Nuclear engineer turns rescue volunteer

BREMERTON — Mountain rescues are fraught with experiences most people try to avoid: cold, pain, exhaustion, danger, failure.

Olympic Mountain Rescue volunteer Kevin Koski has gained a reputation for overcoming all of it. In recent headline-grabbing rescues, the Bremerton resident hauled hypothermic snowboarders off Mount Rainier and tracked down an elderly hiker who had been lost on a Mount Baker cliffside.

He was recognized as a 2013 West Sound Hero by the American Red Cross for his commitment to OMR, an all-volunteer organization that often rouses its rescuers from bed and sends them up mountains for 16 hour days spent searching for the missing and injured.

Koski, a nuclear engineer at Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, has served on more than 30 missions since joining OMR five years ago.

“He’s often the first one up there,” said OMR president John Myers, who counts on both Koski’s mountaineering skills and his gregarious personality to give tough missions a boost.

OMR was founded in 1957 by a group of Bremerton mountaineers who had banded together to rescue a young climber injured in the Olympic Mountains.

“These climbers immediately discovered that rescue was a totally different experience than nice, uneventful mountaineering,” wrote Keith Spencer in his history of OMR. “They had neither training nor equipment; they did have big problems.”

OMR’s members helped found Olympic College’s mountaineering course, which has acted as a feeder for well-trained OMR volunteers for decades.

OMR remains in Bremerton, but Myers estimates “about 99 percent” of its missions are outside Kitsap County.

There are eight other volunteer mountain rescue groups in the state. Most are focused on the Cascades. OMR is the only one dedicated to the Olympic Mountains. Increasingly, though, the group’s 35 members are called upon to assist on the east side of Puget Sound, where fewer Mount Rainier and North Cascades national park rescue rangers are active due to budget cuts.

Koski doesn’t mind the added workload.

“It’s kind of fun to crash through the bushes, exploring cliffs and theorizing about where (missing) people will go, and trying to find them,” he said.

Koski spent his youth camping, earning his Eagle Scout badge and “bagging peaks” throughout Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.

His time studying at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York City made him ache for high altitude snow and rock. Upon graduation, he began looking for a place where he could both apply this nautical trade and feed his passion for climbing. Bremerton was the perfect fit a Navy town between two epic mountain ranges.

It didn’t take long for Koski to ingratiate himself with the town’s mountaineers. Once he’d proven his abilities, he got the call to join OMR.

“They strong-armed me,” he said, only half-joking.

While many of OMR’s members came up through OC’s mountaineering course, Koski is self-taught.

“I’m kind of a hawsepiper with mountaineering,” he said, using a nautical term for an officer who earned his rank through a non-traditional route.

The route was simple climbing. Koski has climbed 300 peaks, including Rainier five times.

Rescue mission leaders often put Koski at the front of a search, asking him to go fast and far from onset. That was the case last November on Rainier when he was called upon to cross-country ski through deep, wet snow in search of two young snowboarders.

Koski was part of a group that first spotted the teens.

“Their clothes were wet and they were pretty darn hypothermic,” he said. “Their faces were just ashen and pale.”

Koski and other rescuers spent an hour warming them up before leading them to safety.

One of Koski’s most memorable missions was on Mount Baker during the summer of 2012. He and OMR volunteer Peter Ozimek were called upon to search a steep old-growth forest for a 69-year-old Bellingham man who had been lost for three nights.

North Cascades rescue crews had “already burned through a lot of searchers and dog teams, and needed our help,” Koski said.

Koski almost didn’t believe it when he spotted the man, who had sought shelter in a small hillside cave.

“He was exhausted, and didn’t think he could go down or up (the hillside),” Koski said. “He really thought he had found his final resting place.”

Koski still stays in touch with the man by e-mail.

“He told us he couldn’t believe people were pushing through to find him,” he said. “That’s always going to be a good memory for me.”

Koski says he’s had plenty of missions that didn’t produce happy memories. The missions that turn up nothing or, at times, something much worse than nothing still have meaning for Koski.

“Even the missions where the person isn’t alive anymore, it feels good to try even just so their families know that somebody tried their hardest,” he said.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

Olivia Vanni / The Herald 
The Mukilteo Lighthouse. Built in 1906, it’s one of the most iconic landmarks in Snohomish County.
The Mukilteo Lighthouse. Built in 1906, it’s one of the most iconic landmarks in Snohomish County. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Mukilteo mayor vetoes council-approved sales tax

The tax would have helped pay for transportation infrastructure, but was also set to give Mukilteo the highest sales tax rate in the state.

Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring gives the state of the city address at the Marysville Civic Center on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, in Marysville, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Marysville council approves interim middle housing law

The council passed the regulations to prevent a state model code from taking effect by default. It expects to approve final rules by October.

x
State audit takes issue with Edmonds COVID grant monitoring

The audit report covered 2023 and is the third since 2020 that found similar issues with COVID-19 recovery grant documentation.

Bothell
Bothell man pleads guilty to sexual abuse of Marysville middle schoolers

The man allegedly sexually assaulted three students in exchange for vapes and edibles in 2022. His sentencing is set for Aug. 29.

Larsen talks proposed Medicaid cuts during Compass Health stop in Everett

Compass Health plans to open its new behavioral health center in August. Nearly all of the nonprofit’s patients rely on Medicaid.

Snohomish County Health Department Director Dennis Worsham on Tuesday, June 11, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Snohomish County Health Department director tapped as WA health secretary

Dennis Worsham became the first director of the county health department in January 2023. His last day will be July 3.

Rick Steves launches $1M match challenge for Lynnwood Neighborhood Center

The $64.5 million Lynnwood Neighborhood Center will house several community spaces and partner with local nonprofits.

Community members gather for the dedication of the Oso Landslide Memorial following the ten-year remembrance of the slide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
The Daily Herald garners 6 awards from regional journalism competition

The awards recognize the best in journalism from media outlets across Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

Cars drive along Cathcart Way next to the site of the proposed Eastview Village development that borders Little Cedars Elementary on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 in unincorporated Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Snohomish County Council denies latest Eastview Village appeal

Council members affirmed previous approvals of the development planned off Cathcart Way near Highway 9.

Everett
Everett police: Man sold drugs to woman prior to fatal overdose

The man, who faces a charge under the state’s controlled substance homicide law, remains in Snohomish County Jail on more than $1M bond.

Missing Marysville boy, 10, found safe and sound

Police said the boy was last seen Sunday morning before leaving to go for a run at a nearby middle school.

Red tape hangs in the front of the entrance to a burned down Center for Human Services building along 204th Street on Monday, July 7, 2025 in Lynnwood, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood fire destroys behavioral health nonprofit building

The cause of the fire is under investigation. The building housed an intensive mental health support program for youth and families.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.