SAR Day 45 and 46: Mountain Rescue training

If anyone has been following the blog you will see the progression in the SAR curriculum; in the spring the courses involve navigation, then the rope rescue course kicks in. Then we do technical travel skills. At this point in the summer we begin the Mountain Rescue (MR) portion of the training.

Tuesday’s training was a review of glacier travel techniques, and some crevasse rescue. Since we’ve already done the technical travel skills, glacier travel is more of an applied course in using the techniques the members already know for travel on snow and ice. Of course there is specific training for the main tools of glacier travel; ice axes and crampons.

Today, most of the team traveled down to Mount Baker to do practical work on the Coleman glacier. This is often accompanied by an ascent of the mountain. Most weekends for the rest of the summer will contain a mountaineering trip.