Busy local search & rescue

The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue team assisted on three separate missions in the county Friday night.

At around 5:54 p.m., a proxy was dispatched to an injured hiker near Broken Hand, a small peak northeast of Broken Top. Matthew Condon, 32, from Forest Grove fell and needed immediate medical attention and evacuation. Air Link transported three SAR volunteers from St. Charles Medical Center to the Condon site, who were stabilized and moved to the area where the helicopter could land and sent back to St. Charles. The local SAR volunteers escorted another hiking partner and their dog back to the trailhead at Three Creeks Lake. All SAR volunteers were back in their quarters and secured at 2:15 a.m.

At 8:07 p.m., a proxy was informed of a lost hiker near the South Sister Climbers Trail. Giuseppe Amato, 36, from Vancouver, Washington, broke up with his group on the trail. He walked back to the trailhead alone, made the wrong turn, and landed on the Pacific Crest Trail. He shared with the rest of his group that he was lost shortly before his phone died. SAR volunteers were dispatched to the area to start checking the trails and left a note for the hiker in his vehicle to call 911 when he got back to his vehicle. Just before noon, Amato made his way to the Cascade Lakes Highway, about five miles south of Devils Lake, stopped a driver and was driven back to his car, where he found the note and called. All SAR volunteers were back in the quarters and secured at 1:41 a.m.

At about 10:40 p.m., a proxy was dispatched to a lost motorist near Fredrick Butte Road, which is on the south side of Highway 20 East between Brothers and Hampton. Dispatch gave the deputy the coordinates for the missing driver Rose Jardine, 32, from Portland. She had left all the streets and was driving through a vast area of ​​sage bushes. The policeman tried to phone the driver back to a street, but failed. The deputy drove out of the area, located the lost driver, and led him back to Highway 20.