Re: Dead/Alive -TEVIS RESCUE Part 2

["Duncan Fletcher" <dfletche@gte.net>]

The following comments come from someone who has been involved in Search and
Rescue and lives in a semi-rural area 1 hour (assuming no traffic) from
downtown Seattle.

There is a lot of false urban assumptions in much of this thread. Rural
areas do not have the services that city folk are used to. Most (area wise)
of King and Snohomish County (Seattle and Everett) are outside the
jurisidiction of any fire (ambulance) district: US Forest Service, State DNR
land, large timber company holdings. And more than half of the rest (again
based on area) have fire and ambulance services that are volunteer. They are
at home living a life when their pager goes off, not sitting in a fire hall.
And at most they are emts - some are first responders. The paramedics (which
are paid) are based at the hospital which could be as much as 2 hours away
or even more. Local fire districts will respond to out of jurisdiction
calls, but they aren't going to beat their equipment to death going up some
barely passable Forest Service Road and they will not hike up a trail to get
you. They leave that for Search and Rescue which is under the jurisdiction
of the county sheriff.

Search and Rescue is also based on volunteers, and unlike the volunteer
ambulance folks, they are not necessarily even in town when their pager goes
off - they may be at work, at the supermarket, etc. It takes a minimum
several hours to assemble a search a team. Some rural counties have limited
volunteer resources which means they will contact the state to notify other
counties for help. That means some of the help may have a 4 hour drive
assuming they are home.

I have been a member of a mounted SAR unit. It should also be pointed out
that these folks pay for the priviledge of bailing people of trouble - pay
for their own pager, gasoline, part of their training. If you go into the
back country, you should be carrying the essentials: that includes a map and
compass and the ability to use them. Being in an endurance race does not
exempt you from that responsibility.

I rather doubt that every county in Washington has helicopters - some do.
They have some rather severe limitations.

In terms of rescuing horses, there is no unit that has any special training
in horse rescue - there are a few in other parts of the country. The mounted
unit was involved in one horse rescue, but it was a seat of the pants
operation.

While I am not real familiar with the Tevis, I believe it is a point to
point (as opposed to confined loops) race of 100 miles. Some of it, I
believe, goes through designated Wilderness were there are no roads are
restrictions on the use of mechanical equipment. I assume it passes through
several different jurisdictions.

Duncan Fletcher
dfletche@gte.net