A veteran SAR volunteer's experiences in British Columbia
I’d like to talk about one or two things I’ve noticed that can help shed light on why 200 people would go out into such obviously dangerous conditions, and expose themselves to what would seem to be obvious risk. These …
Today over 200 people were on scene at an “unorganized event” known as the “Big Iron Shootout” near Revelstoke, there was an avalanche and several people were killed, many were injured and there are possibly some missing. In the past …
SAR members need to know how to navigate. Since we look for lost people, they are often not on a trail, so going off trail is a given for us. Now in this day of GPS, people may think that …
Tuesday is the team’s regular training day. This evening was equipment familiarization, consisting of small engines (boat motors, chainsaws), Argo driving, swiftwater trailer familiarization, radio communications (including portable repeater setup), and various other kits including the advanced base cap kit …
Field training at the secret Coquitlam SAR Crag on Burke Mountain. Technical travel skills; ascending, descending, convert from ascend to descend, and traversing wet slippery steep terrain. Good thing the weather is cooperating by providing the moisture. The magic number …
Today had operational, administrative and training components of SAR. Josh Andrew Koenig, an actor who starred in the TV Series Growing Pains, is missing in Vancouver. He is not only a high profile missing person, he is the son of a …
SAR Day 1: operational, administrative and training Read more »
My Facebook friend Lee uses the application Snowbook to track the number of days he goes skiing in a year. This has the effect of making me extremely jealous because he racks up an astounding number of days (60 this season …
I first volunteered for Search and Rescue in 1999. A friend of mine in university suggested it to me. It came up after a discussion about a high school friend of mine who had died on a mountain near Hope; …
I’ve secretly hoped I would be called on a search. I was called on a search. I did not feel guilty. I’m not saying I wish someone some misfortune, but given that accidents happen, there is a huge amount of …
The SAR team was called out to search for a missing man in his 70’s with Alzheimer’s disease. This search was in an urban area of Burnaby near Central Park. Being a search and rescue team that specializes in wilderness …