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Kaslo Search and Rescue
(opens in a new tab)To provide search & rescue services in the North Kootenay Lake region.
This week's team training took us across the lake to an old favourite spot where we practiced pick offs and lowering onto the boat. We are sad to see the daylight ending earlier, but the moonlit boat ride back into Kaslo was beautiful! We've wrapped up High Angle rope training month – what will we get up to next?
Throwback Thursday is just a throwback to Wednesday this week! Class D members had set up gear for an extra training evening, when the team was called to an MVI. Thanks to being at the hall already, we were able to respond quickly. Once the team returned back to the hall, they continued training where they had left off!
Earlier this week, 8 members of the team responded with our boat and waverunner, to reports of an overturned boat in a remote area of Kootenay Lake, while several members stayed in Kaslo on standby for any other calls. We were able to confirm that no one was in danger before returning to Kaslo.
This week's training took us to Brenton's (Thank you!) one last time for the season! We have been eager to navigate that big undercut in the cliff, with a stretcher! We opted to train with two attendants and no subject this time. Navigating from undercut to cliff-face on the raise, requires at least one attendant to position themselves above the stretcher to push all of the rigging off from the cliff – quite a technical skill. A second attendant can then take over while the first one reposition again. Training was a huge success and we are grateful for all of the members that show up each week, despite busy summer schedules and call outs!
Throwback Thursday is in appreciation of our rescue boat, Platypus! Platypus has been serving the Kootenays for over 10 years now! As well as being the subject of training, Platypus transports us (and our quads) many places on both shores of Kootenay Lake, to access great training sites. In its Decade of service, Platypus has operated everywhere from the North end of Kootenay Lake to Creston, Arrow Lake, Slocan Lake and Duncan Lake and has been instrumental in rescues, recoveries, lake based searches, wellness checks when roads were blocked, transporting members during searches, medical evacuations and wildfire evacuations and on mutual aid calls. But maybe its favourite job is collecting the Rubber Duckies after the annual JVH Rubber Ducky Race! Can you believe, that a Decade ago, some people said that Platypus would never be used?!
Sometimes accessing the location of a call out brings our members through some unique terrain. On a call out this week, Rescue 502 (recently featured for it's off road worthiness), was forced through a Kootenay Carwash pinstripping as members were required to drive down what was once an old FSR way in the backcountry. As you can see, that road more closely resembles an alder forest now. Our volunteers will be working on buffing out the hundreds of scratches, and we are hopeful there won't be too many lasting ones. But if you see a slightly less pristine 502 out and about, know that it happened in the line of duty on a successful rescue!
Throw Back Thursday to recent Class D training! When helicopters are scarce, utilizing our climbing wall for scenarios allows us to learn, practice and maintain our skills. Our climbing wall, a highlight when school kids come to visit the team, was transported and installed by our members some years ago! Some still remember clearing the rocks, laying the foundation and pouring the cement! The climbing wall has been a valuable addition, utilized in many trainings.
Liking the technicality offered by this undercut cliff at Brenton's (Thanks!!!), we were back again for our weekly training. We switched up roles and added the Vortex tripod, giving everyone lots of good hands on practice. We are fortunate to have a strong team of Rope Technicians! The view was a little smokier than a couple of weeks ago, but a beautiful spot nonetheless.
After our super busy call out day, the focus of our team training last week, was washing all the vehicles, cleaning and restocking gear and debriefing. Many thanks to the members who volunteered their long weekend Monday evening to assist with the clean up! Afterwards, members wrapped up with shooting cans for some fun nerf target practice.
4 Members of our Class D team got together this week, to continue dry land training simulations! Here we are simulating Munter release off a cliff ledge, once clipped to the heli long line. We love that our dedicated members always train with smiles on their faces!