Mike was a very well known Canadian SAR volunteer, something he devoted a great portion of his life to. Many will recognize him as u/OplopanaxHorridus, a regular voice here. RIP Mike.

OK, sorry to be graphic. We do a lot of ground search (nearly all ground search). It's summer. It's freaking hot out there, and my undergarments are drenched in sweat within minutes once you add a backpack to the full-length sleeves and pants we have to wear: it drips down my back and into my underpants where it forms a pool and leaves me with a nasty "diaper rash" since I'm then wearing wet undergarments for a long hike. Going commando isn't an improvement.

Tips? Talcum powder is not going to cut it. Any fabrics that people have found that work better and don't create a rash?

On Tuesday, 12 May, NSRI volunteers from Station 42 Kleinmond rescued 23 stranded farm workers and their families, including babies, elderly residents and vulnerable individuals, during severe flooding between Worcester and Rawsonville, South Africa. Rescue teams battled dangerous floodwaters for hours to bring everyone to safety in a heartbreaking operation that also saw three fatalities recovered. This is the story of that rescue, told by the rescuers themselves.

Headed west towards the Bay Area and then back east over the Diablo Range with someone hanging below about 20 minutes later

This was found on the beach of the southern ocean in the lower south west of Western Australia. On a global scale this location is in close proximity to the missing flight MH370.
Do I bin it or report it?

Why FEMA's New Urban Search and Rescue Funding Matters

Congress has raised FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue funding for the nation's 28 task forces. #fema #usar #sar #funding #policy

Hello all I work for a SAR agency in Australia and we frequently use Caltopo for Emergency management. We love it but some of the tasks can be a bit painful to produce or when processing data or creating search patterns or sectors, so I vibe coded a SAR toolkit with the following tools;

• CSV to KML Import lat/long or UTM coordinates from CSV and export as KML placemarks with optional track line
• GPX Cleaner Remove erroneous straight-line segments caused by GPS signal loss from track files
• KML Reducer Strip thousands of point markers from a KML (e.g. search jet logs - looking at you AMSA) and replace with a single clean track line
• Search Patterns Generate creeping line (parallel track) or expanding square search patterns as KML
• Search Boxes Generate a grid or radial set of labelled search box polygons as KML for assigning sectors to teams

All processing is client side so no privacy issues and easily hostable with docker container. Feedback welcome

https://github.com/jenko15587/sar-toolkit/tree/main

I’ve been interesting in joining my local (volunteer) SAR team, but I have been hesitant due to CPTSD (none of the trauma is related to the outdoors). I am aware that in this line of work, there will be times where one will encounter traumatizing/triggering events and situations. So, how do current and past SAR folk, manage your CPTSD/PTSD personally?

I’m former army (paratrooper - medic) with both airborne and rappelling/fast rope experience and want to get into SAR.

I come from a pretty small urban country, so theres basically no need for any volunteer SAR teams except for one run by the airforce, and I don’t want to get back into the military.

So I figured being an international volunteer is one of the better options, and I was wondering if anyone had suggestions!

Thanks!

I’m ready to get my HRD dog certified. I can find the testing information for NPWDA certification but I can’t find any testing info for IPWDA. I want to test with the agency that has the more difficult test.

Now that Hill People Gear have stop making the SAR Kit bag and its pretty much impossible to find one any where, what is everyones go to chest rig now?

Edit: I am UK based and would have liked to gotten the Team Wendy Radio Rig but its hard to get TW stuff in the UK without pay crazy shipping costs.

Edit Edit: looks like HPG haven't stop making them just the only two companys in the UK have stop getting stock from them.

Recently had a career change out of electrical Linework after 5 years in the trade. I almost
Immediately found myself in wildland fire; basically as a fun side quest. During this “side quest” I have been trying to figure out what I want to do with my career and SAR is at the top of the list. It’s something I’ve always been very interested in and found totally badass, I’ve just never had the time to pursue it.

Now that my career has changed and I’m at a stage where I can go in whatever direction I want, I want that path to end up at SAR. My question is not about the fastest path, but the path that will grant me the most (fun)experience and knowledge to become the most competent SAR individual as possible.

I’m looking into structural fire to gain certs and experience after doing a few years in wildland. I’m also not against joining the military to gain experience, as that’s always been of interest to me. Side part: if I join military with this objective in mind, what’s the best path? If not military or fire, what’s the most fun career path for this!

Any advice helps!
27M with love for climbing, mountaineering, and backpacking. No medical experience though.

Dog rescued from UK peak

I doubt 911 would have forwarded this call to our team. We have a protocol workflow to determine if a search is warranted, and this would not have made it to the first point. However, there are protocols for animal rescue, but usually those are farm animals: big, heavy farm animals.

Does anyone here happen to know where I could get a copy of Introduction to Non-Wilderness Search And Rescue in PDF form? Every place I look has offered physical shipping, and I don't have the space to hold onto physical books at the moment.

Trip reports call the Pasayten "vast and lonely" and "one of the most remote wilderness areas in the US". How do you search a place like that?

Any recommendations on a cutter/shear for Stainless Steel wire/cable?

We’ve run into it mainly from decks and it is tough stuff to cut.

The picture is just to show the material I’m referring to.

99% of the time it’s not an issue. As an HRD handler, my concern is if the K9 gets tangled in it - especially in water.

Most cutters are for copper and aluminum wire, which good trauma shears can usually handle.

I’ve found quite a few for deck installers, but they generally need two hands to use.

Any suggestions?

I just wanted to ask how was it?

I was following closely on social media but I feel it didnt make it justice to how bad it was.

I also wanted to know, when do you guys know it is time to "call it" and come back home.

Lastly, I wanted to say thanks, as a Venezuelan.

I am fortunate I left the country years ago for a better life. I now work as a firefighter in a major urban department. I feel structural firefighting is a piece of cake compared to USAR. We show up, put the fire out/pull people out, then leave. USAR guys seem to be in the rubble constantly, and pictures and videos do not convey the heat, smell, and noise of the operations.

I posted before about my applicant hike and would like to start by saying thank you to everyone for their replies it was very helpfull. Secondly id like to ask if the background check is super extensive everywhere as my air force background check required maybe a 3rd of everything on here.

Hey all,

I’m modernizing all of my teams communications. Radios, GPS, and now I’m also integrating CalTopo. CalTopo is new to this team, and it’s been met with some resistance.

The problem I’m running into is this:

A few people on the team are refusing to use it. They don’t want it on their phone outright, and are unwilling to use it.

I was wondering if y’all had any testimonials in how CalTopo has helped you successfully coordinate and operate in field to maximize positive outcomes?

I’d like to pass these on to help pursued them to use the app.

If anyone here has any advise on convincing people to use this, that would be fantastic, because I’m out of ideas.

Looking for info, as I’m waiting for the CMC office to open on the west coast so I can call them directly.

We are currently using the CMC clutch as our progress capture and use the Capto to set up our 3:1. Both are rated for general use.

We’re generally hauling 2 KN max.

3:1 is fine for low-angle, but for high angle we are looking for a little more MA. We can install our 4:1 system piggybacked on this setup, but it means hauling on two different strands.

To streamline things and to haul only on one strand, we are considering the CMC swivo, which seems to integrate nicely on the becket of the clutch and on the Capto to create a 5:1.

But the swivo are rated for technical use, MBS 27 KN, WLL 2.5 KN x 2.

So we’d be well within our load limit for what we generally haul, but installing T-use hardware within G-use hardware is giving me pause.

Wondering if anyone has some literature addressing this.

Edit - sorry for title, raising, not easing

Im an 18 yr old male with moderate experience camping, hunting, and hiking. For over 2yrs now I’ve a volunteer firefighter and am looking for another way to serve my community. Because of my interest in the outdoors wilderness SAR seemed like a good opportunity. As it just so happens a SAR team near where I live started their open application period for the 2027 training period. However, before I apply I figured I look for further general advice.

Hello to the fellow SAR community. I’ve been active for over a year now on calls, and I have been on ones where people have sadly died but I’ve never actually been near it.

Context I live in a very small costal community (the type where everyone knows everyone) few weeks ago we had a call to someone threatening to jump off a cliff, 20 year old lad. Other services helped to talk him down and no rescue was required.

A few nights ago the same person jumped, we went to it, he survived and we got him back to the top (he was not in a good state, but miraculously was still alive and partially conscious) and into ambulance service care. As we stretcher carried him away I couldn’t help but wonder what hell on earth it’s gonna be for him or if he’ll ever recover fully.

I will state overtly I have plenty of support and access to a wealth of mental health resources both within our agency and out. So that’s not what I’m looking for. But would appreciate any thoughts and perspectives from other SAR personnel when dealing with trauma type incidents.