Helitac Training 10/5/13 Postponed

Due to the ongoing Search and Rescue mission in Twin Peaks, we regretfully have to postpone the Helitac training scheduled for Saturday, October 5th.

I will aquire a new training date and contact those SAR members who were scheduled to attend. 

I believe the current registrants for this class are now aware of the cancellation, however if you know anyone who was supposed to attend please contact them just in case.

34th Annual Desert Run Oct 5, 2013

Moronogo Valley SAR's annual desert run is just around the corner. For details go to www.desertrun.org

Aubry EOW 9/18/2013

It is the SBSD Search Dog Team’s sad duty to report that a valuable K9 member of the team, Aubry, went EOW (End Of Watch) on 9/18/2013. Besides responding to numerous missions in our county she and her handler/partner Sharon Gattas, were deployed to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as a FEMA Certified Dog Team. She will be missed.

MIO RG-716 Recall

MIO Mechanical Corp. continues to manufacture and sell ROPE GRABS for 7/16” diameter rope for more than 10 years. As of today our information demonstrates significant wear the rope grabs are subjected to. Due to the fact that the rope grab is a major part of a fall protection system it should be regularly inspected by a competent person and sent back for inspection and repair to the manufacturer when necessary. We are receiving a very small percent of the rope grabs sold in the last 10 years for inspections and repairs.  Due to this fact we URGE your customers to return rope grabs model: RG-716 to MIO Mechanical Corp. for inspection and repair.

Full Recall Notice

BMC 2013-2014

The Basic Mountaineering Course (BMC) has expanded rope skills and avalanche awareness compared to courses presented in the past.  Personal Vertical Skills (PVS) is now required before taking BMC. 

The classroom portion of the BMC will be held on November 23 and 24, 2013. The location is the San Bernardino Mountain Team's rescue shack, aka "Harrison Hotel." It is located at 3250 Harrison, San Bernardino, CA 92404. Please arrive by 7:30 am on Saturday. There are local eateries for lunch. There is also a kitchen with stove, microwave, refrigerator, etc., at the facility. There is no set end time Saturday evening. So be prepared to have dinner as well. The metal chairs can be a bit uncomfortable; hence you might consider bringing a cushion to sit on. Bring necessary clothing for rain and a warm jacket and pants in case the Harrison Hotel is chilly. For people traveling great distances, you are welcome to stay Friday and/or Saturday night at a member’s home in Redlands. Let me know if you would like to take of advantage of this. 

The field portion will be held on January 25 and 26, 2014. The location will be announced at a later time.

To sign up, send a written request to Volunteer Forces along with your phone number, PVS documentation and email address. For further questions, contact Jon Woods in Volunteer Forces.

All BMC Instructional Documents

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Toroweap Cleanup

Members of the Cave & Technical Rescue TeamThere are some silly traditions in the world. Apparently one of them is to roll tires off the rim of the Grand Canyon, hoping to make it to the Colorado River 3300′ below. Often times they were lit on fire and then tossed. Over the past 5 years, the Toroweap park ranger had noticed a dozen tires plus a variety of other debris at the base of Toroweap Overlook. The Toroweap Overlook sits on top of the Esplanade sandstone layer with four distinct limestone or sandstone layers above. Below are eight layers before getting to the river. Not far downstream of the overlook is Lava Falls.

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Terrain Navigator Pro for SAR Users

If you are a user for Terrain Navigator check out these resources for SAR professionals.

Terrain Navigator Pro for SAR

Personal Vertical Skills (PVS) Class

Hosted by:

San Bernardino Mountain Search & Rescue Team

To sign-up for the class you must have completed your BSAR Certification.

Class Dates:

August 20, 22, 27 & 29 from 1800-2200 hrs.

Test:

September 8 @ 0700 hrs. Mojave Narrows

Location:

Classroom location will be emailed to students who sign up. Test location is still to be determined and will be emailed out to those who are signed up.

Attendance:

This will be a large class, therefore ask your team to have their Basic Rope Technicians (BRT) and Intermediate Rope Technicians (IRT) sign up to help assist. Note in the sign-up if you are a new student, re-cert, BRT or IRT helper (helpers also note all the sessions with which you will be helping.)

To sign-up for the class you must have completed your BSAR Certification.

Sign Up

Click the link below to send an email to Jack Nelson at his SBSAR.ORG account.

Include:

• First and last name
• Team affiliation
• contact phone #.

You will know you are in the class when you get a reply email back saying you are signed-up.

CLICK TO SIGN UP

The Search for a "Missing" Equestrian

The evening of Saturday, July 13, I received the call to assist in the search for a missing woman riding a horse in the Deep Creek area of Apple Valley/Victorville. Wrightwood SAR was working the search through the night, and they needed relief for managing the search the following day. We arrived Sunday morning to find the night shift in an organized command post, tired, a bit frustrated, and ready for a break. Also, we found a stack of plans written, and waiting for personnel assignments. HOORAY! All of you search managers out there take note. If your event is planned for an additional operational period, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE write plans for the next OP. Don't leave this to the relief management team. If plans are not written ahead of time, it delays getting teams into the field. Begin planning the next OP sooner rather than later. Once teams are deployed, it is time to begin assessing your deficiencies and thinking about the next OP.

View Wright Search in a larger map

In our initial briefing, the source of much of the previous shift's frustration became quite apparent. They had a few "confirmed" sightings of the missing person in wildly different locations. This required them to devote limited resources all over the place. Compound this with the fact that the missing person was riding a horse, conflicting, and delayed, information from the reporting parties, and you have a search area half the size of Orange County.

During operational period 1, search managers were confident in their containment of the area north of the initial planning point with the exception of a couple of areas, so for operational period 2, our goals were to contain the PCT east and west from that location, search the remaining areas north of the IPP, and cover additional areas with sufficient POA. At our disposal were OHV, ground, technical, mounted, canine, and air resources

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Smartphones and the SAR Mission, Part IV: Communication

Good communication is key to a successful SAR mission and team administration. As SAR team members we are used to getting calls in the middle of the night, and making last-minute plans. It is the way things go in the SAR world. For effective, timely communication we must use multiple channels. These are often email, pager/SMS messages, phone, and radio. Traditionally radios have been the sole source of communication in the field, but with the increased cell coverage in many areas, the cell phone is becoming a useful tool for tactical communication as well. 

I have often wanted to set up a group text messaging system for a single event that didn't require a bunch of configuration ahead of time. I wanted to be able to put everybody at an incident on the same "channel" regardless of the type of phone that they use. This would provide an additional level of privacy as well as an additional communications channel that is easy to use. This is different from a callout system. I've searched for something that I can quickly deploy on scene with minimal set-up and management: an ad hoc messaging system that works across agencies and phone types.

Group Messaging

There are a host of tools designed for groups to stay in touch, and a number of them could be handy in the SAR world as well. For SAR applications, I prefer that there be SMS functionality. SMS does not require a data connection, and any phone can participate, so it lends itself to the heterogeneous phone landscape of the SAR world. One such tool that I have used with some success is GroupMe. Groups can be created on the fly via SMS, smartphone app or via the web, and participants can send messages via the app or SMS. Photos and your location can also be sent, but only through the smartphone app. The smartphone app is available for iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone. 

My experience with GroupMe, however, is that it works best for small groups. There is no way to limit the traffic. Every subscriber sees every message, so it can be very noisy with larger groups. Also, there is no way to direct message a single person without the app; direct messages do not work via SMS. Subscribing to a group requires an invite. This is good for security, but not useful in a SAR scenario when the command post is trying to quickly get people into the field. It is much easier to have the sign-up be user-initiated. GroupMe is a cool tool that may work well for your team. My experience is that with more than 5 or 6 people, the group becomes rather "noisy", so I have abandoned it for SAR use.

A few months ago, while researching for my "day job", I came across a tool that I immediately recognized as being handy for SAR missions. The tool is called Celly, and it does exactly what I have been looking for.

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