Cell phone helps searchers find stranded snowmachiner

WASILLA — A snowmachiner lost on Bald Mountain for a night was saved by his cell phone and good old-fashioned ground search.

David H. Conyngham, 25, of Wasilla left the home of his friend Ronald J. Payne II, 59, of Wasilla on Sunday for a snowmachine trip. At about 5 p.m. he text-messaged Payne to say his machine had broken down.

“The first text was he said the snowmachine died, couldn’t get it started and I guess he was going to walk,” Payne said.

If his friend’s phone had been working better, Payne said, “I was going to tell him not to do that, to stay with the machine.”

At 9:29 p.m., Payne reported his friend missing, according to Alaska State Trooper reports. Troopers launched a helicopter, which had to turn around due to heavy snow. So, troopers called in the Mat-Su Motor Mushers.

Mike and David Spain, brothers from Willow, took their machines out onto the trails. Mike Spain said it was a typical search, something he’s done a couple dozen times over the years. That is, it was typical, except for the high winds and snow blowing sideways. The snow, he said, was up to his armpits, but he had snowshoes.

“That’s a big mountain to cover when you can’t hardly see anything,” Spain said, adding he knew he was needed when the helicopter had to turn around. “Usually I hate going out, because you’re competing with the helicopter. They’re going to find him first.”

Spain searched through the night for about 12 hours, he estimates. He went to the top of a ridge looking for Conyngham then came back down the mountain.

Finally, at 8:48 a.m. Monday, searchers found Conyngham’s snowmachine, Spain said. “It was completely buried. It took me and my brother to pull it out.”

Spain gave the GPS coordinates of the snowmachine to troopers.

That morning, Payne took to the air to look for his friend in his Super Cub. He was radioing back and forth with a National Guard helicopter.

According to troopers, the chopper spotted Conyngham at 10:30 a.m. He was flown to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, evaluated, found to be unhurt and released.

“He walked probably three-quarters of a mile from his snowmachine,” Payne said. “Which wasn’t a good move, but he didn’t know.”

Spain said the only mistake Conyngham made was going out alone.

Payne would add that his friend, who is a recent transplant to Alaska, could have used more emergency equipment.

“I gave him a lighter,” he said. “I told him, ‘You should never leave home without this.’ He had two and a half gallons of gas on the back of his snowmachine. If he’d had a way to light it he would have been fine.”

Payne said that Conyngham was close to hypothermic when he was found. Another night out would not have been a good idea.

But, he said, “He’s doing fine; pride got a little hurt is all.”

It was a “good learning experience,” Payne said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.