By Steve Larese – Meridian Editor Albuquerque, N.M. – At 0400 on January 1, 2022, Albuquerque Mountain Rescue Council members were awakened by their callout tones and blinked blearily at their phones: “MSN #1. TRAM STUCK AT TOWER 2. 21 PATIENTS NEED SUPPLIES…NEED RESPONDERS ASAP.” “I assumed there was a typo in the
Rick Lindfors – Meridian Editor in Chief At the start of the year 2022, my dog and I tested and received our certifications for search and rescue in Oregon. Training a search and rescue K9 was a unique, demanding and ultimately formative challenge for the both of us that brought us closer together and
As I’m writing this letter (mid April) there was just a healthy dose of snow on the Oregon Cascades, which made for an enjoyable weekend of snowboarding, my first since the 2020 closures. It was much needed. However, before going into the snowy weekend I had just finished reading over a series of briefings
Click here to view the full PDF version of the Winter 2023 Meridian in a beautiful, magazine-style layout. Tell us About Your Team Have an idea for a story or a noteworthy mission? Reach out to the Meridian Editor in Chief or your MRA region chair to submit an idea or report. You’ll receive guidelines on how
In the Spring of 2021, we created a Leadership and Relationship Development committee. This committee was created because leadership and relationship development are skills and like all skills they require development, training and practice in order to maintain and improve. In the corporate world I have had the opportunity to experience both good and bad
Rick Lindfors – Meridian Editor in Chief Calabsas, Calif – David Katz knew something was up when a teammate on Malibu SAR called him. It was January 9th, 2020, and his teammate told him there was a call for a possible aircraft down near Malibu Creek State Park. Katz made a series of phone
This is a tool that was piloted in the Washington MRA region last winter; a gear and resource decision tree to support our operations both at command and in the field. The concept is a loose algorithm to guide gear and resources in prep and during the mission, so it’s a dynamic scheme to apply to conditions
The MRA DEI Committee is proud to introduce Jack Mitchell, a member of Atalaya Search and Rescue in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Jack has been a member since September 2016. He attends the University of New Mexico, majoring in Emergency Medical Services. Jack doesn’t remember a time where he wasn’t outdoors. He has been
“Yeah, we’re getting OT for this.” “Oy! What’s one and a half times… zero?” Such is a common joke shared among rescuers during missions. I usually hear this one when the mud reaches a certain depth, a hill takes a certain incline or if our team has been out past zero dark thirty. Occasionally I’ll
Click here to view the full PDF version of the Summer 2023 Meridian in magazine-style layout. To download for off-line viewing, right click the image and select “Save Target As…” (or something similar, depending on your browser). Sponsor Spotlight: PatagoniaBesides making high-end technical wear, Patagonia was the center of one of the most positive pieces of
This year, my team, Rocky Mountain Rescue, celebrated our 75th year providing SAR services to the Boulder County, Colorado community and beyond. We had a weekend of festivities, and past members from all over the country came by. It was a great time, and I must have looked at more than 5,000 photos putting presentations
The subject was a 60-year-old female hiking down from the summit of Pikes Peak (14,109 ft) on a sunny, September day. She stepped on a rock and twisted her left ankle, resulting in lateral (outside) left ankle pain only and no other injuries. El Paso SAR (Colorado Springs) and Douglas County SAR (South of Denver)
Rick Lindfors – Meridian Editor in Chief GLENDALE, Calif. – Intelligence gathering and quick thinking enabled rescuers to safely bring home a teenager who had gone missing in a park in Los Angeles County. The teen, who was autistic and nonverbal, presented a challenge in communication that serves as a lesson for other SAR teams.
Rick Lindfors – Meridian Editor in Chief The March 2022 Fourth Thursday session brought in Codey Gandy, an instructor with Echelon Front. Former Navy SEALs Jocko Willink and Leif Babin started Echelon Front to bring their lessons learned from combat and apply them to the private sector. Willink and Babin were commanders in Task
Situational awareness. Head on a swivel. There are plenty of phrases or keeping an eye out and pointing out anything out of the ordinary. As SAR people we’re pretty good at this; clue awareness, rigging inspection and kit preparation all require attention to detail and are things we train and maintain our skills in. It
Click here to view the full PDF version of the Winter 2024 Meridian in a beautiful, magazine-style layout.
How many of you have ever heard someone ask, “What does the MRA do for me?” If you’re like me, it’s happened more than once, and at least in my experience, it usually comes from people who are new to mountain rescue. Having been asked this question many times over the years, I realized I
By Alexis Alloway, Winter Training Coordinator, Everett Mountain Rescue This article first appeared in its original form in The Avalanche Review, 37.2, December 2018 It’s 9:40 p.m. on a stormy winter evening. Twenty-eight inches of new snow, with around 1.5 inches of Snow Water Equivalent (SWE), has fallen in the last 24 hours, winds have
Book Review by Doug McCall, Seattle Mountain Rescue “58 Years: My Life in Mountain Rescue” is a fun read about the early days of mountain rescue. Lynn Buchannan joined the Mountain Rescue Council (MRC and the original name of Seattle Mountain Rescue) after being approached by Ome Daiber in 1952 (Daiber, 1907–1989, is known frequently
By Chris Van Tilburg, M.D.; Chair, MRA MedCom; Crag Rats, Hood River, Oregon Body recovery in mountain rescue is an important task for wilderness first responders. We handle recoveries differently than rescues of live persons because they are usually less urgent and sometimes have a forensic component. My mountain rescue team, Crag Rats, of Hood
