Some SAR Links
These are some Search and Rescue-related links the webmaster has occasionally used:
- A wee web page listing “The Three Principles of Good SAR Operations”
- A web page on how to use maps (but be aware it omits the degrees decimal minutes format for describing latitude and longitude, and that format is used by some SAR teams), and a web page on how to use a compass
- SAR tracking web page, and a tracking presentation
- Searching using K9s web page
- Wilderness medicine links
- Rope Rescue Training web site, Roco Rescue rescue knots PDF, Animated Knots web site with search and rescue knots, Ventura County SAR rope rescue and knots PDF, CMC Rescue knots videos
- NPS Technical Rescue Handbook PDF
- Some diagram excerpts on lowering a main, lowering a belay, raising a main, more raising a main, raising a belay, patient packaging, and tying radium release hitches and Purcell prusiks, with the book available at this link here; for a different book on the subject, there is this iBook, which requires a Mac or iPad to read, and might be enough reason to get one just to be able to read the book
- Some information on the relative merits of abandoning traditional belaying systems: a classic presentation on belay safety, an article from a fire/rescue magazine, another article, video summaries of ICAR 2016 with the rope systems excerpt on part 2 of that year’s video at 19:35, some information on mirrored systems from the 2015 ITRS and a way to search for more articles, a summary article on MPDs in belaying, a longer summary of research on new methods (BC appears to be implementing this now), a video on using twin systems with a high directional, an article with a lot of diagrams, physics diagrams from SLCO SAR, a sort of bibliography, and some video of belay tests
- Frog ascending system web page, yet another web page on the Frog ascending system, and a Frog ascending system PDF, for caving and whatnot (for occasional ascending, a Grigri and a foot loop to a tethered ascender works well too); cavers, avoid spreading Pd!
- NPS Swiftwater Rescue Manual PDF, and some information on riverboards, and some information on Newfoundlands
- Cache County SAR dive team video, and something about proper dive gear
- Rescue Alive ice rescue sled video
- Avalanche Beacon Reviews web site
- PDF article on SAR nontechnical and semi-technical evacuations
- A PDF example of a SAR handbook, from Arizona, and a PDF example of competencies expected of ground searchers, from Oregon
- A couple of organizations: MRA and NASAR
- Here are some SAR team web sites that are good examples of getting information up on the internet (some of these are fine SAR teams that use professional trainers to train their teams, that fund equipment for use by their team members, and that expect their members to be adept at functioning in the backcountry, which unfortunately is not true of many teams; the first four or five examples are legendary teams): US Coast Guard, YOSAR, Jenny Lake rangers, Denali mountaineering rangers, BC Search and Rescue Association, Crag Rats, Deschutes County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue, Tacoma Mountain Rescue, Seattle Mountain Rescue, Coconino County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue, Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue, Teton County Search and Rescue, Butte County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue, Inyo County Search and Rescue, Marin County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue, Wasatch Backcountry Rescue, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Mountain Rescue, Alpine Rescue Team, Larimer County Search and Rescue, Mono County Sheriff Search and Rescue, Stowe Mountain Rescue, and Superstition Search and Rescue
- A web page suggesting, in more polite terms, that people off the street getting hysterical and wanting to rush into the middle of an emergency and help in some way, might not be very helpful
- An important principle: video your training mistakes, preferably with a TV news crew, so the world can learn from them or at least be entertained by them (video 1 (0:55), video 2 (2:05), video 3, video 4), and if you do useful testing, video and share that for sure (video 5)
- Examples, by no means comprehensive, and not necessarily the best available, of training providers for rope and rigging and vortex, swiftwater, avalanche, cave, and dive training
- A book describing the most noble of human achievements, by the bravest and wisest and strongest of rescuers, men and a few women of majestic rectitude and fortitude and various other 'tudes, conducting searches of enormous complexity organized with unimaginable skill, saving lives in situations of such grave drama that words cannot capture the horror of the victims as these great rescue heroes came to set things right (there is also a similar book available about another SAR team); for more on these noble souls bringing kindness to peril, here is a moving video tribute
- Your devoted webmaster is working on a possibly less hagiographic book of his own about search and rescue, but has not settled on whether it should be nonfiction or a novel, or perhaps a cookbook, an inspirational book, or a screenplay (with Will Ferrell leading Deseret Search and Rescue to glory?); when it’s finished he will put a link here, but in the meantime here is a link that will get you to some rough notes he made about his SAR experience with the Utah County Sheriff Search and Rescue team
This is a poseur:
Thanks to North Fork FD, NOLS, Rescue 3 Intl., AIARE, PADI, et al. for making me a poseur with skills.
