DIY Search and Rescue: What gear do you use?

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flybri

Joined
Nov 4, 2005
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A couple weeks ago, my friend called me and told me that his brother had been hiking the Lions trail near Vancouver, B.C., and was lost. His brother was with a small group of friends and they had started early in the day, but they decided to take a different trail on the way back down from the summit and lost their way.

Because they were only planning on being out there for a day (not an excuse, I know), they were not prepared for an overnighter. No warm layers, no extra water, etc., and it was starting to get dark by the time they realized they were lost. Cell phone reception was really spotty, and they were lucky to have found a place where they could call 911 and then, subsequently, call home to say that they were lost.

Now, I don't happen to know the trail extremely well, but as a Scout leader, I've had to go conduct my own searches in the past when groups of kids haven't returned as scheduled. While it's certainly nice to have search and rescue on the line, sometimes, it's just not feasible:
- they might decide that the hikers are safe enough if they've already been told to stay put on the phone, and they might choose to delay the search till morning.
- they might be understaffed and delayed.
- there might be a high cost associated with search and rescue, and the rescuees might be reluctant to call them (bad reason to risk your life on this, but it's for this reason that many SAR groups state that searches are free.
- there might be no way to contact SAR.
- you might be closer to the trail, and thus more quickly deployed, than SAR.
- you might know the trails better (although if SAR has some fancy tech like infrared cameras and helicopters, your advantage would be diminished).

So my question to you is this: if, for any of the above reasons (or others you can think of), YOU had to conduct a search for missing hikers, what would you bring? We talk about survival kits and bug-out bags a lot, but how does the purpose of this "hike" change your gear?

I ended up NOT having to do a hike in the middle of the night to look for these guys because SAR went to do it, but I already had a hiking buddy all set to go with me. If I had to go, I would have probably brought a couple STRONG flashlights to locate them, an extra sweater for the cold hikers, some water and food, a personal locator beacon, and my trusty Izula (this is a forum on knives, after all :D). Probably a basic first aid kit too. I'd debate as to whether I'd want to bring a tarp and stove and just set up a shelter for the night, and hike out in the morning, or whether I'd want to take them down right away. It would have been a 3 hour hike one way.

Of course, I'm also open to hearing your thoughts on my "reasons" for having to do your own search instead of sitting and waiting for the official search team to show up. Are they bad reasons? Is there no good time to do it on your own? Based on your experience, when would you go do your own search?
 
Interesting post. A scenario like that would definitely shift my gear towards first aide and extra clothing/blankets. I would also bring food that could be immediately unwrapped and eaten, aka energy bars and such. Your priorities shift from taking care of yourself in a hypothetical emergency to taking care of a number of other people in a certain emergency. So while you wouldn't want to short yourself on supplies, you would want to make sure you had the resources to get to the lost hikers, get them fed, take care of them medically, and get them back to safety.

ETA: On second thought, feeding the hikers may be less of a primary concern, but it may help (depending on how long they'd been without food) to get them to the point where they could hike out of the situation without being too much of a burden. Food's a great morale booster, too.
 
The best idea here is, unless it is a last resort, not to set out on a SAR mission yourself without the proper training. There is a little more to it than simply looking for the lost hiker. There is a science to it. Now, in many cases the SAR teams will gladly accept help from other outdoorsmen who are familiar with the territory but take direction from them. It's better to work as a whole team with all of the players on the same page rather than working "againt" each other because of lack of coordination.
 
flybri said:
Of course, I'm also open to hearing your thoughts on my "reasons" for having to do your own search instead of sitting and waiting for the official search team to show up. Are they bad reasons? Is there no good time to do it on your own? Based on your experience, when would you go do your own search?
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One of the worst things that can happen to hinder a SAR is to have a horde of untrained people walking around destroying the footsign or scent.

Unfortunately, it happens in almost every SAR.

If you're interested, join your local SAR team and NASAR and get some training. It's a great place to pickup WS skills.
 
Brutane and Nemoaz have it right. Hiking at night can be dangerous and disorienting. If something were to go south with you and your friend, you would then become part of the problem not the solution. Now SAR is performing two rescues instead of one.

On a side note, my dog and I have our first NASAR field evaluation this Saturday.
 
I agree with the comments that doing it yourself is a bad idea without training and 10x worse for a night op. If however, there is no other choice, some of the equipment I would add would be a good topo map, whistles, communication gear for the other searchers, good lights and strobes for beacons and most importantly, a coordinated plan.
Space or mylar blankets are quick and light for heat retention and some sort of rehydration/electrolyte/sugary mix/drink for fuel so they can regulate their body heat.

just my .02
 
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My bro-in-laws grandad got lost a few months ago out in a rural community. He is older with bad dementia. Anyway, they had the sheriffs dept look for about 12 hours and we were gearing up to go look for him on quads.

Anyway, they ended up finding him on horseback. He was hard to find because he had smeared himself in mud to keep mosquitoes away and crawled into some brush for shade from the heat.

We are familiar with the area so we might have been of some help. I asked myself the same question you are asking though before I went.
 
That is something we SAR techs really dont like to hear. I hate to be blunt like this, but it all ways a bad idea for friends and family, unless other wise specified, or set out in a manner that they can be in contact with a search organization to go out on a search.

If it were to the point of your with a friend, and they take another route, never try and take the risk of looking for them on your own. There are alot of things that can go wrong, even with specially trained individuals, let alone a friend that is dealing with a lost partner, or other friend to be tromping through the woods looking for them.


In a hypothesized scenario however, think of what you need, but for that other person. They may very well have some of their own gear with them, but thats not a thing you should count on.
be prepared to spend the night with them, ability to have a fire shelter, the 5 basics. you need to be able to treat any injuries, life threating or not they might have until the right people can find them. Also, depending on what type of search you may be doing (type 1-3) you may not be able to carry the gear that would be needed to get someone out.

The best possible situation is a type 1 search that the patient is located, that way all medical, ALS and back board and dolly can be brought to get them out.

If they fell off a cliff of some type, or in the water, its a whole other story, water rescue while not being a swift water tech is a very bad Idea, trying to get someone up a 500 foot ledge is also very hard, especially when a rescuer needs to be coming up with them in the event of life threating injuries.


So, with all that said, there is a whole host of things that could go very bad. But some Medical experience, proper gear in the sense of extra clothing, food, things for fire and staying over night until help gets there is a feasible possibility.
 
back in the day, there was no SAR. There was no trained Sheriff's department unit, there was no EMT.

I remember well several times when in Virginia, and in Florida, I participated in a search for missing folks. Common sense, and growing up in a rural setting, being familiar with the area, was important then, and it could be important now.

In today's high tech, and well trained world, I would defer to a professional, but if I had to go out and search, I believe I could still do it.
 
My cousin was often called in bysar to use hi knowlede of the area he lived in and his dogs. I went with him once and came away with some thoughts

1.SAR is HARD work. Do not undertake it alone. Do not go in untrained.(including knowing the area)
2. It can get depressing. We were looking for two kids, way back in the woods. It was a cold wet night. We didn't find them and it got tough. (Luckily the kids were holed up in an old hunting cabin. We found them the next morning.)
3. While not a priority for survival, food can sure make the rescued feel better 9along with hot drinks)
4. I HATE horses (and they hate me) but having two good horses and excellent dogs made that search much easier and faster.
 
Acetylene said:
...
On a side note, my dog and I have our first NASAR field evaluation this Saturday.
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Good for you, and best of luck :thumbup: !!

Interesting thread.

Having done a fair bit of SAR over the years I've seen friends and family involve themselves in missions with varying degrees of utility.

While my best advice might be "Don't do it." the reality is that you (generic) will hit the field anyway.

That being the case, please let somebody know your plans!
Of course letting someone know your plans means that you HAVE a plan; and that is truly key.

Your plan should include not going alone (Please!) - and coordinate your efforts with SAR if at all possible.

As to gear, appropriate clothing and footwear, lots of lights (extra batteries), tons of water, some simple food and warm layers - morning WILL come.

Better yet; volunteer in your community!!

Cheers,
8
 
Great points herein, and I agree that from the SAR's team's perspective, you'll probably end up hindering more than helping their efforts going it alone.

HOWEVER, I'm here to tell you, if it was one of my children who were lost, sorry, I'm on it, and if an SAR team wants my coordination with their efforts, they'd best pick up the pace.

Kids can change perogatives.

Professor.
 
I've only ever done one "search" operation, and I'll freely admit that the adrenaline was running high with a lot of people, myself included. even though people were sent out in pairs, some got split up, and spent time looking for each other, no one got hurt, but the temptation to start running to cover more ground was high.
Basically if you and your buddy are going into the woods to look, you need to make sure that you both can handle the mental strain, and stay focused on being thorough, and safe.
As for gear, I'd be looking at lights, first aid, and quick shelter so that I can stabilize the missing people if necessary and either hike out later or wait for evac. Another thing I heard somewhere is that a very small headlamp and a big handheld flashlight are better than a big headlamp, as a light moving six feet in the air looks very scary to a stressed person, especially a child.
 
This is one reason why it's important to keep a 'go bag' maintained. The other part is on nights like Thursday where we have a CRAZY meteor shower expected to peak, you can get the heck out of dodge with maybe 3-5 minutes of prep, stuffing cans of soup, a bottle of whiskey and some water in your pack and hitting the road. Navigation is huge and overlooked. A good radio, a good compass, GPS, and topographic map should be as high on the priority list as a comprehensive FAK is. Signalling can help too- a flare gun, pen flares, signal fire, air signals, audio signals (whistle or a firearm) etc. Most GPS's nowadays will almost instantly download topos from navigation software, which can be real handy, though it's nice to have a paper copy on hand for plotting routes etc.
 
As a few have said... leave the SAR to the SAR crews. I have done a little local wildlife tracking for Parks Canada and there is nothing more frustrating than a heavily trodden search area... I can only imagine if it were a life at stake. There is WAY more to it than most realize. Your tampering with the sign could verywell prove to be disasterous.

Good topic.... great post.


Rick
 
Good thread. I think most folks here understand leaving SAR to folks trained as a group in tracking, dividing territory, communication, etc. Survival is a different game than this. The gray area that can be tricky, I think, is deciding when you're in a situation that's actually shaping up to be a call to emergency services.
 
I have done some tracking this year. We found the deer. The blood drops always help.
 
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