Litter Operations & The International Sportsmen's Exposition

This month's Mountain Rescue training was conducted at Red Rock and the focus was litter operations.  It was the team's first big training session of the year, so it was time to shake out the cobwebs and get back to work.  For the entire day, team members rotated through the numerous stations that it takes to conduct a mission.  Main line, belay line, haul team, edge person, litter attendant, victim, etc.  Volunteers rotated after every evolution, which meant that everyone had their hands on each station at least twice throughout the day.

Days like these are always fun.  It gets the team working together.  Skills are refreshed and so is team comaraderie.

Here's a shot of the entire team at work.  The haul team can be seen on the far left with the main and belay stations located in the middle.  To the right, the litter attendant is working his way over the edge transition with the help of edge people.  Conducting technical rescue missions is no small feat!

Volunteers are securing a mock victim into the litter and attaching both the main and belay lines to the litter.  Before the victim is sent over the edge, a safety officer runs through everything to ensure that everything is attached correctly.

Belay station attendant ready to start the operation.

Members of the Mountain Rescue Unit will be manning a booth at the International Sportsmen's Exposition this Thursday through Sunday.  The Expo is being held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, which is located at 3150 Paradise Dr.  Come down and say hello!

It's $12 to get into the Expo (free for children and military), however, here's a link to receive $2 off of the ticket price.  Use the promo code BLACKDOG when purchasing tickets here.  

We look forward to seeing you this weekend!

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Not Enough Info!

We do our best to keep this website updated with the latest and greatest at least once a week.  However, sometimes we get really busy and convenience trumps a blog post.

Not to worry - we'll continue to post information here, but we thought that we'd clue everyone in on alternative sources of information.

If you're on twitter, follow us!  If you're on facebook, like us!  We tend to send out small bits of information that not only pertain to our activity, but the Search and Rescue community as a whole.

This information should have you doing a snow dance in no time.  We sure are!

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We Fly at Night

Did you know that we are one of the very few teams that will conduct night-time rescue missions? Not only are our Officers and Volunteers ready to roll 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but so are our Pilots. We're able to support these types of missions because of the countless hours of training and dedication that it takes to make it happen.

In the last couple of weeks, we've responded to a handful of rescue missions that have occurred at night. From a woman falling 30 feet to a pair of climbers with their ropes stuck on a multi-pitch climb, we've been on scene. Most of these rescue missions have occurred while the sun was down.

Although we're trained to respond at night, we encourage everyone to be prepared while they enjoy the outdoors. There are instances where we're unable to respond in the dark for reasons like terrain challenges or bad weather. For that reason, get outside and enjoy this gorgeous weather, but take enough food, water, and clothing to spend the night in the outdoors in a worst case scenario.

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2011 Year in Pictures

Ice climbing and winter training in Ouray, Colorado:

Mission prep at Red Rock:

Arizona Vortex in action at Red Rock:

2011 Mountain Rescue Basic's Class:

Stranded Hiker Rescue at Mt. Charleston:

Technical Operations at Red Rock:

Avalanche training Mt. Charleston:

Team extraction at Red Rock:

Red Rock Mission:

Short Haul Training:

Fastrope Training:

Dive team at Lake Mead:

Black Velvet Rescue:

Air Support and Mountain Rescue featured in the Las Vegas Weekly and the Las Vegas Sun:

(http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/dec/20/wild-real-life-heroes-search-and-rescue/)

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In the News - Las Vegas Weekly

Photo courtesy of Las Vegas Weekly

Our Unit is featured in this week's Las Vegas Weekly.  Thank you to Erin Ryan, the writer of this story.  She spent countless hours with our team and was even fortunate enough to go on a rescue with us (timing is everything).

Pick up your copy today!

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Helicopter Crash at Lake Mead

Last night, all SAR officers responded to Lake Mead after receiving reports of a helicopter crash. The Air Unit fired up the Huey along with one of the smaller Bell's to respond. Although LVMPDSAR reached the scene of the crash within 45 minutes of receiving the call, Officers confirmed that all 5 passengers had died shortly after arriving to the scene.

One of the many news stories can be found here.

LVMPDSAR sends its condolences to all affected by the crash.

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Lost Hiker at Mt. Charleston

Last Thursday, Mountain Rescue volunteers were called upon to help with the search of a lost hiker at Mt. Charleston. The hiker had ventured to the area with his dog on Wednesday with the intent of spending the night and heading back home on Thursday. However, on Thursday morning, he woke to a large accumulation of snow that had fallen during the night. Because of the storms that had rolled in and a large amount of snowfall, the hiker was unable to find the trail and chose to call for help.

In this case, it wasn't a cell phone that helped the hiker. He was carrying a device that not only communicated a gps location, but also had the ability to send messages. On Thursday, he sent his first message asking for help.

As volunteers and officer headed to the area on Thursday afternoon, they were met with very extreme weather conditions, including high winds and heavy amounts of snow. The team was unable to utilize the Unit's helicopters as a result and resorted to a plan to hike in by foot.

Just as the sun began to set, the hiker sent out a message saying that he was ok and that he and his dog were prepared to spend another night on the mountain seeing as though they had the appropriate gear to do so. Instead of sending rescue teams out in the precarious environment, it was decided that rescue operations would cease for the day and resume on Friday.

On Friday, LVMPDSAR was able to locate the stranded hiker and extract both he and his dog by helicopter. The hiker was met by his family at the SAR hangar. No injuries were reported.

Rescue teams were able to access the trail head by vehicle, but the extreme weather conditions prevented the team from accessing the hiker by helicopter.

Volunteers and officers searching for the hiker on foot.

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