Passing snowmachiners rescue man wandering Yentna River for 4 days

WILLOW — A Talkeetna man likely owes his life to passing snowmachiners who hauled him to the Yenta Station Roadhouse Saturday after he became stranded four days prior due to mechanical trouble with his own snowmachine.

Snowmachiners discovered Terry Connell, 68, of Talkeetna, alone, wandering on the Yentna River, about 22 miles west of Willow, and transported him to the roadhouse, authorities and witnesses said.

Connell owns property in the area, and told authorities he had been walking alone in the roadless wilderness for four days after mechanical problems with his snowmachine, according to an Alaska State Troopers media report.

First responders told the men who discovered Connell to stay put while they dispatched an emergency medical helicopter to the scene, according to Jean Gabryszak, who, along with husband, Dan, owns the Yentna Station, a traditional stop along the Iditarod Trail.

“He said he’d been walking for four days,” she said.

When Connell had been laying on the ice of the frozen river for more than two hours, snowmachiners decided to move him to the roadhouse, where they could keep him warm, Gabryszak said. They were told an Anchorage emergency medical helicopter was unavailable, and a Kenai-area helicopter was recalled to deal with a cardiac arrest on the peninsula, Gabryszak said.

The Rescue Coordination Center, which coordinates the efforts of specially trained Air National Guard units in the area that respond to emergencies, was placed on alert, according to troopers.

By the time a helicopter did eventually respond to the roadhouse, almost six hours had elapsed from the time the first report was made, Gabryszak said.

“It should have gone to the guard,” she said. “For it to be a three-hour response time is just not right.”

Connell was fortunate in more ways than one. A First Aid Class being held at the Roadhouse that evening was on hand to treat him, Gabryszak said.

“How to take care of him was most of the class, just in terms of warming blankets,” she said. “He (Connell) was in bad shape. His hands were a deep red-purple color, and very swollen.”

Emergency responders transported Connell to an Anchorage-area hospital for treatment. Connell did not appear in the patient registry of either of the major hospitals Monday afternoon. That could mean he was treated and released, or simply that he had elected not to be listed.

Frostbite is the most common type of injury the Roadhouse sees, Gabryszak added.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.