Training and a Rescue on Mt. San Jacinto

The Cave Team trained in the Mt. San Jacinto area on Saturday, August 15. The plan was a search scenario followed by personal vertical skills practice. Toward the end of the search scenario, we were approached by the San Jacinto State Park rangers to assist in the rescue of a dehydrated hiker on the Cactus to Clouds Trail. After a quick call to Dan Whitten to get the approval (OK, not that quick. I had to hike back up to the tram station), we hit the trail.

Mark Kinsey, Dave Bullock, John Norman, and Robert Hill made their way down the trail toward the patient carrying a bunch of water and 1st aid supplies, while Mark Peterson and I stayed at the top to maintain cell coverage if needed. I also spent the time tracking down Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit to advise them of the situation. The Park said that they had requested them, but I called just to make sure and to coordinate with them should they respond. We were out of county, and I wanted to make sure that all was in order.

The decision was made to hydrate the hiker and hike him out to the top. This trail is very steep, and under normal conditions the hike from his location would take about an hour and a half. In all the mission took about 6 hours to complete. Everybody exited safely and without incident.

The map below shows our search areas for our training as well as various locations of our hiker.

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Cave & WV SAR Complete MRA ReCert

Last year West Valley SAR and the Cave Team were unable to complete their technical rope re-certification with the Mountain Rescue Association due to a search on Baldy. The make-up exam was scheduled for a few months later, only to be canceled due to the fires in L.A. County. The third time is the charm.

The day started with a coin toss to determine who was the "host team". The evaluators wanted to run the test like a mutual aid mission. That is, the host team had requested resources, the mutual aid team would work alongside under the host teams command structure. West Valley "won" the toss and became the host team.

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The Search for Amber DuBois

Amber Dubois has been missing for 30 days. San Bernardino County SAR was called to assist in the search of an area in Escondido near Mesa Rock Rd and Woodland Heights Rd. In addition to covering our area, we were also called to check a storm drain without a grating. Members of West Valley SAR helped us pull the manhole cover.

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