High Sierra Topix

I always carry Moto Rola "Talkabout" radios. My experience with them is that the first ones they came out with were the best. Model 250 and 280. The new ones have more bells and whistles and don't work for beans. Just MHO.

AT,

Any chance you can point us to SAR documentation? Probably best to know exactly how they think to plan an extraction/search. I know the coast guard publishes theirs for mariners.

rlown wrote:AT,

Any chance you can point us to SAR documentation? Probably best to know exactly how they think to plan an extraction/search. I know the coast guard publishes theirs for mariners.

Not sure how much that would help. They all seem to be somewhat different in their approach - there are manuals on how to run Incident Command, how to implement things, but the actual searches are approached with different attitudes and the reasoning of different people.

There are lots of books about SAR - here's one on SAR fundamentals. http://books.google.com/books?id=JWNcKs ... &q&f=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PS on the radios - if in the information you leave behind you mention that you have a ham radio, FRS radio, sat phone, etc - you can bet we'd be trying to use it to talk to you.

rlown wrote:There's another aspect here that was lightly touched on.. Communications. My group regularly carries "walkie-talkies"...

In this vein, a simple cheap low tech thing worth carrying is a good loud whistle. You can blow one for a lot longer than you can yell, and be heard further.

Mike

Seems like it'd be nice if the wilderness permit form had all those fields that you mention on it, and one could enter them, regardless of starting point. I only asked about SAR approaches because if someone might be looking for my party, I'd like to know what their general approach might be. I could better position my team, unless dead of course..

When I show up for my permit, they only want my name, and where am I staying each day. And sometimes, those are way off..

two cents, for what it's worth.

I went to a seminar (Search and Rescue 101) last night in my local REI (Saratoga REI). The guy who gave the talk is from Bay Area Mountain Rescue. http://www.bamru.org/bamruinfo.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.
I was surprised that all the SAR people in his group are volunteers and they spent a lots of their own time and money to pay for training and participating in the SAR operations.

He did say, as far as he knows, no SAR charges people for being rescued, and that includes Yosemite SAR program. They only want to charge people if the person being rescued refuse to get out of the wilderness with them. One time that a family reported a group were missing and they went and found the group. But the group were having a good time, they just forgot to tell their family. So the group wanted to stay in the wilderness. He got really upset, and telling them after the SAR had 2 helios and dozens of people searching for them for many hours, they'd have to come out with SAR or they needed to foot the bill of that operation. So those people came out with him. :-)

He's advices:
Know your limit, prepared, leave note to people about where you go when to plan to come back. If lost or hurt, stay calm, stay warm, stay dry and stay put. Don't hesitate for asking help.

wildrose wrote: He did say, as far as he knows, no SAR charges people for being rescued, and that includes Yosemite SAR program.

Yosemite SAR will charge for medical services provided, and bill your insurance if you have it. And, with our team, if we arrive and the person refuses help, we walk away - we do not threaten to charge them. Otherwise he is correct.

I wouldn't expect anyone to be charged.

We are also called upon to search for missing children and Alzheimers sufferers, and to track felons on the lam in the wilderness.

AlmostThere,

Thanks for this thread. We usually leave a detailed itinerary. This year, in response to your post, we have added detailed identifying information and a photo. We'll leave it with a family member to email to the forest service if we are more than 24 hours late (a call to the rangers first, of course). With the photo and the info, we'll be much more easily found.

AlmostThere wrote:

wildrose wrote: He did say, as far as he knows, no SAR charges people for being rescued, and that includes Yosemite SAR program.

Yosemite SAR will charge for medical services provided, and bill your insurance if you have it.

What insurance does the SAR team charge? Health insurance? in the way an ambulance service would?

AlmostThere wrote: interesting that Google thinks North Lake is in Yosemite.

Also, apparently Mt Whitney has moved. According to Google it's now located in Yosemite Valley.

It's on this map ... just scroll the map to the left ( errr, move the map to the right, so you can see what's to the left) ...

The JMT is now a day hike

http://www.yosemitehikes.com/yosemite-v ... il-map.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;