Skamania County experienced a sixfold increase in search and rescue operations during the first quarter of 2025 over the same time period last year, the county sheriff’s office reported Tuesday.
Thirteen rescue operations were conducted from January through March of this year versus two during the first quarter of 2024, said Sgt. Ryan Taylor, Skamania County search and rescue coordinator.
The county is consistently in the top three counties in Washington with the highest number of search and rescue missions, Taylor said, but this increase is still dramatic.
It all comes down to a lack of preparedness on the part of people venturing into the outdoors, Taylor said.
“They think they can do it, but they’re not prepared for the weather, they’re not prepared for the difficulty,” Taylor said. “These persons are not in good shape, and they think they can go hike a four, five or six-hour hike and they can’t do it. Being ill-prepared is probably the No. 1 cause of search and rescue for us.”
Taylor said he could only speculate as to why there’s been such a dramatic increase in Skamania County search and rescue missions this year, but one theory is that many trails on the Oregon side of the Columbia River are still closed after the mammoth 2017 Eagle Creek Fire that burned 48,000 acres. He said he expects even more hikers to cross the river in the future, searching for recreation in Washington.
Taylor estimated that 99 percent of search and rescue operations in Skamania County are conducted on behalf of people who don’t reside in the county, including overconfident visitors from Seattle.
The county stretches across 1,600 square miles from the Columbia River to north of Mount St. Helens, as well as a portion of Mount Adams, and 90 percent of that land belongs to the U.S. Forest Service, Taylor said. However, the county has only 12,000 residents, he said.
“Only 10 percent of our county is privately owned,” Taylor said. “That’s why people come here, to escape the cities, but then they get themselves in a predicament.”
These situations really stretch the county’s limited resources, Taylor said. Each operation can involve not only volunteers from Skamania County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue but also volunteers with other regional teams, like the Silver Star Rescue Team and Volcano Rescue Team. One search and rescue mission on Feb. 22 for an injured hiker on Table Mountain involved a dozen different agencies, including air support from the Whidbey Island Naval Air Base and the U.S. Coast Guard. Harsh weather and deep snow made access difficult and personnel had to come in on foot, Taylor said.
Not all rescue missions are for hikers. With 28 square miles of water, there are plenty of opportunities for boaters, paddlers and swimmers to get in a jam. Two of the 13 search and rescue operations involved kayakers. One was pronounced dead at the scene.
Other operations involve vehicles like snowmobiles or cars and trucks that have gone off-road, like the family with an infant that got stuck in the snow off Forest Service Road 54. One woman with dementia wandered too far into the woods with her dogs, Taylor said. Her dogs came home but she didn’t, so deputies were dispatched to do an initial search. This is common in cases involving missing children or elderly so that precious time won’t be lost while search and rescue volunteers, many of whom live some distance outside Skamania County, are traveling to the rescue site.
Only one incident was drug-related.
“One person decided to hike Dog Mountain with his friends, all on mushrooms,” Taylor said.
That rescue required the efforts of Skamania County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue volunteers, as well Skamania County Emergency Medical Services. It ended well, but every operation involves the potential for serious injury and death — not only for those who are rescued but also for those who are risking their lives to do the rescuing, Taylor said.
“They are all volunteers. It’s amazing,” Taylor said. “We could not do it without them. Many, many lives would be lost without them.”
