SAR Days 21 through 38

That’s a lot of SAR Days. Since last I posted, we’ve done 18 days of training, mostly in the Rope Rescue area. Itemized below and updated in my ongoing log.

• Day 21: Technical travel skills. At least half of the team including most of the members in training went to Squamish on the long weekend to practice what we call “technical travel skills.” What this means in simple terms is roped travel techniques on steep terrain. How this is different from climbing is that it is rescue-oriented. The idea is that a team of three or more people may be travelling through steep terrain, or otherwise hazardous because it is slippery (ice, snow mud), or the consequences of a slip are disastrous. We traveled through a course of climbing and rappelling in the Bulletheads area on the Chief.
• Day 22: Rope rescue scenario: practicing rope rescue skills
• Day 23: Navigation field exercise: GPS, map and compass work at Buntzen Lake.
• Day 24: Wilderness First Aid
• Day 25: Exec meeting/GSAR Training. Members in training continuing the basic SAR training.
• Day 26: Wilderness First Aid
• Day 27: Rope Rescue Intro: introduction to the basics of Rope Rescue in BC. 10:1 safety ratio, top-down, redundant systems.
• Day 28: Standard First Aid
• Day 29: Standard First Aid
• Day 30: Rope Rescue: Anchor Systems
• Day 31: Rope Rescue: Lowering Systems
• Day 32: Teddy Bear Picnic and Parade, Coquitlam. Every year Coquitlam SAR Participates in the parade. We usually bring all of our vehicles (Coquitlam 1, 2 and 4), and tow the boat (Coquitlam 3) and drive the Argo around. Then we set up a tug-o-war on a 3-1 pulley system to give the kids a fighting chance against the parents. 
• Day 33: Exec Meeting/GSAR training (Swift Water)
• Day 34: Rope Rescue: Stretcher attendant tie-ins
• Day 35: Training Committee Meeting. At this meeting we decide on the training schedule until October this year.
• Day 35: Rope Rescue: Slope Rescue (I taught this segment)
• Day 36: PEP Air orientation. These guys are amazing.
• Day 37: Patient Packaging, or how to make a subject comfortable while you carry them down a rough trail for 6 hours. 

Our Argo dressed up for the parade