Originally published June 12, 2006 in MeetingNews
A search for two conference attendees who spent three bone-chilling nights lost in the mountains high above Palm Springs was delayed for more than 36 hours apparently because meeting organizers failed to notice they were missing.
The incident provides a cautionary tale about the potential tragedies that can befall groups when planners fail to follow proper procedures for keeping track of attendees.
"There's a safer way to handle these things," said Brandon Day, who with his girlfriend, Gina Allen, was attending a financial conference last month at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort when the pair wandered off a trail in the San Jacinto Mountains.
Day and Allen had joined a group of about 40 other attendees for a ride on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to Mount San Jacinto State Park. A premier attraction in the Palm Springs area, the tram carries passengers about two-and-a-half miles from the desert to its mountain terminus, at an elevation of more than 8,500 feet.
The tour, on Saturday, May 6, was offered through the conference sponsor, Securian Financial Group, of St. Paul, Minn., according to Day, a financial advisor with a Securian subsidiary, Martin Financial Group.
In addition to the tram ride, the tour consisted of about two hours at the tram's mountain station. Some participants dined in the station's restaurant, taking in the spectacular view of the desert, more than a mile below, while others walked on trails leading from the station into the park, most of which is designated wilderness.
Day and Allen, both in their 20s and from the Dallas area, left the trail to pursue the sound of a waterfall. They found the waterfall but took a wrong turn on their way back to the trail. Thus began their ordeal. Lightly dressed and without food, they wandered through areas with patchy snow on the ground before heading down a gorge in an attempt to reach civilization. Occasionally they could access a stream for water, but more often the rugged terrain made that impossible. They huddled in makeshift shelters at night in a mostly futile effort to keep warm as temperatures fell into the 30s.
Miraculously, on Monday afternoon they found the abandoned camp of a hiker who went missing the year before and is presumed dead. Among his belongings were a fleece pullover and a few pairs of socks, but more important, matches. They lit a campfire, but the fire created too little smoke to attract attention. They extinguished the fire at night, fearing the campfire would light nearby dry brush.
However, on Tuesday morning, a desperate Day set ablaze a large patch of brush, which caught the attention of a helicopter rescue crew. The couple were found about three to four miles from the tram station, according to Sergeant Earl Quinata of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.
A missing persons report on Day and Allen was not filed until late morning Monday when Allen's sister, who works in the same office as Allen, became alarmed when her sister failed to show up for work and notified authorities.
"If we had known that two people were missing, we would have launched a search on day one," said Quinata.
The tour group had waited for Day and Allen about 20 minutes but then returned to the hotel, presuming that the couple had left early and taken a taxi back, Day said an attendee on the tour told him.
The destination management company that conducted the tour, West Coast Transportation & Events, apparently failed to notify Securian meeting organizers that Day and Allen had not returned with the group. It also appears the meeting organizers failed to ask the DMC about the status of all attendees when the tour concluded. Securian and West Coast Transportation declined to comment for this story.
Day said probably nobody at the conference of about 950 people noticed that he and Allen were missing because the conference concluded that Saturday, with a buffet and party planned for the evening, and most everyone departed the next day.
"It was a party atmosphere," said Day. "There was no assigned seating. People were coming and going. It was easy not to miss someone."
As an alternative scenario, West Coast Transportation may have informed Securian officials that Day and Allen had not returned with the group, and the Securian officials failed to act on the information. But Day said he believes the former scenario is more likely, based on his discussion with the other attendee on the tour.
"At the very least, you notify someone when people don't come back," said Day. "I'm wondering why that never happened."
Scott Scott, chief guide for Trail Discovery, which frequently leads meeting groups on hiking tours in the Palm Springs area, seconded Day's sentiments.
"When you don't have everybody back on the bus," he said, "there has to be a procedure that is put into action immediately, unless people have made arrangements to take a cab. But even then, you have to make sure they got back safely."
Notifying the meeting organizer about people not returning with a tour is also standard procedure for PRA Palm Springs, part of the national PRA chain of destination management companies.
"If some people don't show up when the coach is ready to return, we get an OK from the group's meeting planner before we leave," said Bob Carey, president of PRA Palm Springs.
If tour members tell the PRA guide that they plan to return on their own, PRA also conveys that information to the group's meeting planners, according to Carey.
"These are adults we're dealing with," he said. "If they decide they want to hire a cab to take them back, that's their prerogative. But it's the guide's responsibility to provide that information to our operations manager, and the operations manager's responsibility to provide that information to the client meeting planner."
PRA checks in tour group members by name at the beginning and does a head count on the coach before heading back. For the tram tour, PRA also counts heads on the mountain as tour members board tram cars for the ride down.
Carey said tour group members are briefed during the bus ride to the tram; they are instructed to stay in the tram station once on the mountain or on the path behind the station.
A well-marked hiking path circles the meadow behind the tram station Day and Allen were on it when they became lost. Beyond that, hikers are required to obtain a wilderness permit at the ranger station.
As it turns out, getting lost while hiking in the San Jacinto Mountains is not a rare occurrence. Rescue crews are called out to search for lost hikers about once a month during the summer, according to Eddie Guaracha, state park superintendent.