Physical and spiritual discipline
Although the job is unpaid, Bragiel takes it to heart. In each mission the lives of the stranded as well as fellow rescuers are on the line, he said. So the dentist-by-day regularly trains in the gym and on the mountain, making Bragiel leaner than most 20-year-olds. His close-cropped hair is graying but looks prematurely so. It doesn't seem possible that he has just turned 60.
In addition to physical training, Bragiel reviews notes on rescue techniques while at home. It's about minimizing risk, he explained.
"We don't risk lives and put our rescuers at great risk if we know there's going to be a bad outcome," he said, adding, "We don't want to have more people dead."
There isn't an ounce of bravado in the soft-spoken Bragiel.
"I've been in the mountains enough to know what my limits are," he said.
A Higher Power
When on missions, Bragiel prays "plenty of Our Fathers" and "lots of Hail Marys" for those he's searching for and for the rescuers.
Entrusting her husband to God, Bragiel's wife Mary Beth prays too.
"I don't fear for him. When it's his time to go, it's his time to go…but I do certainly pray and ask God to protect him and to protect the others," she said. "I believe that prayers are extremely beneficial and that God listens to all of us, even if things don't turn out the way we might like them to."
Physical and spiritual disciplines help Bragiel do what seems impossible to many - rescue people deep in the wilderness and in sometimes dangerous, sub-freezing temperatures.
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Such was the case on a frigid day in late February four years ago when three skiers veered off Indian Trail near Girdwood. They had been out for hours. As the light waned and their strength and water supply disappeared, the group was far from home. By the time they called 911, the clouds and wind prevented the state troopers' helicopter from coming.
During a late evening dinner, Bragiel received the page. He and his teammates snowshoed into the dark night searching for the group. Between 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning, the rescuers arrived. They accompanied the desperate skiers down the trail to snowmachines, which then carried them the rest of the way to safety.
"I was really happy to bring people back to their family," Bragiel recalled. "It's pretty easy to lose faith and just give up, and that's unfortunately what happens with people sometimes. When they're just exhausted and they're out of resources and in over their head, they just kind of give up and look for help, and that's where we are – to give them that help and that hope."
Bringing the Dead 'Home'
But sometimes rescues turn into recoveries of the dead. That is an equally necessary job, Bragiel believes. These people need to come "home" too, he explained.
Three years ago Bragiel and his teammates were called to Seattle Creek, near Turnagain Pass, to search for snowmachiners lost in an avalanche. There was too much risk for another avalanche so the rescuers waited more than a week to begin searching. Finally they were able to head in and dig out the deceased from the snowslide.