Mountain Rescue: A True Story of Unexpected Mercies and Deliverance

By Shelli Owen, Mary Owen Grimm and Bruce Owen

During spring break in March 2013, Mary Owen, a twenty-three-year-old student at George Fox University, went missing.

She was an avid adventurer and outdoor enthusiast who had previously hiked the 2653 mile long Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).

This is a story of the a

• Language: English
• Publisher: Words in Time
• Release date: Dec 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781737054252

Book preview

Mountain

Rescue

a True Story of

Unexpected Mercies and Deliverance

Compiled and written by Shelli Owen

Cowritten with Mary Owen Grimm and Bruce Owen

Mountain Rescue: A True Story of Unexpected Mercies and Deliverance

Copyright © Shelli Owen (2021). All rights reserved.

Publisher: Words in Time

https://www.wordsintime.net

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author/publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes from the Bible were taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Developmental Editor: Linda Ruggeri, The Insightful Editor

Copy Editor: Jen Anne Becker

Book design services through Melinda Martin, Martin Publishing Services

Cover design by Rachel

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021907994 (for regular non-expanded edition)

ISBN: 978-1-7370542-3-8 (paperback), 978-1-7370542-4-5 (hardback), 978-1-7370542-5-2 (epub)

Additional material, including copies of police reports, news articles, and other items of interest may be accessed through the Mountain Rescue website at: https://www.mountainrescue.online/

To the Messianic Jewish woman

Who prayed this book into existence

and

To God, who sent our Rescue

Contents

Mount Hood Winter

Introduction: A Tapestry

1: Where on Earth?

2: On The Road To Disaster

3: How It Began

4: Introducing Mount Hood

5: This Is Where People Die

6: She’s Missing!

7: The Search Begins

8: We Surrender

9: Glacial Silence

10: The News Spreads

11: Still Missing

12: Heading up to Mount Hood

13: You’re Alive!

14: A Joyful Reunion

15: Saturday at the Hospital

16: Resurrection Celebration

17: Awe and Gratitude

18: Public Opinion and Our Response

19: Our Heroes

20: Hospital, Surgeries, and Recovery

21: Media Attention

22: Home Again!

Afterword

Appendix A: Resurrection Eggs

Appendix B: Blogs

Appendix C: Photographs of Leg and Leg Gash

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

Mount Hood Winter

Mt Hood in Blue, by Katie Reim / FinalSwitchback

Part of An Ancient Song

I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;

He heard my cry for mercy.

Because he turned his ear to me,

I will call on him as long as I live.

The cords of death entangled me,

The anguish of the grave came over me;

I was overcome by distress and sorrow.

Then I called on the name of the Lord:

Lord, save me!

The Lord is gracious and righteous;

Our God is full of compassion.

The Lord protects the unwary;

When I was brought low, he saved me.

Return to your rest, my soul,

For the Lord has been good to you.

For you, Lord, have delivered me from death,

My eyes from tears,

My feet from stumbling,

That I may walk before the Lord

In the land of the living.

Psalm 116:1-9

Introduction

A Tapestry

Tapestry ~ a heavy ornamental fabric, often in the form of a picture… made by weaving coloured threads into a fixed warp; a colourful and complicated situation

Collins English Dictionary

This is the true story of the misadventure and rescue of our daughter, Mary Owen, a college student, who in the spring of 2013 became stranded alone on Sandy Glacier on Oregon’s Mount Hood for six days and nights. It is also the story of her diverse community who united with us in prayer and support for her to be found, and then to be healed. Finally, it is the story of how God showed the reality of His Presence with us through His mercies and deliverance.

This story is a tapestry—a retelling that intertwines various sources.

I’m Shelli, Mary’s momma, the main narrator and weaver of the threads of this tapestry. Mary’s dad, my husband Bruce, is another key voice, as is Mary because this story is based on events surrounding her choices.

Since much of this narrative is about how her actions affected other people, we have given many of those who were directly involved a voice in the telling.

I know many people prefer that God not be spoken of or believed in; however, from our perspective this account wouldn’t be honest or complete without our recognition of God. Our purpose isn’t to convert anyone, but to share our story and what we believe the Lord did for us. If you aren’t a believer in God or His ability to work in unseen ways, I hope you will bear with us, and maybe even allow yourself to temporarily suspend an absolute conviction that the material world is all there is, that there can’t be unseen, supernatural forces, and that only what the five senses convey to our minds is real. Whatever your attitude is toward God, I invite you to consider all you can in a different light as you travel with us through this story, to figuratively wear our shoes—or our glasses, if you’d rather go barefoot like Mary.

After Mary’s incident, many people told us that she owes us all a book! They wanted to know the entire story, and they wanted to hear it from her. However, she has been reluctant to share her story. What she went through on the mountain is extremely difficult for her to retell. Whenever she does, in large measure, she relives what happened. It was both spiritually and literally an intensely cold, desolate, painful, and at times confusing experience for her.

Ever since Mary’s incident on Mount Hood and the Lord’s merciful intervention on her (and our) behalf, I’ve felt His nudge to compile and publish this story.

No story is ever truly complete or accurate. People see and remember things from different perspectives. We also acknowledge that there are always things we could have, and maybe even should have, added. For the sake of space, we had to compromise. If there are things you really think we should have included, or errors, please let us know. We will welcome any missing or corrected material as we may print a revised edition in the future.

If you’re willing, we’d love to hear this story’s significance for you. And we do hope it will be significant in some way. For anyone who reads this story, who recognizes their own natural propensity to err—sometimes majorly—we pray this story gives you real hope for your own deliverance from the immovable mountains in your life.

Author’s Note: There were often Facebook posts and comments, also some emails I had to omit from those series which are included in this book. I had to leave some things out for the sake of readability and space. For the same reason, some of the posts, comments, and emails included are not in the exact order in which they were shared with us.

My Life is but a Weaving

An Old Poem, first attributed to Florence M. Alt

My life is but a weaving

Between my God and me.

I cannot choose the colors

He weaveth steadily.

Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow;

And I in foolish pride

Forget He sees the upper

And I the underside.

Not ’til the loom is silent

And the shuttles cease to fly

Will God unroll the canvas

And reveal the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful

In the weaver’s skillful hand

As the threads of gold and silver

In the pattern He has planned

He knows, He loves, He cares;

Nothing this truth can dim.

He gives the very best to those

Who leave the choice to Him.

1

Where on Earth?

(Thursday, March 28, 2013)

Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.

Allen Saunders, Publishers Syndicate

Our family was living in a tranquil, airy, cabin-like home that was situated in rural McMinnville, Oregon, amid the ferns, on a wooded hillside, and near a gurgling creek that ran year-round. The weather had been unseasonably warm and sunny all week, not like the usual mostly rainy, often stormy weather of springtime in the Pacific Northwest. While I was thoroughly enjoying the sunny days and a very peaceful spring break—having had the house to myself since the previous Saturday—a proverbial storm was beginning to brew only seventeen miles away in Newberg.

Tuesday (March 26th), Beth, a good friend and fellow student of Mary’s at George Fox University (GFU) in Newberg, Oregon, sent this message to Mary via Facebook:

Hey friend, what's up!?! Haven't heard from you... still wanting to adventure this week?

Wednesday (March 27th), Izzy, also a friend of Beth’s and a close friend of Mary’s, as well as one of Mary’s two college roommates, messaged her:

Alright. That's it. I am officially worried about you. Had dreams you had your foot cut off and that's why you're not home yet, because you're in some hospital. Where the heck are you?! Why haven't you emailed Beth or me? She relayed your last email to her about coming back Sunday or Monday and here we are at WEDNESDAY, MARY! Bah. …I am really worried about you; it doesn't seem like you to just ditch us and not keep in contact. Please let me know you're okay. If I don't hear back from you by tomorrow, I'll try calling your padres. Sorry in advance for potentially worrying them, but if you're stranded or stuck somewhere you just might thank me later.

Love you always,

Izzy

Thursday morning, March 28, 2013, I got a phone call from Izzy, asking if I knew where Mary was. I didn’t. I hadn’t heard from her all week.

Izzy told me Mary was supposed to meet up with her and other friends on Monday and she never showed. She was also supposed to meet Izzy for coffee on Wednesday, though Mary had also said she might hike Mount Hood on that day, early in the morning. Either way, she hadn’t been in contact with Izzy at all regarding any of these plans. She had also talked about revisiting a section of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) for an extended hike somewhere, and she hadn’t indicated exactly where on the trail or how long a stretch she might do. Izzy was starting to get worried.

Izzy confessed Mary had asked her not to tell anyone about any of these plans, because she didn’t want people (mainly Bruce and me) to worry. She also related that up ‘till now, she and a few of her other friends had all been a little miffed at her, imagining she had gone off on some adventure without them. Although they were all still somewhat mad at her, they were also collectively beginning to worry. None of them had seen or heard from her since Saturday. In the last correspondence any of them had from her, she said she would meet up with them Sunday or Monday. No one else they had asked during the week had heard from her or knew her whereabouts either.

Izzy acknowledged it was still highly possible that at any moment Mary might reappear from an extended hike in the woods, or from some other roaming, and be perfectly fine; she knew that Mary’d be upset with all of them for contacting and worrying us.

That Mary was perfectly fine, and just on an extended hike somewhere, is what I thought was likely.

Mary, our then twenty-three-year-old daughter, could be best described as an outdoor adventurer, and she pursued her ventures without reserve. Being a middle child of five, she had certainly overcome being lost in the middle by then. She was her own person, loving and caring, but not a crowd follower, including at GFU where she was studying.

She occasionally and intentionally took time out of her busy life to spend part of a weekend or other time with us (her family). We were still very close, even though we didn’t get to see much of each other.

I explained to Izzy that Bruce had been the last one of us to talk with Mary. On Friday before she took off for spring break, she had stopped by his office in the finance department at GFU. Friday evening, Bruce shared her plans with me, and I told Izzy what I could remember of them. Besides those things Izzy had mentioned, I thought Mary had communicated to Bruce that she wanted to climb Mount Adams (WA), possibly revisit the area around Snoqualmie (WA) where we had stayed at a ski lodge once, and something about some hot springs, and going out to the coast. Bruce might remember or think of something I was overlooking.

Bruce and my son Elijah (Mary’s only brother and youngest sibling) had gone down to southern Oregon for a four-day speech tournament in Medford, which was five hours away. Neither Bruce nor I had cell phones, and I was not expecting them to be home for several hours. After telling Izzy all this, I promised her I would have Bruce call her as soon as he and Elijah got home.

When Bruce called to let me know they were just leaving Medford I told him about Izzy’s call. Neither of us were overly concerned because Mary disappeared all the time. Even though my first inclination was to think Mary’s friends were probably overreacting, they were the same friends she had said she was going to spend most of her spring break with. For this reason, I called our daughters, Jessika, Rachel, and Ruth, to see if any of them were with Mary or knew where she was. She wasn’t with any of them, and none of them knew anything concerning her whereabouts. However, since she was attending GFU at the time and was super involved with the community there, this was not unusual. Rachel thought I should call the police and report her missing—it would serve her right for not telling anyone where she was going. I didn’t think this was a good idea at the time.

Both Bruce and Elijah arrived home dead-tired after the extreme expenditure of energy that a four-day, early-morning-to-late-evening speech tournament required. The long drive had only added to their exhaustion. After Bruce was done unpacking the car and had gotten situated a bit, he still hadn’t called Izzy. I suggested maybe he should—just in case her concerns were valid. I knew he was really tired, and I still wasn’t thinking we should be concerned, but I had promised Izzy I would have him call her once he was home.

Bruce

I called Izzy, and she told me something similar to what she had told Shelli. The last time she had seen Mary was early Saturday morning when Mary was on her way out the door while Izzy was still half asleep. She said somebody else had gotten an email from her on Saturday or Sunday about getting together Sunday or Monday. It was a little confusing. I wanted to know when the last time was that anyone had heard from her. Izzy and I agreed that we needed to talk with more of Mary’s friends to see if anyone else had heard from her. Izzy said she would gather everybody she could and call me back.

Shelli

In the meantime, I sent the following email to Mary:

Hey Mary, if and when you get this message, please call or email or FB us to let us know you’re OK and where you are and what your plans are, especially for Sunday.

No communication with those who love you about your whereabouts = we get worried.

Love you,

Your Mom-e

Bruce

Mary and I had many friends in common on Facebook, from homeschooling, church, family, and from George Fox University where I worked. I thought one of these friends might have some information on where she might be. I thought perhaps she might even be with one of them. So, while I was waiting for Izzy’s call back, I decided to post something on Facebook.

I would appreciate it if anyone out there who may know where my daughter Mary is would contact me. She may be hiking with friends near Stehekin, WA. We do not know which friends she went with or when she was planning to be back. Roomy called us today wondering if we knew where she is. Now we are officially concerned. Any info would be helpful.

Izzy called a short time later. She had gathered everybody she could. Beth and some of Mary’s other friends were there. They put me on speaker phone so everyone could hear me. I asked them questions, trying to pin down exactly when the last time was anybody had heard from Mary. They began talking back and forth between each other and it was difficult to organize what they were saying to me, so I asked them to answer my questions one at a time. As we talked, the mood of the conversation remained calm but became more serious. It quickly became clear that the email Beth received on Saturday March 23rd was the last communication anyone had had from Mary. Beth read the email to me:

"Hey Beth,

It looks like the forest roads in the Hood wilderness are closed during the winter—they don't plow them. What are your thoughts on a trip to the coast instead? I was looking into other hot spring options but haven't found anything much. I'm going to try and be back in Newberg, either Sunday night or Monday morning. We could maybe rent a yurt on the coast and do some hiking in the area?

Love,

MaryO"

The email was sent on Saturday. When I realized nobody had heard from her for almost a week, I told them I had to file a missing person’s report.

What also came up during our conversation with Mary’s friends was that she had borrowed a truck from a friend named Beau. Beau was with a group of other (GFU) students who were on a serve trip in Washington for spring break. (Serve trips were a Christian volunteer, interactive-work opportunity offered to GFU students during school breaks.) I was able to get Beau’s phone number from them and wanted to call him first to see if Mary had been in contact with him before I filed a missing person’s report.

I tried contacting Beau but kept getting his voice mail. While I was waiting to hear back from him, I posted again on Facebook:

More accurate information about Mary. She has not been heard from since Sunday. She emailed a friend and said she would [be] back in Newberg no later than Monday (morning) but she never showed up or contacted any [one] since. It turns out her roomy and other friends were the ones she was planning on maybe going to Stehekin with. They are worried as well.

After not being able to get in touch with Beau, I called the university and was able to get contact information for his serve-trip leaders. This was how I finally got in touch with Beau. He didn’t know what her plans were. She just asked him if she could borrow his truck while he was gone, and he agreed. Since clearly Beau didn’t know anything about her plans, I went ahead and decided to file the missing person’s report.

I didn’t really know where to begin, so I called the state police, who said I had to call the local police. So, I called McMinnville police, but since Mary didn't live in McMinnville, they said I had to call the Newberg police where she actually lived. I called the Newberg police and made the report with them. I was afraid they were not going to take my report seriously, and that they were going to tell me that because Mary was an adult there wasn’t really anything they could do, but they were extremely helpful and thorough.

They asked me when the last time was that we’d heard from her, if I knew who she might be with, and the name of the person was who was supposed to lead the hike on Mount Hood. I anxiously went through the papers on my desk over and over again, now feeling like I had missed something that was very important. I couldn’t remember the guy’s name, and I couldn’t find the paper I wrote it down on.

They asked for her banking information including her bank account number so they could analyze where she had been spending money over the last week. From this they thought they might be able to obtain video footage and see where she had been and if she was alone. Fortunately, since she had given me that information in the past, and I immediately knew where to find it, I was able to give it to them. Being able to quickly lay my hands on those papers made me feel at least a little useful.

They asked me to send pictures of her; they wanted all the information I had about Beau and his truck; they asked me for the contact information of her friends who had contacted us. Because they questioned me in such detail, I felt like they were taking me very seriously and that was really encouraging to me.

Shelli

Bruce gave the police all the information we had on Mary’s possible whereabouts. He also shared what Izzy and her friends had told him. It was when Bruce was relaying this information to the police that we both realized, Mary could be anywhere!

Bruce commented on his own Facebook post, and others commented after that.

Bruce: (5:36 pm) I just placed a missing person's report.

Sarah H. (Rogue Valley, NCFCA,1 family friend, GFU student): The whole H—— family has you in our prayers.

Bronwyn D. (Portland area friend): We are praying!!

Robin F. (Rogue Valley, family friend): Praying.

Isaac A. (Rogue Valley, NCFCA friend): The A—— s will be praying as well.

Theresa S. (Bruce’s friend from high school): Praying too.

Bruce: (7:18 pm) Thank you all!

Esther P. (NCFCA regional director): We will be praying ...

Neil M. (Rogue Valley, family friend): Knees bent. Prayers sent!!!

Scott W. (Portland area, family friend): Bruce, I will be praying for your daughter. God will protect her. Let me know if I can help in any way!

From this time forward, these and other friends and family began responding to Bruce’s posts, asking questions, wanting updates, and offering prayers and support. What Bruce and I both really wanted was information that might help us locate Mary. But while that wasn’t forthcoming, it was very reassuring to know so many people cared about her.

We didn’t even think about dinner that night. Both Bruce and I continued trying to contact people who might know where Mary was. Bruce tried getting in touch with her acquaintances and advisors at George Fox who were involved in Christian Services, her previous winter serve team, or Urban Services. Each contact led to a dead end. A lot of students and faculty were out of the area on spring break serve trips.

Bruce and I continued brainstorming for names of people she had recently gone adventuring with. Bruce looked at her past Facebook posts to see if we could find clues there.

The last four friends who had commented on a relevant post were some of her former PCT hiking companions. Bruce endeavored to reach them. He retried calling friends who had not answered their phones. We tried reaching friends from the Rogue Valley, where we used to live. We tried long-time friends, ultimate frisbee friends, and former homeschool speech club (NCFCA) friends. Using Facebook, Bruce tried finding names and contact information for anyone Mary had been in regular correspondence with. Each person Bruce was able to reach (only a few) did not know where she was or her plans for spring break. With each dead end our concern steadily grew.

Bruce then put forth considerable effort to contact some of her close friends who were out of town on serve trips in Washington, Oregon, and California. He tried her GFU pastors (mentors) and some of her homeless friends from the outreach in Portland. He tried Wycliffe staff who had recently been working with her, and he tried her previous employer at Visiting Angels. There were no leads.

Throwing the net wider, Bruce attempted to contact someone who had gone snow shoeing with her in January 2011. He tried friends who had hiked the Cascade Range with her in the Sisters area. He tried members of the student team who had done the Wycliff Race 2012 with her in Montana. He tried friends who responded to her Facebook post in February when she said she was jonesing for some mountain time. At each turn he was either unable to connect, or just like us, those he could reach had no idea of Mary’s possible whereabouts.

When Bruce wasn’t making phone calls, I was. I was also sending emails and Facebook messages. After all these efforts it was disconcerting not to have come across even a tiny hint of where she might be. We were thoroughly perplexed and becoming increasingly uneasy. We completely abandoned our normal schedule and activities, and all other concerns. Finding Mary became our sole focus.

At some point Bruce and I began asking friends and family not only for information they might have on her whereabouts, but also if they would pray with us.

We had been through some really difficult situations before this. Approaching God through prayer had gradually become a go to for us. Not only through personal prayer, but also through group prayer and through the intercessory prayers2 of others in the family of God. We understood we weren’t meant to go through our trials alone, but just the opposite. Imperfect as we all are, God still works through the prayers of His people. Prayer and prayer support had become our lifeline.

Because of our past experiences, we trusted God could and would somehow help us, even if it might not be in exactly the way we might expect. We knew He could work in ways and through means outside our own abilities or control. This situation was beyond our abilities or control! We knew we needed to ask in faith—or for faith—and God would help us, so we began asking and inviting others to call on the Lord with us for His help.

Facebook at that time, was still a venue where people who really were friends could post and share. I posted the following on Facebook, hoping Mary or one of her friends might see and respond:

Shelli (5:50pm)

Please pray with us that we will be able to find where Mary is soon, or that she would contact us or her roommates. regarding her whereabouts. soon. We have officially filed a missing person report with the police, because all the people who should know where she is, don't know where she is, and haven't heard from her…We are not sure that she didn't try to hike Mt. Hood.

Many friends and family members responding to our requests for information and for prayer were Christian believers, but not all were. We were asking