Rope training: Search and rescue practice skills

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The Emery County Search and Rescue team consists of 35 volunteer members from all areas of the county and each of the members bring their own unique skills and specialty to the team. The team has a long proud history of serving Emery County citizens and visitors to the county. The motto of search and rescue is “that others may live” and very few understand the commitment and time that is required to maintain a state of readiness to ensure that when the team is called they are prepared and competent to respond to virtually any emergency within Emery County.
Today search and rescue teams face far greater challenges than ever before in their history and teams must be equipped and trained just not for the traditional lost person but a wide variety of missions from EMS and avalanche rescue, to river rescue just to name a few.
As extreme wilderness sports continue to explode in Emery County, the roles, responsibilities and liability of the search and rescue team has also increased. Training and equipment are huge investments and must be done right the first time. The formation of a functional, multi-disciplined, rescue team requires careful planning, a large time commitment from the team members, equipment research and acquisition, training, and funding.
The search and rescue team must routinely evaluate, inspect and update their equipment to ensure it is current and in excellent working order. Simply said, you either have the skills, abilities and equipment to be safe and effective during a rescue operation, or you don’t. The search and rescue team deals with helping individuals who are in the midst of difficult situations and requires the absolute highest degree of competency with little or no room for error. The team must always strive to achieve that level of excellence by continually improving their knowledge and skills and high quality frequent training helps maintain the team’s competency level. The old saying “If you don’t use it, you lose it” is absolutely applicable here.
The training in the pictures are of advanced basket handling techniques, that are used in dealing with large overhangs, training also included patient packaging, advanced anchoring skills, rescue belays, and simple and compound pulley systems.