The single most important piece of equipment any of us can own is located high atop our shoulders. Being prepared in your own mind is critical to succeeding as a Search & Rescue volunteer. So let's consider why you are involved in this work. No reason is more or less valid than another. Among those I've commonly encountered are:
Assessing personal drives, and the validity of them, is often a gray area. There are people for whom I have the highest personal and professional regard whose primary drive comes from areas I consider less than altruistic. The challenge of running Search & Rescue operations, or perhaps the unique opportunity to investigate the "Classic Mystery" that is a search. The victim does not figure into the thinking of these people, except as a secondary concern. And yet, these reasons are perfectly fine. I don't fully understand them, but they serve the victim by bringing in some First Rate people.
So you see, many different factors serve to bring us to Search & Rescue work. As you gain years of Search & Rescue experience your reasons may well shift and change in both type and intensity. Whatever your personal values, reasons, or goals as a Search & Rescue Volunteer, one thing is of paramount importance. Human life is at risk. The victims life, the lives of other team members, and your own life all hang in the balance of collective performance, and pure dumb luck. Regardless of what drives you, you must temper your personal concerns with the fact that a Search & Rescue Team exists for the sole benefit of victims, Individual egos must be kept in check, and at times sacrificed to the absolute necessity of the team effort.
Your attitude to this work needs to be that of being part of a solution to a complex problem. If you strive always to be a positive facet of the Team's efforts, this goal is readily attainable. Your reasons for doing this work are all perfectly fine and acceptable. For in the final assessment, all that really matters is that you helped save a life, and in so doing did not hinder the efforts of others to do the same.
Another point to watch out for is rationalizing away the need for your services. There are two routes this phenomenon can take.
First is the "By the time I get there everything will be over" conundrum. I've heard words like that quite a few times, and they just don't ring true. Typically, between the page and the first teams hitting the trail a good hour goes by. Under certain circumstances this may be shortened a great deal. But in the vast majority of cases you can get there in time to contribute.
Living on the wrong side of the Catalina Mountains as I did for many years, most calls were forty five minutes just to get to rendezvous. And yet I've never, that's Never with a big N, arrived after an operation had been completed. I've driven thirty miles over rough dirt roads, another twenty through city traffic, hiked two and a half miles up Bear Canyon, and still had time to set up and run a technical lower station along Seven Falls.
Second is the tendency to say "Hey, somebody else will find the victim, so why go?". This ignores the fundamental point of how we do what we do. This is Team Work, plain and simple. Whoever was there when the lost or injured was found was only there because all the other assignments were being handled. Had you not been doing what you were doing, someone would have been put on your assignment and their's would have gone unattended. I've been on teams where we were "just covering the bases" because we had the people to fill in low priority areas. And yet, my team found the missing person right where he or she was never expected to be! And yes, even trainees do get to find the victim from time to time.
A case in point was a search for a German tourist in Sabino Canyon. The lady had been expected to go towards Hutch's Pool, having been directed there by friends. She intended a simple day hike to eat a lunch by the water and read some poetry. She was a full day overdue. There was a very large brush fire being fought in the region of Bear Canyon and had been going on for several days.
A large turnout was on hand for the call. By the time I arrived all reasonable search areas were being covered. We had teams headed to Romero Pass, Upper Sabino, Blue Line Canyon, the Phone Line Trail, Box Camp Trail, and a half dozen other places including radio-relay and blocking teams. So for the sole reason of being thorough; myself, Loma Griffith and a trainee on his first callout were sent to the Prison Camp to hike in to Sycamore Saddle and serve as a blocking team. The plan being to only go these few short miles and then back to the cars.
Search teams sent into the Sabino area found a variety of clues. These included a book in German and some minor articles of clothing. Tracks associated with the clues went towards Low Sycamore Saddle and Bear Canyon. By the time we reached Sycamore Creek these various discoveries had been made. This changed the picture of things considerably and put our jolly group in the hot seat. Our area was now prime search territory because: 1. The victim was nowhere to be found where all the searchers were searching and 2. The clues found pointed the search away from where everybody were very properly sent. We were where we were because there was no place left to send us!
The trainee and I went to Low Sycamore Saddle while Loma went up the spur trail that crosses Sycamore Creek and climbs to Bear Canyon Trail. We found no track matching the description at Low Sycamore Saddle and headed over to meet Loma where the spur trail and ours would meet. We were still north of the fire. Heading down Bear Canyon Trail you cross through a high hanging valley. We searched this valley and made some small off trail excursions. Again nothing was found.
The trail leaves the valley and drops off the side slope of a rocky escarpment towards a creek crossing. The trail parallels the creek a ways before crossing, and Loma and I thought it wise to check up stream. The thinking being that the victim might have been traveling off-trail and connected with the stream. So the trainee was sent to sit at the trail crossing and watch it, going no more than a hundred feet from it. We gave him a spare handie talkie to keep in touch with. Loma and I checked a good distance upstream but found nothing. As we worked our way back to the crossing and our obedient trainee he called us on the radio to say he saw somebody up high on the slope.
So we hurried on down to where he was at and found that he wasn't at there. Neither was he anywhere in site. So over the radio we asked where he was and he said he was about a tenth of a mile downstream on the trail in the burn area and that he could see the victim and she was naked trying to hide from us!
About a quarter mile past his tenth we saw him high up slope. This area had burned through only a short while ago and was very smoky with plenty of small fires still going. The victim was very dehydrated, covered in soot and quite amused by our peculiar American sensibilities over nudity. She declined to explain her being in this situation, but the best guess is that she sought to commune with nature and got lost from where ever she left her clothes. We never found them.
The victim was exhausted and we considered a helicopter evacuation, but landing spots were in short supply and DPS Air Rescue had other calls pending. We got the woman dressed in various odd pieces of clothing, gave her plenty of water and helped her down onto the trail. As luck would have it the Posse was headed up Bear Canyon and arrived on the trail with a nice calm horse for her to ride. She rode out to the road with the three of us behind.
Every tool has a best application, and limits to be considered. Ropes and 'biners, helmets and first aid kits. What can they be used for? What is beyond their limits?
People are the ultimate tools of Search & Rescue. We categorize people with such measurements as: "She's the best climber we got", or "He's an exceptional search dog handler". Those who would manage and direct these people-tools need to know how best to use them. This is no easy task. It's made far worse when the person in question can't say what his limits or abilities are to a potential assignment.
So knowing one's limits and abilities becomes a necessity. Discovering them is done through an honest and factual self appraisal of your past experiences. What have you done? How well did you do it? What obstacles did you overcome? What defeated you? What pleased you totally?
Consider individually your many different interests. If you climb, are you comfortable and skilled enough to take on just single pitch, low angle faces? Or have you gotten bored with Yosemite, and hope for a spot on the next expedition to Iceland? Apply this same procedure to your basic backpacker type skills. Navigation in good and bad weather, tent pitching in a storm, starting a fire. All are important.
Of equal importance is your level of physical fitness and physical ability, Plenty of people can travel from point A to point B. Some are faster or slower than others. Some can carry absurdly heavy loads, or only self preservation loads. Some can endure extremes of cold, and thin atmosphere. Others rally to intense desert heat as if temperatures below 110 degrees would chill their blood.
I am no expert on developing the ultimate level of fitness. Nor do I corner the market on determining individual skill levels. But it seems reasonable to me that the more you do of this stuff, the more you will learn of your limits and abilities. So too will you improve on these abilities, and push further away your limits.
Use your recreational opportunities to study and advance your Search & Rescue qualifications. Make a point of spending some of your recreational time with your Search & Rescue friends. Hiking the trails, climbing the rocks, slithering through the caves. You will learn more about yourself, you will learn to function more as a Team Member, and you will improve the victims situation immensely.
Children play games of "flight and fancy". Play acting is an integral part of a child's development. Through the power of imagination a child can travel the world, defeat monsters and enjoy exhilarating experiences. All in the comfort and safety of playgrounds and backyards.
This childhood ability does not vanish with your first paycheck. All adults daydream from time to time. This is usually a positive act as daydreaming can serve as a means of preparing for the realities of the adult world. This, in essence, is what the child was doing.
Aircraft pilots and police officers are both put through detailed simulations of crisis and emergencies. These exercises train the individual to react to stressful situations without panic or indecision. Why not do the same thing for Search & Rescue volunteers?
Call it Daydreaming, Play-Acting, or Crisis Simulation, all these activities force individuals to ask themselves what they would do if something went wrong. What I have done for years is to dissect and study in my thoughts my actions in various situations. Even in those that went perfectly well, I seek out what might have gone wrong, then devise a response to it.
I'll take this a step further. My habit has long been to create in my minds eye a problem to be solved. Then I place myself in different places within the problem, and theorize my way out of it. I seek out the nuances that determine whether or not my solutions are sound. Often I find ways of improvising, or even multiple solutions.
It can be difficult to be perfectly honest with yourself in such an exercise. When I have really done well I have discovered areas where my skills were either lacking or better than I had expected.
Here's a story, and a little exercise, that I think helps to illustrate what I'm getting at:
Sooner or later everyone asks themselves a question that goes something like this:
Or it may go something like this:
These are "What If" games. I have often played the first version, and occasionally indulged in the second. Playing these games in the context of examining your Search & Rescue abilities can be very revealing, and even improve upon your capabilities.
The following relates a sequence of events that tested certain problems, unanswered questions, uncooperative witnesses, poor communications, overly helpful outside resources, and some really dumb victims.
At the time of this incident I was a member of Cochise County Search & Rescue, my application to SARA not yet approved. As a member of CCSAR, I was authorized to use certain CCSO radio frequencies. I was not authorized to use Pima County SO frequencies.
I started my recreational hike on the Romero Canyon Trail shortly before sunrise. Heading out in the cool predawn air, the trail crosses the Sutherland Wash, climbs into the foothills and heads for Montrose Canyon. The parking lot behind me was empty save for my own vehicle. The trail ahead should be equally deserted.
The sun came up just as I began the ascent out of Montrose to the low ridge that leads into Romero Canyon. Reaching the ridge, I stopped a little while to enjoy the view and listen to the water running in both canyons below me. Then I continued along the trail as it drops into the first stream crossing of Romero and heads on up the canyon. By noon I had gone past the second and third stream crossings, the switch backs, and was a little above Romero Spring.
I turned around at noon and headed back down. The canyon seemed empty of people. I had not seen anyone since I started out. All manner of bird song, and a great many wildflowers along the stream made it a most pleasant morning. I stopped many times along the way just to enjoy the view.
As the day went by the cool morning was left behind as another pleasant memory. Heat replaced it, as even in the early spring these canyons can get quite warm. Around 14:30, I reached the expanse of rock between the first and second stream crossings. I'd been putting off lunch, and decided to stop here to eat and listen to the water tumble down over polished stone. After a while I packed up and continued down towards the first stream crossing where Romero Trail drops off the ridge after climbing over from Montrose Canyon.
Approaching the crossing I began to hear the first voices of the day. People were up and downstream of it splashing in the pools. I stopped briefly in the shade of the crossing and rested my pack on a boulder. I was contemplating the idea of going down the trailess portion of Romero when the adventure began. As you read this consider first the comments in italics at the beginning of each paragraph. Then read on.
"What would you do if you met somebody in trouble? Perhaps a pooped out hiker, or someone with an injury? Do you run for help, radio for help, or find a low key way of dealing with the prob- lem? What are the most important points to worry about?"
A fellow, call him Hiker 1, came stumbling down from the ridge. He crossed out onto to the expanse of rock that is the stream crossing, stopped, and leaned on a hot sun baked boulder. He held a large staff, and looked utterly miserable. His feet were clad in tattered sneakers, and he wore only cut-off jeans and a pink tank-top tee shirt. His face was a bright red, and he looked ready to keel over. No hat, no water, no food, no brains.
"This turkey needs water", I astutely observed, and walked over to offer him some. He spoke first: "Have you seen two teenage boys?" he asked. I told him I had come down from the spring, and had seen no one. I offered the water, which he refused. So I pointed to my very large pack under the shady trees: "That damn things got twenty pounds of water in it, I'd sure appreciate your helping me lighten it up some" I said. He took the water.
It was hot out on that expanse of rock, so I suggested we sit in the shade, but he did not want to. So I asked him about the boys. They were his son, age 17, and his sons friend, age 16. They had offered to help out dad on his first hike after two months bed rest following an operation. They were carrying a cooler and day packs with food and water. Hiker 1's operation was on his inner ears, which control balance. He remarked that he was finding his sense of balance considerably poorer than expected. He said he was terribly worried about the boys, afraid that they may have gotten lost or been injured. They had been impatient with Hiker 1's slow pace. So they charged ahead, promising to wait at the first stream crossing.
"Then the problem grows just a little bit. How far do you go in your initial reaction to the added problem? Call for help? Keep it low key? Wish the sucker good luck, and go the other way? Who is the victim here, and who is at the greatest risk?"
At this time I introduced myself, and told him I was with Search & Rescue. I offered to help find the boys. This was an excuse to stay close to Hiker 1. I expected the boys would turn up soon enough, as they had probably been attracted to one of the Bikini Testing Sites in the pools visible off the ridge that separates Romero and Montrose. I asked him the standard stuff I'd recently been taught to ask about missing hikers. I learned that these boys were very experienced hikers who were quite fond of Romero Canyon. They were both accomplished cross country runners, and had no health problems.
My concern was for Hiker 1. He was doing very poorly, both physically and in his near panic over the boys safety. Nothing I said would allay his fears. To keep him occupied, we started out the trail, stopping several times before reaching the ridge. Along the way we passed other hikers, including a guy with a small baby in his arms. I asked him about the two boys. He had not seen them. He asked me to tell his wife that he would wait for her at the stream crossing, and said that she might be a good distance behind. I said I would tell her.
We stopped both for Hiker 1 to rest, and for me to shout for the boys. He could not remember what they had on their feet, so tracking was no help. As we walked I asked him about what he did for a living, and other small talk. This to get his mind off his panic. To a small extent it worked. It may have even succeeded, had it not been for Hiker 2.
"Now the problem changes again, it grows just a little bit more. The same questions arise. Who is the most in need? What, if any, changes must be made in your evaluation of what you should do? Control becomes more challenging. How do you keep control?"
We were on the ridge and doing better when we encountered Hiker 2. She was sitting on a rock, looking perfectly cheerful. I asked about the boys. She said she hadn't seen them. She then said, in tones so musical and relaxed, "Got a band-aid?" She nodded at her bare feet. Sometimes, I amaze myself with my blindness. Her right foot looked awful. The rock under her foot was splattered red; wet and red. Hiker 1 instantly reverted to his preferred state of near panic. Trying to keep my problems contained in one small area, I told him I might need his help. I nodded to the girls bloody foot. He nodded reluctant acceptance, but did not act convinced.
Again I introduced myself and said I was with Search & Rescue. I dug out my First Aid Kit, and went to work on the foot. She was the perfect victim, the opposite of Hiker 1. She volunteered all possible information. She was utterly cheerful and relaxed.
She said she, her husband, and their baby were out for a hike. They discovered she had forgotten her boots, and had only sandals in the truck. So her husband offered his old leather high top boots he used for laying concrete. No socks, very big boots, lots of concrete dust. Her feet blistered quickly. So she figured it was the boots, and removed them to walk barefoot. Despite the cactus and sharp rocks tearing up her feet she walked a good distance. I told her of my chat with her husband.
"Imagination is a wonderful thing, but can we imagine a few more twists and turns? How can things get more annoying than they already are? As tension or complexity rises there may be a tend- ency to over react. What additional change would be enough to warrant calling for outside help? How do you summon this help? What resources do you need, and what have you overlooked?"
Hiker 2's foot was almost clean and ready for bandaging when Hiker 1 decided near panic was not sufficient. He announced he was going to hike down into the lower section of Romero below the ridge, and search for the boys. This is very rough and vertical terrain. I warned him that he was in no condition to go off trail into such stuff. He would not listen. I told him again, exaggerating my level of experience, that the greatest probability was that his kids were back in the parking lot and he would soon be tumbling down the canyon wall breaking bones as he went. He would not be swayed.
Realizing I could no longer keep this situation under control, I radioed for help. No one answered on Rescue frequency, as was expected with Pusch Ridge looming to the south. There was a low spot in the canyon wall to the north. I could see well into Pinal County. So I used a national police assist frequency, Interagency, calling to any unit. A Pinal County deputy answered, and relayed my request for a Pima County deputy to respond to the park.
Once the feet were cleaned and bandaged I realized the injuries were not all that bad. Hiker 2 felt certain she could walk, if only she had boots. So out from my pack came extra socks to make the boots fit.
Back to the standard worry: Who is the victim? Who is most in need? What's changed? What have you forgotten?
THE BABY! I'd forgotten to ask Hiker 2 about her baby! I asked when the baby had last had fluids. She said several hours at least, back in the parking lot. This scared me, as babies don't do very well in the heat. The baby looked alright when Hiker 1 and I passed daddy earlier, and this tempered my concern somewhat. Enter Hiker 3.
Hiker 3 arrived as I was finishing the bandaging and as I was assessing the baby's situation. If I could remember his name, I would tell it to you. He was a member of the Southern Arizona Hiking Club, and helped tremendously. I asked him to fetch back Hiker 2's husband and baby. He said he remembered the man from seeing the three of them earlier in the parking lot.
Hiker 2 had a baby bottle with a small amount of formula in it. She topped this off with water from my pack, and gave this to Hiker 3. He said he would take care of the problem, and would not leave the canyon without the three of them. Off he went to catch daddy.
"As matters progress, how will control and authority over the situation fluctuate? Who is in charge? When do you release or surrender authority to someone else? Is it a defacto sort of a passing of the baton, or does somebody say "I'm in charge now"? What, under the latest change in the problem, is an appropriate course of action from this point?"
Enter a PCSO traffic officer. The deputy called me on the radio. I advised him I was working several problems. I stated the nature of these problems, and requested two things. I requested someone to watch the trail head for the boys and Hiker 1. I also asked for the Search & Rescue Duty Officer to be advised. This was done. The deputy asked me if I'd like a helicopter to come out and look for the boys. I said that I lacked the authority to request a chopper, but didn't believe any additional response would be needed.
The feet bandaged, we worked on getting the boots to fit. The socks did the trick. I instructed Hiker 2 to wait in the shade of a nearby tree. I told her not to leave this spot without her husband. I advised her to take her foot to a doctor to get it checked properly. I told her that no matter what else might happen, she was not to walk out on the foot if it became painful or if she suspected unseen injury. I promised to return soon if she, her husband, and the baby did not show up at the trail head.
"Now the cat is out of the bag. It's no longer a nice neat little problem. All sorts of folks want to come and play! What will they think of or decide to do that hadn't occurred to you? Will these be good or bad moves? How do you react to the addition of unseen decision makers in "YOUR RESCUE"?"
While all this was going on, unbeknownst to me, arrangements were being made for an Air Strike on Romero Canyon. This to locate the boys. The deputy called to inform me that the Search & Rescue Duty Officer had requested a helicopter respond to the park. There's something about helicopters that brings out a feeling of: "WE'RE REALLY GOING OVERBOARD WITH THIS ONE PEOPLE !!".
What we had was a hiker that needed water, and a brain. We had another hiker who needed shoes and a brain. We had a hiker's husband who needed a better sense of parental responsibility; or maybe he just needed a brain. We had two teenage boys who were being irresponsible, which is what teenage boys are supposed to be doing: Acting brainless.
Wanting to prevent the needless escalation of these problems into a full scale invasion of Romero Canyon, I chased after Hiker 1. True to form, his tracks led off trail. But every time his tracks showed where he tried to slide over some small drop, I found the marks of someone frantically scrambling back up. He just could not negotiate the terrain. Eventually his tracks led back onto the trail. Outstanding!
I set to jogging down the trail after him. Every time I passed a hiker I asked if they had seen the guy in the pink tank top. Several had. Each confirming report encouraged me to run faster. A hiker said the feller was about 100 yards ahead. I asked if he was alone. The response was that he was standing there yelling at two teenagers. ALRIGHT!!! I radioed to the deputy that the boys were likely found already. He said the chopper would launch anyway.
GR...... I wanted desperately to stop the Flight of the Great Helicopter Armada. So at a full run I charged down the trail. Soon I saw Hiker 1 going around a bend. I yelled for him to stop, but he disappeared from sight. I charged around the bend and damn near trampled him, he had stopped in the shade. Well, maybe he learned something.
He had met up with the boys shortly after leaving me and Hiker 2. They walked up on the ridge just as he was passing by. They had been down at the pools in lower Romero, conducting a study of female wilderness bathing attire. Both were fine, and were ahead on the trail. Calling the deputy, I told him the Air Cavalry was not needed. He said he would listen to the radio a while, just to be sure.
I was cooked. Running down steep rocky trail is just not my style, especially in the hot summer sun. My favorite hiking speed is 50% Meandering Power, not Warp 9! I continued out at a snails pace (10% Meandering Power) to cool off. By the time I reached the road Hiker 2, husband, baby and Hiker 3 were just coming up behind me. Hiker 2 returned my socks. I let her keep the bandaids.
"Is this the end of it all? What is yet to be done once all the victims and all the rescuers have reached safe havens? When does the rescue end, and whatever comes next begin?"
Sorry, no great cinematic ending to this tale. But some things were learned. Mistakes were made, don't doubt that for a moment. Hindsight, being such a crystalline thing, showed me a number of errors that could have been embarrassing. Chief among these is the baby. Even though I was comfortable with my actions when they were taken, caution should have sent me in the babies direction after finishing with Hiker 2. Hiker 1 was of an age where he owned his own mistakes. The baby was innocent in the matter and therefore far less expendable. Also the helicopter was not that bad a choice for checking up on the others. Another good idea would have seen one of the park rangers hiking up.
Most importantly I came away from this misadventure with the knowledge that I could handle a multitude of troubles without losing my ability to think. Today, I realize the reason it went so well is because all general elements of the days events had been considered before they happened by playing the "What If" game after prior operations in Cochise County. I reacted calmly and efficiently because I had already experienced the emergency in my minds eye.
All the comments and questions asked of you I have asked of myself. The Romero Canyon business happened as described. But it was prior mental exercise that provided the calm and the cool headedness. And it was mental exercise that evaluated the whole thing in the days afterward, and in so evaluating advanced the ability to handle more complex problems later in my Search & Rescue service.
All this talk about the power of imagination requires some qualifying remarks, and a caution or two. There is no need for you to be the best the Team's got. As long as you're aware of what you can and cannot do. Be honest about yourself, and you have no reason as a rescuer or searcher to be bothered by your unsuitability for a given task. If you personally would like to take on a challenge that has been beyond you in the past, it's your right to try. But do so on your own time, and with the help and guidance of those who have already demonstrated their skills as being up to par. To lose sight of your limits is to risk an ultimate price. Again I harp on the theme of LIFE AND DEATH. You and I have no right to risk our lives or anyone else's by accepting a task that is beyond us, be it to the point of exhaustion, injury, or death.
As a starting point consider what any good backpacker carries: FOOD - WATER - SHELTER. This is where your personal gear begins. But then we Search & Rescue types must consider the job, and the victim. Your ability to travel 20 miles a day on 2 Hershey's Kiss's and a Coke Classic will impress many, until you happen upon a victim in need of serious attention.
As an effective Team Member you must traverse wilderness, know where you are, treat injuries, find clues, signal helicopters, etc. All this requires maps, compasses, altimeters, extra food, extra water, first aid kits, stoves, tents, bivy sacks, space blankets, binoculars, smoke canisters, whistles, saws, signal mirrors.......
GET THE PICTURE? Naturally you are not expected to carry or even own all this stuff at any one time. An extreme is toting every conceivable artifact ever dreamed of in a backpack. This leaves one with something akin to Godzilla on your back. It's the rare individual who can move effectively for very long underneath such a beast.
What you or I carry as a Team Member must be tailored around our limits and abilities, as well as the Team's assignment. Discuss with your Team the needs of a specific call out. In time you will learn how best to tune your gear to the job you accepted.
Some will have special equipment considerations. These again reflect the individuality of each of us. Our amateur radio enthusiasts typically carry extra radios and batteries into the field. Those with advanced medical training may be carrying supplies appropriate to their training. Rock climbers have been seen toting all sorts of cowbells into the woods. Oh, and those rumers of my carrying a cast iron, compartmented frying pan in my pack are greatly exaggerated. It's cast aluminum.
Getting ready for a call-out begins long before the pager detonates in your ear at Oh-Dark-Thirty. If you are someone who is able and desirous of leaving work to respond, then arrangements must be made with your employer.
One fellow I worked for demanded a copy of my schedule at least a week before each Search & Rescue operation. Try as I might, I never quite got this guy to the point of understanding that Search & Rescue calls were not scheduled in advance. Eventually, an understanding was reached. But when I first used his guidelines in responding to a call, he furiously chewed me out and threatened to fire me.
Another outfit I worked for espoused its obligation to the community. We worked out careful guidelines governing my activities. These rules took into account the realities of rescues and searches. If I responded the evening before I would go to work, I first called the night shift technician to get an idea if my not showing up in the morning would cause severe difficulties. While this employer accepted some difficulties, I tried to dump less trouble on them than was considered acceptable. This arrangement enabled me to skip out on nearly 100 work days over the course of a few short years and to be among the highest responders in the group.
In more recent years I went back to college to advance my PAID career. Knowing of my tendency to dash off on Search & Rescue calls at a moments noticed, I set up rules to keep me in class and off the trail. This allowed me to be among our lowest responders for over three years. Situations and personal needs change, and you must change with them.
Another important area is home and family. Your pets, husbands, wives, children, they all require attention. Make arrangements in advance for the care of what you leave behind. A couple days in the mountains sets you up for dead house plants, and your puppy dog seized by Animal Control for lack of food and water. Find someone who can take over these mundane duties with a only brief phone call as a warning.
On the family front it's important for those who care about you to understand why you are in this work. Discuss with them their concerns as well as your own. Seek an accommodation between your families concern for your safety, your desire to do this work, and as many other factors as the intricacies of your life require.
Involve husbands, wives, kids, dogs etc in Search & Rescue functions. They need to know who the other people are. This helps keep their minds at some level less than panic when you leave at Oh-Dark-Thirty.
Your husband - wife - girlfriend - boyfriend - "significant other" (etc) will commonly worry about you tremendously when you go out - especially on flood rescues. "Will s/he come back." Search & Rescue personnel need to stay tuned to these concerns. If you are away for awhile, have someone phone home and let them know what's happening!
Once you have all these goals met you can think about the logistics of your response to a call-out. One extreme of this is to always drive your four-wheeler, with all the gear you could ever need in it, every place you go. Another is to have everything packed and ready at all times sitting in a closet by the door closest to where your car is parked.
One danger of toting everything about with you at all times is that most insurance policies won't cover items not permanently attached to the vehicle unless they are only occasionally in the vehicle. My homeowners policy will pay to $8000 if the contents of my truck are stolen or destroyed. But if the same contents are there all the time, the limit is $250. This actually wound being tested after a burglar cleaned out my truck a few years ago.
However you prepare your equipment, it must reflect the degree to which you have accepted the intrusion of Search & Rescue into your life. The arrangements you make with friends and family are also to be tuned to this degree of acceptable involvement. Your gear must always be more ready, more willing, and more able to respond than you are. This will greatly speed your response. Not to mention making that response more likely.
On to CHAPTER TWO...
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