Local search and rescue teams were out at Red Mountain on Saturday raising avalanche awareness and honing their rescue skills.
Members of Rossland Search and Rescue (RSAR), Castlegar Search and Rescue (CSAR), Grand Forks Search and Rescue (GFSAR), South Columbia Search and Rescue (SCSAR) and Creston Valley Search and Rescue (CVSAR) hosted Avalanche Awareness Day and led a number of activities to make participants more aware of backcountry safety during avalanche season.
“Each year we have a session up here on the hill where we open up our resources to the general public and we put on some events,” explained Tim Peacock, vice president of RSAR. “We usually build a snow cave and show our members, as well as the general public, how to do that. We run through the sequences in avalanche response and generally talk about avalanche awareness and how to approach the backcountry and stay safe.”
Saturday’s activities included snow profiling, learning to use shovels, probes and beacons, and a relay race where participants put the skills they learned to the test.
While the day’s events were meant to show participants some skills and raise awareness, they are not meant as a substitute for avalanche training courses provided by Avalanche Canada.
“If you want to survive in the backcountry, you’ve got to be self-sufficient,” said Peacock. “So we always encourage people to take at least one avalanche course, preferably two.”
He recommends people take Avalanche Skills Training 1 (AST1) and Avalanche Skills Training 2 (AST2).
“Really to be fully proficient in the backcountry, to look after yourself and your friends, you need to get the AST2,” said Peacock. “So there’s a fair amount of learning involved.”
For more information on courses, visit avalanche.ca/training.
Peacock said the day also gave SAR members an opportunity to do some training.
“We’re always trying to get stuff out as often as we can because you need to have everyone familiar with it,” he said.
RSAR has training sessions every Wednesday, often in Castlegar, and there are weekend sessions once a month.
Peacock said RSAR is always looking for more volunteers.
Anyone interested in being involved can attend one of RSAR’s regular meetings, which are held the last Wednesday of the month at the Rossland Fire Hall at 7 p.m.
“If they show up then, it’s a good way to meet us and then we can get them in the computer and get things started,” said Peacock. “Usually what we like to do is run people through the GSAR [Ground Search and Rescue] training, which is about 80 hours of training. It’s usually about three months of Wednesday evenings and you learn a lot of skills, you learn a lot of backcountry skills. A lot of skills involved with various rescue techniques and it’s all useful stuff. Plus you get to spend a night out in a residence of your own making in the snow.”
RSAR, CSAR and GFSAR are all part of the West Kootenay Working Group, which will be starting a GSAR course in the next week or two.
Llewellyn Matthews, group safety officer and alpine team lead for CSAR, echoed Peacock, saying that SAR is always looking for more volunteers.
“What we’re looking for is people primarily with commitment. They don’t need to be athletes or anything like that, but they need to obviously be physically fit,” he said.
With it being avalanche season, Matthews is especially interested in finding backcountry skiers.
Anyone interested in joining CSAR can contact Jerome Liboiron at 250-226-6927 or heavens.hammock.sv@gmail.com.
