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Oplopanax Horridus A veteran SAR volunteer's experiences in British Columbia

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Oplopanax Horridus
Oplopanax Horridus A veteran SAR volunteer's experiences in British Columbia

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  • About
    • About Me
    • Copyright
    • Privacy Policy
    • Commenting policy
    • Disclaimer
    • Why Oplopanax
  • Popular
    • On Blaming the Victim
    • How to Kill Yourself Snowshoeing
    • Smart Phones and Battery Life
    • Don’t use Smart Phones for Backcountry Navigation
    • PLBs from the Rescuer’s Perspective
    • Finding Someone from a Helicopter
    • On Coordinates
    • A Social Media Storm
  • Projects
    • TrueNorth Geospatial
    • Missing Poster Generator
    • YourLo.ca/tion
    • SAR Teams Map
    • Range Rings
  • SAR Links
    • BC SAR Teams
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  • Media
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Month: August 2011

Personal Locator Beacons from the Rescuer’s Perspective

By Michael Coyle Posted on 26/08/2011 Posted in Blog Entry, Essay Tagged with backcountry, beacon, case study, helicopters, HETS, management, map, personal locator beacon, PLB, rescue, safety, Tyler Wright, weather
Personal Locator Beacons from the Rescuer’s Perspective

A case study of a rescue with a Personal Locator Beacon in SouthWestern BC detailing rescuer’s difficulties accessing the location.

HETS Mountain Rescue in Yoho National Park

By Michael Coyle Posted on 15/08/2011 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with accident, helicopters, HETS, rescue, search

News tonight of a rescue in Yoho National Park. Parks Canada pioneered the rescue technique SAR people in BC know variously as HETS (Human External Transport System), or “Class ‘D’” operations (referring to the Aviation regulations that govern people being …

HETS Mountain Rescue in Yoho National Park Read more »

Finding Someone from a Helicopter

By Michael Coyle Posted on 15/08/2011 Posted in Blog Entry, Essay Tagged with backcountry, rescue, safety, SAR, search
Finding Someone from a Helicopter
Well hello there.

A description of a search, and of finding someone from a helicopter. Some tips on how to be spotted.

Popularity of snowshoeing

By Michael Coyle Posted on 11/08/2011 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with numbers, snow, snowshoe

In my article on snowshoe accidents, I noted that snowshoeing seemed to be growing in popularity, but could not find an industry reference on the numbers involved. Well, I found one that tracks numbers for the American market. The Outdoor …

Popularity of snowshoeing Read more »

What the heck is “Out of Bounds”

By Michael Coyle Posted on 10/08/2011 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with commentary, rescue, SAR, search

Some musings on how the media describe hikers and skiers as “Out of Bounds”

Summer snow conditions

By Michael Coyle Posted on 09/08/2011 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with backcountry, rescue, safety, SAR, snow

When I wrote my article on a pattern of accidents I had observed in winter sports lovers, I talked about the snow conditions that contribute to a slip and fall accident. That, combined with easy access to the alpine, a …

Summer snow conditions Read more »

Housekeeping: social media

By Michael Coyle Posted on 08/08/2011 Posted in Blog Entry Tagged with meta, social media

On a non-SAR, non blog note, I’ve been using Facebook and Twitter a bit, mostly for the same thing. Every once in a while I come across an article on another site that’s related to what I write about, or …

Housekeeping: social media Read more »

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Oplopanax Horridus Copyright © 2025 by Michael Coyle
All content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License
Creative Commons Licence
Oplopanax Horridus Copyright © 2025 by Michael Coyle
All content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License