Becoming a Search and Rescue Volunteer
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What Search And Rescue Is All About And How You Can Get Involved
Are you intrigued by stories about wilderness rescues and searches for missing hikers or stranded mountain climbers? If so, perhaps becoming a Search and Rescue -- often referred to as SAR -- volunteer might just be for you.
I've enjoyed and benefited so much from being a member of a SAR team, I wanted to share that experience with others. If you too thrive in the great outdoors and want to help your fellow fresh-air, nature, adventure, and outdoor sports lovers, or just other human beings in general (and sometimes even their pets) who find themselves in unfortunate situations, read on....
Photo above: That's me in one of my SAR shirts.
See Search and Rescue T-shirts for sale
Photo below: Taken during one of our team's technical rescues.
Search & Rescue in Action
Search And Rescue: So Others May Live
SAR Stories Abound
Mountain SAR rescuing a lumberjack
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons / CC
Sometimes the story has a happy ending, like when a California father and his three teenage kids were found alive, days after getting lost in a snow storm while hunting for a Christmas tree.
On other occasions, the endings are tragic, such as the case of the missing female hiker who set out with her dog near the Appalachian Trail in Georgia and was later found murdered. Sometimes, the victim's whereabouts are known, but bringing that person out of the backcountry to safety and perhaps to a hospital (or the medical care to the patient) is the real challenge.
And sometimes there is no ending; the subject is never located.
There are those who venture into the wilderness unprepared and get into trouble. There are people who set out as prepared as can be, but accidents happen nonetheless. There are those who fall and those who jump. Lost children. Alzheimer's patients who wander off. Floods that carry away more than just debris. Avalanches and climbing accidents. And the list of scenarios goes on.
So, what is it about a particular Search and Rescue mission that makes the national media take notice, while others warrant only a paragraph, tucked away in a local newspaper? Sometimes, there is no public story. But those stories are happening all the time. Lives are being saved in the backcountry, all over the world on a daily basis, and those stories are a big deal to the people involved. On both ends of the rescue.
SAR is Teamwork
In the photo above, two Search and Rescue teams--our county's team and volunteers from the neighboring county--cooperate in a somewhat technical and physically difficult rescue of an injured hiker, who fell down a steep, rocky slope.
What Is Search And Rescue?
Types of SAR
A canyon rescue in Arizona
Coconino County SAR / by Deb Lauman
Search and Rescue has a number of definitions and categories depending on the agencies involved.
Those categories and definitions include:
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Mountain Rescue (aka Wilderness) SAR: Missions in this category may take place not only on mountainous terrain but also in forests and deserts, caves and canyons, on rivers and lakes, and so on. This is where my experience lies and the type of SAR this lens is really about.
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K-9 SAR: involves the use of tracking, cadaver, avalanche and wilderness area search dogs. Dogs and their handlers undergo extensive and ongoing training. Many county SAR teams have K-9 units in addition to their "ground-pounders." (Learn more about the different types of Search and Rescue dogs.)
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Mounted SAR: involves searching on horseback; Some horses are also known to have great tracking abilities, similar to air-scenting dogs.
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Urban SAR: Missions take place in cities or other "front country" areas, often involving structural collapse and stranded citizens following earthquakes, storms, flooding and other natural and human-caused disasters.
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Marine Search & Rescue: In the U.S., these types of missions are often carried out by the Coast Guard.
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Ski Patrol: If you downhill ski or snowboard, you know who these men and women are.
- Swiftwater and Dive SAR
Another Life Saved
And Who Are These People?
Both Paid And Volunteer Professionals
While some Search and Rescue professionals have paid positions, like members of the Coast Guard, specially trained National Park rangers, firefighters, Sheriff's deputies and helicopter rescue crews, many SAR participants are volunteers. In fact, with more than 1,500 Search and Rescue teams in the U.S. alone and thousands more around the world, it's quite possible that volunteer professionals outnumber those who are paid. My own team consists of approximately 100 volunteers and paid Sheriff SAR Coordinators, who are sergeants, deputies and lieutenants.Search and Rescue volunteers come from all demographics, with a wide range of ages, current and former professions, skills and experience. On the team I belong to, ages range from early twenties to mid-seventies. We do have medical professionals and firefighters in the unit, volunteering when they aren't on duty, but our membership also includes a graphic designer, an office manager, a cabinet-maker, retired pilots, students, a veterinary assistant, teachers and construction workers, to name just a handful.
Search and Rescue units do have minimum age requirements, but there is no limit to the types of people who volunteer, with all manner of backgrounds and abilities. As for me, I've been a paralegal, a medical secretary, a farm caretaker, a guide at the Grand Canyon, and an office manager at an apartment complex. And I'm currently a freelance writer.
The rescue depicted in the above photo occurred on Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa, said to be one of the most difficult rescue operations in years. The mission, managed by Wilderness Search and Rescue in winds gusting up to 64km/h, took more than six hours. For more on the story, see Thomas Sly's Flickr page.
Video: Rescue In Grand Canyon
A young girl breaks her leg at the bottom of a waterfall in Havasupai. A helicopter rescue follows....
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My Search and Rescue Experience
In our country's second largest county, home of Grand Canyon and the San Francisco Peaks
A winter Search and Rescue mission
Coconino County SAR / by Deb Lauman
I'm an experienced hiker, having completed a 2200-mile Appalachian Trail thru-hike and many shorter backpacking trips, but those experiences were all about taking care of me, watching my own steps, handling my own gear.
Search and Rescue, on the other hand, meant acquiring a new skill set. It meant learning to look for and take care of others while, at the same time, watching out for my own well-being and, as a member of a team, the safety of other volunteers. It meant learning to navigate in a number of different ways and how to communicate on a radio. I had to learn how to track and spot clues, and what to do with those tracks and clues once I found them. There's learning how to use ropes and other rescue equipment, and operate ATVs and snowmobiles. Low-angle rescue, high-angle rescue, snow and ice skills. And the list goes on. Search and Rescue involves ongoing education and practice, and those learning opportunities are often at no cost to volunteers.
Here's an article about being a Search & Rescue Volunteer:
"On Their Own Time and Dime"
from the Arizona Daily Sun
My Search And Rescue Stories
To read about my experiences as a Search & Rescue volunteer, I invite you to visit my blog, Deb's Search and Rescue Stories.
These are my latest posts:
These are my latest posts:
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byRecommended And Required Search And Rescue Skills
Is SAR for you too?
Image Credit: Stock.xchng / CC
So, who is qualified to become a Search and Rescue volunteer? Do you need extensive backpacking experience like I had? What about medical training? Or knowing how to rock-climb? Well, those skills sure don't hurt, but they aren't necessarily prerequisites for joining a team.Some SAR units do have more training and "resume" requirements than others, in part depending on the types of missions and terrain they most often face when there's a call-out. One example would be Oregon's Crag Rats, the oldest Search and Rescue unit in the U.S. To be considered for a spot on the team, each applicant must not only live in Hood River County, but he or she must also have summited both Mt. Hood and Mt Adams. Each organization has its own requirements -- or preferences, at least -- so you'd need to contact the team in your area to find out their specifics.
While having outdoor skills and experience is the norm for those who apply to become SAR volunteers, there is much one can learn while participating. The following is a partial list of trainings that my own team has offered since I've been a member. These courses, often involving both classroom and field instruction, are frequently taught by team members and most are free of charge. Some are required as part of Coconino County's Basic SAR Academy, which each member must complete before receiving a pager and being able to participate in missions, while other classes are optional (but highly recommended):
- Basic Map & Compass
- Basic GPS
- Alternative Navigation
- Tracking
- ATV training
- Truck and Trailer training
- Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) training
- Patient Packaging
- Low-Angle Rescue
- Helicopter Safety
- Advanced Navigation
- Technical Team (or Rock Rescue) Academy
- Wilderness First Aid
Medical Training
Many volunteers have taken the 80-hour Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course, offered by the National Outdoor Leadership School and other organizations, including some colleges and universities. Even those with an urban medical background, such as EMTs and paramedics, find WFR to be a great addition to their training. WFR teaches the first responder to deal with the less-than-ideal equipment, situations and settings often encountered during backcountry rescues, as well as improvise with whatever gear happens to be on hand.
Wilderness First Responders
In the photo above, students in a NOLS Wilderness First Responder course assess and stabilize a patient during a mock accident exercise. While there is plenty of classroom time during these 80-hour courses, WFR students run through many hands-on scenarios, role-playing situations dealing with physical injuries and medical conditions of increasing complexity in backcountry settings.
Physical Fitness for Search and Rescue
There's no getting around it: Search and Rescue is often physically demanding, so a moderate to high level of fitness is definitely an asset. However, while a number of my own teammates are in excellent physical condition, others do have chronic injuries or limitations that prevent them from participating in the more physically difficult missions.Keep in mind, there are many ways to help a team aside from the primary acts of searching and rescuing. During a mission, not every responding team member hikes up a mountain with a backpack full of equipment or rappels into a canyon, but everyone does perform a function, even if that means simply sitting tight and waiting as backup if needed. Tasks might include driving to and from staging areas so other team members can rest, helping to prepare maps and briefings for the missions as they arise, delivering food and drinks to searchers in the field, or driving perimeter roads to contain a lost subject.
Non-mission assistance can include maintaining equipment, such as vehicles and technical gear, serving on a team's Board of Directors, organizing and participating in fundraising events, representing the team at community fairs and functions, and so forth. So if you have the desire to be part of a SAR team but do have physical limitations, your help and skills in other areas can often be of great value.
Image Credit (hikers): Stock Xchg / CC
SAR: There When You Need Them
Okay, So You're Still Interested in Search & Rescue -- Now What?
How to join a Search & Rescue team
A Search & Rescue snowcat
Coconino County SAR / Deb Lauman
In many U.S. counties, the Sheriff's department is responsible for maintaining a Search and Rescue team, so that's another good place to start. Just contact the Sheriff's office in your area and ask them who handles SAR and how you can participate.
And feel free to email me at ramkitten2000@yahoo.com if you have any questions about becoming a Search & Rescue volunteer. If I can't answer your question, I'll try to direct you to the website, organization or person who can.
SAR Mission Video: Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team
The SAR team was paged by police at 4 a.m. to rescue three young men lost on the north slopes of Scafell Pike....
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Just Keep In Mind....
If you join a Search and Rescue team....
Your SAR pager (or whatever means your team might use to call out its membership for a mission) can and will go off at all hours, day and night, weekdays, weekends and holidays.Call-outs happen in all kinds of weather, no matter what you're doing. Maybe you're having dinner with your spouse at the nicest restaurant in town or reading the kids a bedtime story. Maybe you're enjoying a great movie or just getting ready to go for a jog. You just never know when someone, somewhere, might be in trouble.
As a volunteer, sometimes you just won't be able to respond. You may be away on vacation or in a really important business meeting. Or maybe you're right in the middle of your own wedding. (Not a great time to say, "Hey, honey, can we finish this later? I have a SAR call.") And that's okay. You respond when you can. But, as a member of a team, you should respond when you're able.
Sometimes, missions are cancelled before they get started. Maybe you left the movie theater right in middle of the mushy stuff you'd been waiting for. You're halfway across town on your way to the SAR building, trying not to speed, when your pager goes off again. You fumble for the gadget, glance at it quickly so as not to rear-end the car in front of you, and the code or message tells you you can do a U-turn and go home.
Sometimes, you and your teammates get to the SAR building, load all the gear and hit the road, only to drive a couple of hours to the staging area and arrive just as the subject shows up on his own.
Sometimes, the whole thing was just a bunch of misinformation and there never was an emergency or a lost or injured person to begin with.
But if all of that doesn't deter you, if you thrive on adventure and the satisfaction of helping others, then definitely go for it and find out more about becoming a Search and Rescue volunteer.
The above photo was taken during one of our team's winter missions.
Read Vinettes by SAR Professionals
Point Last Seen
is a blog of wilderness search and rescue stories from two long-time professionals, alternating bylines every month. "Point Last Seen" is a common SAR term used to describe the last known location of a missing subject.
The Latest Search & Rescue Headlines
From Google Search
- Protesters demand search and rescue improvements
- Protesters on the coast of Labrador and in St. John's on Thursday evening called for improved military search and rescue services as a result of the military's response to the search for Burton Winters. Winters, 14, of Makkovik, died on sea ice last ...
- Rescuers continue search for missing boater
- Boater Remains Missing: Search and rescue workers returned to the Red River Thursday morning with cadaver dogs looking for missing boater Dan Stanley, 63, from east Texas. Stanley remains missing at the time of this report. Rescue crews search near ...
- Rains and more rains force rescue suspension
- BY VICTOR REYES SEARCH and rescue operations for 71 people buried in landslides in earthquake-devastated Negros Oriental had to be suspended yesterday because of rains that could cause more landslides and endanger even the lives of rescuers, ...
- World Wide Technology Honored by Maryland Heights Fire Protection District
- The Maryland Heights Fire Protection District and St. Louis Metropolitan Urban Search and Rescue System hosted a special ceremony for WWT to express their appreciation for WWT's support and contributions, during which Chief Steve Olshwanger and Deputy ...
A Rescuer's-Eye View of a Mid-Face Short-Haul
High risk, high drama in the Canadian Rockies
Read the story about this rescue on Adventure-Journal.com.
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More SAR Videos
Search and Rescue Videos
Watch actual video footage from Search and Rescue missions, interviews with SAR members and those they've helped, and see teams train for whatever may come...
Search and Rescue News from SAR Newswire
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byPast Search And Rescue Missions In The News
Some Interesting SAR Headlines:
- Woman Buried in Snow for Three Days Found Alive
- A SAR dog in Ontario, Canada, finds a housewife who'd been missing for three days. She was literally found lying, almost completely buried but responsive, in deep snow.
- Missing Snowboarder
- At approximately 7:38 Wednesday evening, Deschutes County 911 received a call requesting assistance to locate a lost snowboarder who was in the area of Todd Lake... Read more....
- Backpacker Rescued In Australia After 12 Days
- Jamie Neale, 19, was last seen July 3 after leaving his youth hostel in Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Read more....
- Dramatic Rescue Of Hiker Found in Slot Canyon in Southern Utah
- Jim Williamson, 49, an experienced hiker from Salt Lake City and missing since Sunday, was found in a slot canyon close to the Gunsight Trail on Red Mountain. Read more....
- Missing Backpacker Survives Eight Days in Great Smoky Mountains
- Morgan Briggs, 70, set off on Saturday, August 22, 2009 on a four-day backpacking trip through the Great Smoky Mountains. According to Briggs he got lost on the second day of his trip due to heavy vegetation and steep terrain. He then managed to make it to the top of nearby Porters Mountain where he stayed until his rescue on the morning of August 30. Read more....
- From an Icy Slope, A Medical Miracle Emerges
- Why it pays never to give up....
- Family of Eight Survives Two Snowy Nights Near Breitenbush Lake
- When their Astrovan becomes buried to hood in snow, a father and his seven children become stranded.
- Boy Escapes Death Despite 16 Hours In Freezing Cold
- In an amazing story of survival, a 13-year-old boy survived more than 16 hours in the freezing cold California mountains without shoes.
- 4-Year-Old Zoey Dorsey Found Crying In The Woods
- Four year old Zoey Dorsey had been missing for more than 24 hours. Local authorities and Zoey's parents were frantically trying to find her. She was missing for 26 hours and spent a night in the woods where temperatures dropped into the 30s.
Have a question about Search & Rescue?
Check out the
Search and Rescue Knowledge Exchange
where you can ask your questions and get answers, browse what's been asked and answered before, or respond with your own answers if you have something to share.
Search & Rescue Team Members In The News
I'm always looking for news stories about SAR members and will share them here as I come across them.
- Arizona Teen and Her Search Dog Pass National Certification
- A Paws of Life Foundation search and rescue dog recently was certified with her handler, 16-year-old Taylor Lane of Mesa, Arizona.
- A Young Search & Rescue Volunteer Comes To The Aid Of Hikers In Northern California
- It's 3:00 a.m. Rain pounds on the windows. Tamsen Bell's pager beeps and she jumps out of bed. Someone is in trouble, and it's up to Bell and the other members of the Marin Search and Rescue Team to help.
- U.S. Honors Yosemite Search & Rescue Ranger
- Danger is a constant in Yosemite National Park, where the towering cliffs, thundering waterfalls and rugged wilderness combine with an unusual knack among humans to stumble into horrifying predicaments.
- Searching With Compassion, Surviving With Grace
- "If you're looking for courage, dignity and faith this holiday season, it's in plain sight with search-and-rescue teams and the loved ones of the lost..." Read more in the Oregonian.
- Oregon K9 Search teams: SAR teams could save your life
- A Q&A interview with Debbi Bothe, president of the Oregon K9 Search Teams.
- Training helps search and rescue members employ crucial skills
- Being able to find identify your location while spending time outdoors could eventually save a life.
- Rescuing climbers: Local man is one of region's leading search and rescue professionals
- This summer, Idaho State University physical therapy instructor Darin Jernigan was part of a search-and-rescue team that pulled off one of the biggest and most dramatic mountain climbing mass casualty rescues ever, involving 17 stranded climbers injured in a lighting storm on the 13,770-foot Grant Teton.
Search and Rescue Reading: Mountain Rescue Doctor
Treating medical emergencies in the backcountry
As a Search & Rescue story addict, I've been reading a lot of books by and about those in the field, whether volunteer or professional. Certain books have stood out, and I'd like to tell you about some of my favorites.Okay, so imagine sticking a breathing tube down someone's throat. And imagine having to do that without accidentally inserting the tube into the person's esophagus or breaking his teeth. Then imagine doing this while kneeling on sharp rocks while perched on a narrow ledge, as a hovering rescue helicopter sprays you and your patient with dirt and debris.
Endotracheal intubation is one of the most difficult medical procedures an ER doctor performs, and that's within the clean and controlled hospital setting with skilled assistance at hand. But Dr. Christopher Van Tilburg has also been forced to intubate in less-than-ideal backcountry conditions as a member of the Hood River Crag Rats, the oldest Search & Rescue team in the U.S.
Christopher Van Tilburg is not only an ER doctor and a ski patrol and emergency wilderness physician, he's also an excellent writer. I spent a few days reading Mountain Rescue Doctor: Wilderness Medicine in the Extremes of Nature
during every spare moment (even a paragraph at a red light, I must admit).Along with insights into the ethical challenges a wilderness physician faces and the tools and techniques of emergency backcountry medicine, Tilburg describes a number of suspenseful missions. One account involves a call to Columbia River Gorge, where he intubated an unconscious patient who'd fallen off a cliff. Another chapter concerns the rescue of an injured and hypothermic man who'd fallen onto a logjam. Dr. Tilman also writes about rescuing cliff divers with spinal injuries, rushing to rescue a trapped climber within the "Golden Hour," treating the victim of a rattlesnake bite, and participating in a grisly body recovery at the scene of a mountain plane crash. Tilman has been involved in numerous high-altitude, winter missions, including a much-publicized search for three missing climbers on Mt. Hood.
After finishing the book, my only disappointment was that, in certain cases, the reader is left wondering what happened to the victims Dr. Tillman had worked so hard to save. Did they survive? Then I happened across a blog post by the author, in which he states, "Yes, several chapters don't really say what happens to the patient. That's part of the deal with mountain rescue missions: we hand off the patients to a helicopter or ground ambulance crew and sometimes we never find out the end result." As any member of a SAR unit knows, that statement is very true. The last we sometimes see or hear of a patient is when they're whisked into the sky in a litter, spinning at the end of a 200-foot rope.
To learn more about the author of Mountain Rescue Doctor, visit Christopher Van Tilburg's website at DocWild.net
Mountain Rescue Doctor: Wilderness Medicine in the Extremes of Nature
Amazon Price: $7.71 (as of 02/10/2012)
Used Price: $0.01
Another Good SAR Book: Coming Back Alive
Tales of exciting (and very risky) Coast Guard rescues
Among the stack of books I've read about the lost, the stranded, the injured and the rescued, another of my favorites was Coming Back Alive: The True Story of the Most Harrowing Search and Rescue Mission Ever Attempted on Alaska's High Seas
by Spike Walker.This is a book about eight amazing rescue missions off the coast of southeastern Alaska, culminating in the edge-of-your-seat account of the Coast Guard's efforts to save the lives of five crewmen from the fishing vessel La Conte, which sunk in 100-mile per hour storm winds and record 90-foot seas in January, 1998. Without a life raft, the men are left to drift in the freezing water for hours, as three different helicopter crews try in turn to save them.
Author Spike Walker worked for years as a deckhand in Alaska. He researched "Coming Back Alive" meticulously, through hundreds of hours of interviews with survivors.
This was one of those "I don't care how tired I'll be at work tomorrow, I have to keep reading" books. In fact, I was so intrigued that after finishing "Coming Back Alive," I started following Coast Guard SAR headlines on Twitter with links to their news releases.
Coming Back Alive: The True Story of the Most Harrowing Search and Rescue Mission Ever Attempted on Alaska's High Seas
Amazon Price: $3.98 (as of 02/10/2012)
Used Price: $0.40
More of My SAR-Related Book Reviews Here....
Wilderness Survival and Rescue Reading
Ever since I joined a Search and Rescue (SAR) team in September, 2007, I've been reading book after book about true wilderness survival and SAR stories....
Search And Rescue Websites And Blogs
Here are some Search & Rescue resources you might find interesting and helpful:
- Search and Rescue Stories
- SARstories.com is a resource for those interested in true stories by and about Search & Rescue personnel--both volunteer and professional--and those they help. Read stories and articles, watch rescue videos, search SAR team directories, join a discussion group and more.
- SARstories News blog
- A blog for all things Search & Rescue, including interesting mission reports, featured SAR teams, upcoming conferences, gear and book reviews and more.
- National Association for Search and Rescue
- NASAR is a "not-for-profit membership association dedicated to advancing professional, literary, and scientific knowledge in fields related to search and rescue. NASAR is comprised of thousands of paid and non-paid professionals interested in all aspects of search and rescue - the humanitarian cause of saving lives - throughout the United States and around the world."
- Hiker Hell
- Learn from other hikers' mistakes (and triumphs). Daily Search and Rescue headlines from around the globe.
- Dog Finds Man: Canine Instinct at its Best
- A blog from KWDogs, including firsthand accounts by a search dog handler
- Call Out
- Real search and rescue mission episodes and SAR member blogs
My Introduction to Technical Rescue
These articles cover some of the skills I learned during the high-angle, "rock rescue" academy I took part in for several months with experienced instructors from our Search & Rescue team. I passed the skills test and became a certified "techie" in August, 2009.
Rock Rescue Academy Part 1: Learning to Rappel
Rock Rescue Academy Part 2: Learning To Ascend & Rig Anchors
Rock Rescue Academy Part 3: Raising Systems
Rock Rescue Academy Part 4: Learning To Belay
Rock Rescue Academy Part 1: Learning to Rappel
I'm no fan of heights, but somehow I wasn't (too) nervous as I backed up off the edge of a long way down under the watchful eyes of my Search and Rescue...
Rock Rescue Academy Part 2: Learning To Ascend & Rig Anchors
That's what they told us in Search and Rescue training. Our instructors -- my experienced teammates -- told those of us who are new to high-angle rescue...
Rock Rescue Academy Part 3: Raising Systems
Much of the time, technical rescue involves falls, with rescuers descending to the victim and then raising or lowering that person in a litter or harness....
Rock Rescue Academy Part 4: Learning To Belay
If something goes wrong after you've gone over the edge, it sure is nice to have a belay to keep you from going down, fast. In this article, as with the...
Practicing technical rescue skills
Technical Rescue Photos
These images were taken during intense Ropes That Rescue courses I took....
Ropes That Rescue Rigging Class Photos: Sedona, Arizona
Ropes That Rescue: Arizona Vortex Rigging Class
Ropes That Rescue Rigging Class Photos: Sedona, Arizona
The following are photos from a week-long course I took with Ropes That Rescue in Sedona, Arizona. I took this course because I'm a member of the Coconino County...
Ropes That Rescue: Arizona Vortex Rigging Class
From November 29th through December 3rd, I took my second class with Ropes That Rescue, based in Sedona, Arizona. This class focused on the uses and rigging...
Support Your Local SAR
Search and Rescue Shirts
You don't have to be a member of a SAR team to wear one of these....
Questions Or Comments About Search and Rescue or Becoming a SAR Volunteer?
Please Ask And Share Them Here
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A Bit About Me
A hiking writer
Find Search & Rescue On Twitter
Are you involved with Search & Rescue? Or maybe just interested in following those who are? I'm putting together a directory of SAR volunteers and professionals, teams and organizations on Twitter.
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For Backcountry Rescuers
- The SAR Pack: Search and Rescue Gear
- This pack was designed by a long-distance backpacker and SAR volunteer (that would be me), with brands and models tested and recommended by other experienced hikers.
The SAR pack contains navigational and emergency gear, lighting, first aid supplies and more.
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Read About All Aspects of SAR Procedures and Equipment
The only resource that covers SARTECH III & II requirements
Fundamentals of Search and Rescue
Amazon Price: $48.70 (as of 02/10/2012)
Search and Rescue Stories
75 Search and Rescue Stories: An insider's view of survival, death, and volunteer heroes who tip the balance when things fall apart
Amazon Price: $13.99 (as of 02/10/2012)
Interested in K9 Search and Rescue?
This is a great book....
Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search-and-Rescue Dog
Amazon Price: $3.70 (as of 02/10/2012)
