Kate Matrosova was a highly experienced hiker from Southern Siberia, Russia. She came to America on a student visa and successfully graduated with a masters degree in Financial Engineering. Though she worked for many firms on Wall Street, she also had a passion for the outdoors. She had a passion for climbing big mountains such as Kilimanjaro and McKinley, and was an active marathon runner. At 32 years old, she hiked the Presidential Mountain Range of the White Mountains in New Hampshire carrying light gear for a day hike. Unfortunately, she never made it out alive. The weather conditions reached -85F and 141 MPH winds. Rescue teams attempted to reach her after she activated her communications device, but to no avail. Kate Matrosova was discovered a day later.
Lieutenant Mark Ober is the Lieutenant for District 1 with the New Hampshire Fish and Game. He frequently responds to hikers in distress and develops search and rescue missions to find them. He is also a member of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Dive Team. In this episode, he discusses the mission to find Kate, the difficulties surrounding it, and his role as a supervisor.
Conservation Officer Glen Lucas of the New Hampshire Fish and Game is part of the snowmobile patrol and is an experienced outdoorsman. He was also a part of multiple storylines with the show Northwoods law. He shares his experiences on the day of Kate’s disappearance, including the struggles of preparing, the decision making of the day, and the lasting impacts it had on his life.
International Wildlife Crime Stoppers
Here’s What We Discuss:
- New addition the podcasting team: Morgan Day
- Patreon event: live Q and A on April 26th at 8pm EST
- The importance of speaking about painful memories
- More of a recovery mission than a rescue
- Cannot rely on personal locator devices
- Bad weather day; snowmobile crash earlier
- We have to at least try
- Temperature at start of hike: -90 with wind chill
- Three separate beacons miles apart
- Glen comes down
- Ty Gagne helped me answer questions I had myself
- Everyone was hustling to get there
- Game Warden wife mode
- Not a normal rescue mission
- My mistake: dressing normal
- Legs start locking up, toes are freezing
- Glen stays behind, the others continue up
- Leans up against the tree to wait for other volunteers
- This is how I find people
- I felt like I had peg legs; I didn’t want to die here
- Mother nature beat me that time
- Game wardens promote drive, we don’t want to show weakness
- I didn’t read the book, I gave it away
- I wanted to distance myself from the story, but I read it
- After the reports done, I’m done
- The book signing was therapeutic
- The supervisors decision at the base, the teams on the mountain
- Kate is the first one I had a connection with