Imagine awakening from slumber on a winter camping trip in the Washington state wilderness to a buzz from a helicopter swooping down. The chopper pilot obviously has an urgent message to convey but landing is impossible and the loudspeaker is indecipherable. For several Mount Rainier campers, this was suddenly their reality on Monday.
The pilot's solution: coffee cups.
The group of campers, which included Natalia Martinez-Paz, her partner Brian Vogt, and their friend Jen Berthiaume, had been enjoying a New Year's camping trip in Mount Rainier National Park, oblivious to a massive manhunt unfolding Sunday.
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Benjamin Colton Barnes, a 24-year-old Iraq War veteran who showed erratic and suicidal behavior was suspected of fatally shooting 34-year-old park ranger Margaret Anderson. Anderson, a mother of two, had set up a roadblock when Barnes failed to stop at an earlier checkpoint. Barnes fled into the woods, setting off a manhunt 200 strong and a lockdown of the park's visitor center.
Tactical teams noticed the campers from the air. The group of friends had just the right kind of supplies Barnes would have needed to stay on the run, putting them in extreme danger if he found them. Initially the campers thought the helicopter above them was doing a routine exercise, but the pilot kept trying to tell them something through a loudspeaker, Vogt told the Seattle Times.
The message was too garbled to understand, so the pilot tried communicating in the only other way he could. He scribbled the urgent message on the side of a coffee cup and dropped it down: "A ranger has been shot shooter at large. Call on cell if able to Pierce Co Sheriff."
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Turning on their cell phones, the campers found they had no reception. So they started to pack up with plans to head to their vehicle, parked about a mile away. Down came another coffee cup with a new message: "Take road to falls and sheriff. We will keep an eye on you. Do not drive from Paradise w/o armed escort."
Helicopters watched the group, which soon encountered a tactical team on the ground. They made it safely to their car. Later, Barnes was found dead from exposure in nearby Paradise Creek.
The pilot's identity hasn't been released to the public but Vogt told the Seattle Times that the use of coffee cups for communication was innovative. "It was a brilliant idea," he said.
Image: Jen Berthiaume
Tags: Adventure, Hiking, Safety, Weird News, Winter
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