Distribution of SAR Incidents in BC
The distribution of SAR tasks in British Columbia
The Pineapple Express and Extreme Avalanche danger
A Pineapple Express is approaching the coast, and conditions have changed yet again. Everyone should take a moment to appreciate the significance of Extreme Avalanche hazard on the south coast. Take a moment to understand what extreme means: Likelihood of …
The Pineapple Express and Extreme Avalanche danger Read more »
Non-Avalanche Related Snow Immersion Death
I was reading a local hiking/mountaineering forum recently when I came across this post detailing a very scary incident that happened to a skier at a local resort. And then I learned a new acronym: NARSID. Now I have never …
SAR Numbers from other Provinces
Flying over Whistler Village in 2008
Comparing SAR incident volumes in BC to those in other provinces. BC has more than the rest of Canada combined
Weather observations redux
In my post yesterday I noted that it’s important to get a synopsis of weather conditions. My rationale; most weather forecasts provided by Environment Canada and other forecasters are geared toward the sea-level public, and contain wind and rain amounts, …
Weather observations and the coming storm
With reference to the post I wrote on coastal weather patterns, this weeks storm is an illustration of a winter front. However, the public forecasts and the rainfall warning are clearly geared toward the sea-level public. So where does a …
Some numbers on a large search
Most searches are short; someone goes missing and we head out and find them, someone calls on a cell phone and we guide them in, or we do a medical response. We divide searches into operational periods, a fancy term …
How not to carry a stretcher
Believe it or not, SAR members actually train for stretcher carrying. I honestly think that most of the reason we do this training is that we’re usually called out in the middle of the night, so you need to have …
How to NOT kill Yourself Snowshoeing
Descending Mount Matier
Some advice on what to do when everything goes to hell.
The (textual) shape of SAR in BC
A word cloud generated from the BC Search and Rescue Incident Summaries shows us how we describe search and rescue in BC