05/30/2022 – LCSO paged out RAT-SAR at 1452 on May 30, 2022 to search for a missing 33-year-old male. The subject had communicated to other hikers that he was lost. The hikers had made contact with the subject while he was on top of a cliff with no way to get down to the trail that the hikers were on. The hikers told him to stay put and they would hike around and show him how to get out. It took approximately 2-hours for the hikers to get to the subject’s last known point. When the hikers arrived at his location, the subject had already moved. The hikers immediately notified the sheriff’s office of the missing person. ALEA was paged out and a search helicopter was sent from Montgomery. At approximately 2130 hours the aerial searchers saw a light being flashed at them in a rough area of the Sipsey. Coordinates were relayed to ground search teams and they proceeded to move off-trail to the location. The subject was located with an injured knee and slowly walked out. All teams and the subject arrived back at the ICP at 0530 the next morning. The subject had been lost for 3 days and said he had not eaten and was drinking water from streams. The subject was off-trail in one of the most rugged areas of the Sipsey with no trail access and a lot of high-angle environment. RAT-SAR would like to thank the following mutual aid response teams for assistance on this call: Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office, NW AL K9, Huntsville Cave Rescue Unit, Fischer Rescue Squad and ALEA Aviation Unit.
