Anonymous
Source: Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue (SBCSAR)
This past Sunday, SBCSAR’s snow and ice personnel trained up at Mt. Pinos on various techniques and systems. Team members left Santa Barbara very early to have a full day on the hill training in multiple disciplines from ice ax arrest, avalanche beacon search, snow rope rescue systems, subject evacuation and cold environment survival. These team members are the ones whom will typically respond to out of county searches in the winter to assist other counties for mutual aid.
Just after finishing up with ice ax arrest practice in the morning, team members were called to assist with an emergency near the parking lot for a sledding accident. A family had been sledding on one of the many slopes and ended up colliding with a tree, two family members were injured and required aid. Team members worked with the Nordic Base patrol to get the subjects off the snow and back to base and waited until additional medical personnel could arrive and determine transport consideration for further care and evaluation.
After the sledding accident was wrapping up, team members headed up the hill to practice snow anchors, snow systems, and avalanche beacon search. The fog moved in along with some snow flurries to add to the scenario along with some gusty winds.
Santa Barbara County Search and Rescue is an all-volunteer rescue team of unpaid professionals that remain on-call 24/7 365 days out of the year to help members in our community. We rely on community donation and support to keep our team functioning and are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
