The 2026 MRA Conference took place in Juneau, Alaska June 12 – June 14, with pre-conference activities hosted earlier in the week. Co-hosted by Juneau Mountain Rescue and Alaska Mountain Rescue Group, the conference was an opportunity for members to spend time between the mountains and the sea expanding their SAR skills. The annual gathering is designed to help rescuers and their teams advance their expertise in search and rescue, with the opportunity to learn emerging rescue techniques, exchange knowledge, and share best practices drawn from real-world experiences and missions. Participants connect with other professionals, strengthen relationships within the SAR community, and gain hands-on experience through a combination of classroom instruction and outdoor training.
This year’s MRA conference also had a successful scholarship program, sponsoring many SAR members either newer to their team or attending their first conference. Haley Young with Rocky Mountain Rescue attended her first MRA conference. “It was a great opportunity to meet members from other rescue teams, especially those within our region” she said. “Being able to exchange ideas, discuss challenges, and learn about how other teams operate was the most valuable part of the conference for me.” Many scholarship recipients go on to hold leadership positions within the MRA.
Many classes and presentations were offered, from rope rescue course like Short Roping and Short Pitching, held by Karsten Delap with Pisgah Climbing School, to Critical Care Update with a focus on changes in hypothermia management held by Christopher Van Tilburg (Hood River Crag Rats). Valuable mission debriefs were also held including Lessons Learned at Timberline Falls: Critical decisions in airway management by Alison Sheets (Rocky Mountain Rescue Group), Castle Peak Avalanche Incident Review by Scott Montgomery (Nevada County Sheriff’s SAR), and a debrief of extended avalanche recovery at Twentymile Alaska – Compounding risks, technological limitations and lessons, held by Malcolm Herstand (Alaska Mountain Rescue Group, see SAR briefs about award team received for that incident).
The Near Miss Panel held by Genevieve Netter (Southern Arizona Rescue) and Dale Wang (Rocky Mountain Rescue) provided insights into events that had something a team learned from. Near misses are described as ‘outlier’ events that change the culture within the SAR team affected. Discussing these give SAR professionals important lessons without the cost of a real incident, reducing the likelihood of a catastrophic event in the future. Several near misses from the past year were discussed including a jammed hoist cable on a Bell UH-1 Skid helicopter, which led to a development in emergency procedure to address stuck hoists for any reason. Another incident discussed included a hazardous material incident in Oregon involving the collaboration of many different agencies. A truck carrying around 45,000 pounds of snail poison rolled over a cliff. There was no immediate spill, however, the crash occurred above a creek that feeds a reservoir that supplies water to over 250,000 people. Takeaways from this incident included, the importance of inter-agency training, being creative in your training, and the importance of training outside your local mission set.
Another near-miss incident discussed included an anchor failure that occurred in Eldorado Canyon State Park, near Boulder, Colorado. The patient took a fall of 70 feet. When the SAR team arrived, the patient was on the ground and CPR was in progress by bystanders. The patient regained a pulse and a rescue off the rock was initiated, with an experienced member in leadership onsite. The anchor was a basket hitched around a partially buried boulder. The litter was attached to the system and put on belay, but the team lost control of the litter and everyone, including the patient, was dragged six feet. The team rebuilt the system with a new anchor and resecured the litter. So what went wrong? First, it was determined the boulder used for the anchor was of insufficient mass and embedment. Next, the safety check on the anchor was skipped by multiple people due to urgency bias. In addition, the lead rescuer knew the patient, which created an emotional load. This potentially led to distraction, multitasking and lack of situational awareness. An “expert halo” potentially could have also been at play due to the fact that the person who built the anchor had been on the team for 25 years. The team shared many lessons learned, including the importance of psychological first aid for both patients and rescuers, not giving someone in leadership too many jobs and if a patient is known to rescuers, checking to see if they should take a step back within the rescue, or even be in the field at all.
During the business meeting for the membership, Chris Ruch from Allegheny County (Pa.) Mountain Rescue Group was elected as MRA president and Genevieve Netter of Southern Arizona Rescue Association was elected vice president.
In addition to classroom-based learning, participants engaged in hands-on activities including whale watching, whitewater rafting, and technical rope training—creating an immersive experience that blended professional development with the adventure and challenges of the Alaskan landscape. The Women in SAR event was held again on Friday evening and awards were announced at the dinner on Saturday.
The vendor village showcased leading SAR gear manufacturers, including Arc’teryx Pro, Black Diamond, CalTopo, Recco, CMC, and many others, who displayed their latest products and technologies. The MRA is grateful to Direct Relief, Votix Drone Orchestration and Automation, and Frontier Precision for sponsoring the conference.
Kendall Scanlan has been a member of Marin SAR since 2019. A neuroscience student, Scanlan is passionate about emergency medicine.
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