We left the rental van with high hopes and a great view of our route.

The 2014-15 Winter culminated in an ascent of Mt Rainier for six of the members of WinterSAR South.

This months training was to test our skills in travelling in varied terrain and unknown conditions. The team was asked to not research the conditions for the area in advance and was advised to arrive at the determined meeting spot with their full 3-day SAR packs along with skis. The training coordinator had researched conditions in advance with multiple sources and advised the members upon arrival of the target destination. Maps were reviewed, coordinates plotted and an agreement was reached as to our route. Next, all donned their plastic ski boots, mounted skins on skis and skis on packs—we were ready for any conditions.

We had a great time on the August training.

For June training we decided to work on our low-angle rope work as well as transporting a litter several miles in the backcountry. We attached a modern mono-wheel to our vintage World War II era training litter.

We had a ball. Dan Sutton did a great job with the training this weekend. We did a lost person search scenario. Diana and Peter Fisher spent the day in a cloud manning the command post. They kept track of where we were, mapped clues we found. The rest of had the assignment of searching the trail. At the 3/4 waypoint on the trail, one of team members simulated a fall off the trail and we set up a temp toboggan and hauled him back to the trail. I did push him a little to make the fall look more realistic. We learned transporting of a injured person is difficult and time consuming.

We are trying to get our Air 5 helicopter training in May or June. I need to you folks to look at the training days that that have not been taken and plan one. contact me and let you know what you want to do.

Hi All - I found this while looking for hunting grounds... This site is amazing with topo maps for the entire country - and sortable by 4 different maps.