A search and rescue operation on South Sister took a turn for the strange on Tuesday morning when a disoriented and dehydrated hiker had to be Tazed and subdued after he assaulted rescue workers near Moraine Lake in the High Country.
Sheriff’s deputies said Duncan Tyler Maring, 24 of Bend, was acting strange and in need of medical assistance when rescue workers arrived around 7:15 this morning. However, he was incoherent and aggressive when rescue workers came to his aid and became aggressive, picking nurses from the Air Link flight who first contacted Maring. According to a press release from the Sheriff’s office, the SAR team decided against airlifting Maring off the mountain because of his aggressive behavior. Instead he was transported out with a wheeled “litter” from the Devils Lake trailhead. Maring was brought to St. Charles and treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Maring was not arrested, however, sheriff’s deputies referred the incident to the Deschutes County Prosecutor’s Office for review.
Photo: Robert Crum, /1234rf.com
This article appears in Sep 15-21, 2011.
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bad trip? literally and figuratively?
Drugs. I’m an overweight middle-aged mother of three and I made the climb and back, by myself, with no real problems. I will wear sturdy hiking boots next time instead of tennis shoes.
Lost. Disoriented. Aggressive. I would get a tox-screen on him right away.
Aggressive combative behavior is a key sign of serious dehydration- Don’t say people should be drug tested for no reason based on ignorance.
Not only are you an old fat mother of three but your a narrow minded idiot old fat mother of three. I mean come on if you hike and know any first aid you would know the syptoms of severe dehydration. but noooo.. you just assume from your ignorant thought process that he was on drugs. “hes probably doing the pot.. help help save our children”. YOU FAIL
someone is not going to calm down after they are tazed if they have a metabolic disturbance like dehydration. I am not saying he was on drugs but yes that has to be a consideration. His actions were inexcusable whatever the case and he put peoples lives on the line. He should be responsible for the time these people took, the cost of the helicopter, etc.
Supposedly this is his second rescue off South Sister this year.
I happened to be in the second group that came across him. The first hikers found him at 7.15am. Called 911. Had trouble keeping contact with 911 due to ATT shitty coverage. We go there at 9.15am. They had been comforting the guy and trying to give him water, keep him warm etc until help arrived . Used my Virgin Mobile phone and was able to call 911 again. Heli dropped off 4 people at about 10am and they began treatment. Left them to it and continued up the mountain. Heard the Screams of being tazed when some 50 meters ahead. The heli came back twice more to drop off additional people to help get him off the mountain on a wheeled buggy whose tracks we followed all the way back down the mountain.
He said he’d climbed Broken Top the previous Day and had spent the Night on the summit of South Sister. We’d be on a lake some 10 miles south the previous day and had seen a huge thunderstorm form on South Sister about 2pm.
I too heard that he had been lifted off the mountain the previous Year.
I’m not going to Judge the Guy as I don’t know all the facts.
He’s a Human Being that needed Help . End of story