Search & Rescue Volunteer?

“The "Lost in Dolly Sods" thread made me re-visit / re-think an idea I had a few years ago about signing up as a volunteer for search & rescue here in Northern California. I've hiked a bunch of the area near Tahoe where tourons/idiots ski outside the designated areas & get lost, and I've also hiked a whole bunch of Desolation Wilderness, which has (fortunately or unfortuanately, depending upon your perspective) easy access to wilderness areas from frequent tourist areas, so there's a lot of folks heading back there who may not necessarily have the skills / knowledge / basic gear w them to survive getting lost, so it's usually pretty important that we find those folks before a long time period passes since they're typically not equipped to spend a few extra days in the wilderness!.

So... have any of you guys (& gals) volunteered for S&R? Why or Why not? I'd appreciate some feedback & alternative points of view! (THANKS!)
last edited: 10/18/07 3:56:55 PM”

“The application asks what special skills you've got.

”

“If it's something you really want to do, go for it! It can be the most rewarding thing you will ever do. It can also be dangerous, miserable and thankless.

It's time to pull this out again...I wrote it for a mother who's son wanted to join SAR.


It's About.........


It's one of the best things I have done with my life.

It's about sacrifice, rewards, pain, heart ache, elation, joy, dedication, camaraderie, adrenalin, crying and fear.

It's about the joy of giving a mother her young child back and it's about telling another her son or daughter is dead.

It's about going 48 hours with little sleep, then going out in the field to search some more.

It's about picking up piece's after a plane crash and then trying to convince yourself that they're not really people.

It's about you and your team spending the night searching, falling and stumbling down a drainage in a rain storm, then finding your victim alive, cold and grateful.

It's about the fear that you may make a mistake or bad decision and get someone killed.

It's about the incredible adrenalin rush you get, flying thru the air, suspended on a line, 100 feet below a chopper and it's about the countless hours of training.

Most of all, it's about helping others.
last edited: 10/18/07 4:41:05 PM”

“I almost forgot...

it's also about eating MRE's in the rain while your family eats turkey on Thanksgiving without you.
last edited: 10/18/07 4:49:55 PM”

“It has a lot to do with the people in your mtn rescue group. If they are great people, you will ahve a great experience. I would add to mtnsteve's list,

its about getting calls at 2 AM to be packed up and at the helo or truck garage in an hour.

Then sitting and waiting for 5 hours, then going home and missing a day's work.

Its also about taking vacation days to hike around the woods

Sometimes you help save a life

sometimes you recover bodies.”

“sometimes its noticing everyone staging as you drive by, and stopping to volunteer, then having to tell their family u havent found them....then later hearing they found the body and knowing you were within 5 feet. and also knowing that the husband died without ever knowing what happened”

“Then there is getting up at 2 in the morning driving like hell to a scene, hearing the first in engine companies calling for fully involved structure with the possibility of victims inside.

you go crawling into a totally alien environment wearing an additional 65 lbs or so. You can't see, the heat is melting your shield and bubbling the mask.

Five minutes in your crew finds a 15 year old girl she is most likely dead but you order them to get her out. You then find the mother in the room over the top of the fire (the fire started in the living room UNDER her room). She weighs 350+lbs and everytime you move the floor shakes and fire rolls over you. (infact the crew dragging the daughter out can only see the bottom of your boots and the hem of your pants through the fire).

Your air starts running low from exertion, the heat is to the point that you know you are burning INSIDE your gear. Battalion calls for you to pull out so they can hit the fire from the outside and you go ahead and tell them to shoot (it won't get any hotter).


In the end you drag three family members out of a house. All have succomed to the smoke and heat. Two hours later you have to look the last surviving family member in the eyes and tell them you did your best....

Yeah it sucks bigtime. But you know that the next night you will do the same thing if the alarm goes off.

Why do people do it? Becuase as Idaho Bob said...there is that ONE time...ONE time you cheat the guy with the Scythe, there is that one kid or family member or whatever you get out, rush to the back of the ambulance and hear them cough and gag as the life comes back to them.

In 20 year, paid and volunteer I have removed 7 or 8 bodies...

I have had to participate on 3 S&Rs for missing kids...happily all were located alive.

Wanderer if you can remember that you are there to do your VERY BEST. And you are willing to know that you left it all out there. If you are willing then to go home (or the station) and let yourself cry, puke or whatever but get up and go the next time. I can tell you emergency services (whether paid or volunteer) can be one of the most rewarding experiences you will ever have.

Life is a one for one proposition, One birth, one death. I can't stop the latter of the two, but sometime, just sometime you can forestall it.”

“We were searching for a lost bow hunter who had been out for 3 days. We walked past a big hollow log, and out he crawls, dry and unhurt. We gave him a candy bar, some hot soup, and hiked out with him. That was a nice one.

Another one was a lost hiker who headed down the wrong side of a ridge, and was heading downhill as fast as he could go into a vast wilderness, the Yakima Indian nation on thd N. side of Mt. Adams. We could track him, but he could make tracks faster than we could track them. He was in shorts and t shirt of course and had spent the night out in cold and wet weather. No matches or windbreaker of course. If we didn't catch up to him, he might not make it through another night. Part of the search effort was a mounted group, and once we could verify his direction of travel, they zoomed on ahead and ran into him. He was making a bee line as fast as he could go directly away from the road and his camp.”

“Thats the reason people put up with the crap of emergency services.”

“wanderer - everyone is talking about why you would or would not want to be a SARguy. On the other side, I can think of a lot of reasons I would want you to be a SARguy. The knowledge, experience, and skills you have gained in the umpteen years you have been hiking and leading boy scouts through the mountains would make you an excellent candidate! Whether you would want to deal with the bad parts people have pointed out is something only you know.”

“Sniff, Sniff, thanks's Pepper, you've humbled me!

I keep thinking of winter coming on, the snow's now falling in the mountains, and we both know there will be a number of folks who will get lost / off track up there again this winter as there always are. And while they're in trouble, here I am, sitting so close by, my backpack always packed, & I've been through a lot of the SAR training courses so have a fairly good idea what I'm doing, it just seems to me that I'm not contributing back to humanity as I should.

It seems the SAR folks are often looking for some help, too, I feel kinda' badly that I haven't volunteered sooner!

On another note... On with NAPA-PALOOZA! :)”

“In the area where I was involved, there was a big difference between SAR and Mtn Rescue. I was on Mtn Rescue, and we practiced crevasse rescue, rappelling with litters, raising litters up cliffs, setting up anchor systems in rock and snow. We were way more equipped and experienced for alpine and glacier rescues. SAR was more about hiking through the woods, not that we didn;t do a lot of that. But when there was a mission involving high angle rock and snow, it was a Mtn Rescue mission, not SAR. You might check out which kinds of groups exist in your area, and which kind of stuff you like to do.”

“I imagine each area is different. In my county there are several teams operating under SAR. Mtn Rescue, Jeep Patrol, Mounted, Dog Handlers and man trackers. We even have a team on motorcycles.

The Mountain Team was the technical team, like Bobs. We were the only ones that were trained in short haul with the helicopters, technical rope rescue and advanced winter skills. We also did a lot of ground pounding and man tracking.

Each area has a different set up. Most of the county's around us have a basic SAR team with perhaps a sub group of rope experts and dog handlers.

Not all team are created equal. The politics that can exist in a team can be most disheartening for someone who is only interested in helping others. I have seen teams become among the best in the state, only to be torn apart by politics and infighting.

Like Bob suggested, check your area and see whats going on. Talk to several folks and see whats happening and how the teams operate. I wish you the best.”

“I've been feeling the calling of volunteering for emergency services for about a year now. My reservation is that I have little time off from my regular job.
I am a member of the Fire Brigade, a first responder and high angle rescue team at my plant. I feel guilty at times that I have that training and have not yet to put it to use for my community. I guess I should at least talk to the local VFD about joining.
In my area SAR is comprised of the sheriff's office, state wildlife agents and local fire departments. Also the Civial Air Patrol and Coast Guard Auxillary aid in resue. I have the desire, but having to work between 500 and 600 hours of OT at my regular job a year doesn't leave much time.

I'm with you Wanderer, I feel bad that I haven't volunteered.”

“In my experience it is a noble and important task. It is also a pain if you are on the wrong S&R team. It seems like there is always a leadership and ego struggle on most teams. Half of the rescuers couldn't find their butt with both hands. Red tape and power struggles usually overide common sense. It is a rewarding and important task if you are on the right team. I am happy that they are there and their hearts are generally in the right place. Thank you to any S&R members out there. Join and add your common sense wanderer.”

“I was S&R for a couple years before I moved....there is more of a need for it up here than where I was since I'm close to Ark and Ok now. I got called out a couple times for missing kids and the Shuttle disaster.”

“Amen Fuegofox, spoken like a true brother. People always get lost or have emergencies on the holidays and we miss ours to help out. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I get to see my children the next day and have turkey for breakfast, how awesome is that!”