Canadian adventure racers to assist in search for missing adventurer Steve Fossett

Jacqueline Windh / 06.07.2008

When American adventurer Steve Fossett, who has set world records with his long distance voyages in airplanes, gliders, boats and hot-air balloons, disappeared last September, Canadian adventure racer Simon Donato was stuck to his computer, writing up his PhD thesis. Fossett had inexplicably vanished after heading out on a short flight in a borrowed private plane after taking off in western Nevada, near the California border.

Donato followed the story and the subsequent search on line. Like most of the world, he expected the intrepid Fossett to appear any day. But today, nearly one year later, in spite of ground searches and extensive aerial searches, there has been no sign of the adventurer or his aircraft. Fossett was declared legally dead this past February.

Simon Donato has a theory, though. Much of the search area is in the rugged and mountainous Sierra Nevada, with a thick forest cover that would easily obscure the wreckage of a small plane. This limits the efficacy of aerial searches - but the steep, rugged, heavily vegetated terrain is far too difficult for most ground searchers to traverse. So this is where the adventure racers come in!

Donato, along with five of his training and racing buddies, are heading out to California next week, to set out on a ground search. “We’ll focus on two things,” he told me. “One, the edges of the areas that have already been searched. And two, the areas with forest cover.”

Three of the team members: Donato himself along with Jim Mandelli and Derek Cavenay, are long-term participants in AR, and veterans of numerous big, international expedition races such as Eco Challenge, PQ, Raid the North Extreme, and XPD. Gary Hudson and Paul Trebilcock have competed in shorter adventure races in Canada. Greg Marshall is the only team member who hasn’t adventure raced, but he brings in strong skills as both an expert mountain biker and elite rock climber. Athletes Jeff MacInnis, an adventure racer and elite cyclist, and Ray Zahab, an extremely accomplished ultrarunner, plan to come down to join the crew for a few days as well.

The initiative for this search comes entirely from Donato’s interest in Steve Fossett. His team is receiving cooperation from search agencies including the Civil Air Patrol, and the Nevada Division of Emergency Management, who have provided Donato and his team full access to their files. An additional team member will be a California Deputy Sherriff, Greg Francek, who has also worked as staff for Eo Challenge and as an assistant race director for PQ. “He’s just another part of the extended AR family,” remarks Donato. Working with Francek in Base Camp will be Keith Szlater as the Base Camp and Logistics Coordinator, and paramedic Tyler LeBlanc.

I asked Donato if there is a reward offered for finding Fossett. “To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure. I think there was one offered at one point, but I think they may have withdrawn it. In any case, we’re not doing this for the money.”

Donato is excited by putting the incredible skill set that adventure racers have to good use. “ You know, races are great, but if this project can inspire other adventure racers to apply their abilities to other things, too, that would be the best thing. We have skills on the ground that almost no one else has. I’ve done lots of races, but this is completely different.”

The team will be based in California, near the border with Nevada. Donato has defined two prime search areas: one on the outskirts of Yosemite National Park, and another further north in the Sierras. The racers/searchers will plan to cover between 30 and 50 km per day on foot, in forest and high desert, and will return to base camp each night. (Sleep deprivation and living off various forms of sugar will not be requirements of this adventure!).

A health sciences study will also be undertaken in conjunction with the search efforts, under the direction of McMaster University researcher Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky. The search team are all undergoing a series of tests this week, such as body density and blood and urine tests; they will be re-tested following the efforts of the search week. The searchers will also be equipped with Suunto watches that monitor and record heart rate - the data will be downloaded later, and can be correlated with tracking information, to calculate things like how heart rate correlates with elevation or rate of climb.

The searchers will also wear SPOT tracking devices, and their progress in the field can be followed live, on-line, during the week of the search (July 12 to 20), at: www.adventurescience.ca
SleepMonsters will also be publishing live daily coverage of the team, posted straight from the field, so be sure to check back with us here that week.

“If we can solve this big mystery,” says Donato, “and give some closure to the Fossett family, that would be a really great thing.”