SAR Manager (in name only)
After an intense 4 day course (two of those days were 13 hours long), I’ve managed to pass the SAR Manager’s evaluation and exam. People came from all over BC: from as far north as Stewart, BC where the SAR …
Tag: SAR
SAR and natural disasters
In light of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, some might be wondering what the role of a local SAR team would be in such a disaster. Basically the answer is that we’re not that kind of SAR team. …
SARDay 2010–2011 Wrap Up
I started tracking the time I spend doing SAR-related tasks a year ago today. I was prompted to do so partially because I was watching a friend of mine post every day that he went skiing or mountain biking. The …
SARDay 111: Rescue scenario @ Buntzen Lake
The very best way to train for SAR is to do SAR; in the absence of actual subjects getting lost, we are more than happy to pretend to be subjects ourselves. Designing a scenario is tricky. A real SAR task …
SARDay 104-106: Organized Avalanche Response
Compared to a Tracker 2
What a week of weather events; huge amounts of snow, wind and a buried icy crust layer. Several natural avalanche observed on Mount Seymour, and skier triggered and natural avalanches all over the place. What better time for an avalanche …
SARDay 103: Lost hiker on Eagle Ridge
At around 22:00 on Monday night the team was paged by Coquitlam RCMP to search for a hiker reported overdue on Eagle Ridge. This was my first search as a SAR manager in training, so I was privy to the …
On Coordinates; part 2
GPS Track of helicopter flight into the Pitt River area.
In my previous post on coordinates, I stated that the best coordinate representation to use if you need to use geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) was decimal degrees (or DD). It’s preferable to use UTM, which is pretty much a …
On Coordinates
SAR Member using a map
An article about recording and transmitting geographic coordinates accurately.
On Outdoor Responsibility
Our 50m rap onto the glacier
I found an interesting site the other day: Leave No Trace (there is a Canadian offshoot as well). It’s a site that promotes outdoor ethics and offers guidance on the best practises to preserve wilderness values, and reduce the impact …