflected the unfortunate decision made by someone, which effectively lost the opportunity for the rescue effort to gain a significant number of available, trained human resources in the most timely manner. Obviously any rescue coordinator is forced to weigh both the potential benefits and negatives of throwing unknown (as to skills, training, mentality, etc.) volunteers into the dangerous dynamics of mountain rescue. Since we're all human, subject to our various bias and incomplete knowledge, it is critical that we gain knowledge from these tragic avalanche accidents - maybe we can do better before there's a next time.
The Alpental patrol has a very good relationship with KSAR. A couple of them found Dan Witowski. It was two of them that what up to Source Lake with a dog at request of KSAR to assess the avalanche conditions. They found the bodies with the dog and assisted in extricating the survivor. To my knowledge KSAR personel did not make the scene of the incident for the rescue.
