https://www.facebook.com/groups/417515222290570/user/1295540509/

Some of that unit is rough. Hope they find them.

I grew up hunting there. It's big and rugged. Verizon can't ping them? No surprise there. 75% of it has no cell service.
If she wants people to send her info, it would be useful to have a vehicle description, license #, physical description, anything. Considering the size of the unit, a general idea of where they went would be very helpful. Any search teams will need a lot more than that.

Maybe they don’t wanna be found…

Possible. Extremely improbable.

Not easy country or easy weather to be lost.

I've hunted Unit 39 many times. Rough country mainly. Here is just one tiny portion of 39.


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Hope the hunters are okay.

L.W.

Is there any snow accumulation yet?

Oh yeah. I’m not too far, and we have 3+ feet at those elevations already.

So they left home without written notice of where specifically they were going and at least their general plans? Sounds like it, and if so, then they are as clueless (literally) as that facebook message. Topo maps with a circle drawn on, and writing tools are cheap... but of course, all one needs in the wilderness is a cell phone......and a facebook account.

Cottonwood area

Hope those guys are prepared and have survival skills.

Relying on cell coverage to bail your azz out is not a good strategy.

My inReach has worked every time in remote AK.

Yes.
In reach mini is a couple ounces of worthwhile expenditure.

Any chance they got slid? Someone said 3 feet in that area?

It would surprise me if their social media activity didn't give some indication. Best friends are good sources. There are probably texts with friends that give a clue. Cell phone forensics will likely show enough of the route to help nail down a general starting location.

Good - they aren't as clueless as the facebook post indicated they might be . Yeah, if there is snow up there, a slide or fall could be it.Hope they are OK.

Wind loaded snow on the correct angle is very dangerous even this early in the season. You can’t rule it out.

We had 3 sheep hunters slid last October.

They were damn lucky.

https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2...lanche-near-hunter-creek/?outputType=amp

I’ve hunted that area for years. elevation ranges from 3400 to 7500 and is extremely steep. Likely a couple feet of snow at the higher elevations now.

It’s easy to get turned around if mountains get socked in with clouds. If you take a wrong ridge back down, it could put you miles from your vehicle. I’ve done it.

Temps have been cold this week

We had a good snowfall across so. Idaho this week. There's 2' not too far north of us...which is directly west of unit 39. I haven't been up Cottonwood in years but I remember it being dang steep.

They have been found. Keys were lost in the snow

Maybe with some girls they met at the Dirty Shame Saloon in Garden Valley

Good to hear.

Hey, I have gotten black out drunk there more than once. The GV Helitack party there in 98 was "epic".

Wife’s a nag.

LOL

How do you know if you were blacked out?

That's good news for them and their families. I'm sure many prayers were answered with that revelation.

Yay!

And that's another thing- I'm good at losing, locking, mis-placing chit... I nearly always have a spare set of accessible keys somewhere.
Our original weenie dog was forever getting up to look out the '95 Expedition windows and locking the thing up. (bad location/design) Fortunately, I only had to walk home once, the first time, a mere 7 miles. After that it was remove the keys AND have an accessable spare along. The '17 Expedition has a push-code panel on the door. I like that! I still carry a spare tho. I can remember the combo, but had to teach my wife a pattern. . Now, if I could reliably remember our home land-line phone number......

A couple years ago we parked a friend's borrowed ATV a mile up the mountain above the bad muddy rut section, along with our two machines for the next day's hunt. We had extra keys stashed in the truck for our two, but only one key for the friend's, and it was just on a short piece of brown shoe-lace.

Guess what turned up missing back at the truck? Found it 200 yards back up the road, 30 feet up trail . My wife had it in her jacket pocket and it pulled out along with the leash for the weenie dog. Whew! Had it been lost elsewhere, we likely would not have found it.

An inconvenience at most. Tows R Us.

There are now two spare keys, and all three are on colorful keepers. Same with the snow machines and trailer lock.

I'm not the only one, either. One year a father/son pulled in to the trailhead parking, and their only key along for one of their ATV's had joggled out of the ignition on the way up. It was 100 miles back to Fairbanks for their spare. They lost a day of hunting, but filled their permits the next day anyway. Me - I'd have hunted with just the one machine.

This thread reminds me - we have to order an Inreach, and a month's basic pkg activation is only about $20. Cheap chit-happens insurance.

Our remote cabin is 50 miles from the end-of-the-road landing, and we are getting too old for that, unsupported.