Another Great Year with the San Dimas Mountain Rescue Team

As 2013 drew to an end, the San Dimas Mountain Rescue Team (SDMRT) looked back on another year of successes, none of which could have been accomplished without the support of the San Dimas Booster Club and that of the local community.

Here are a few highlights from 2013:

The Team responded to operations at an increased level from 2012. The last quarter of the year alone, the team had over 17 activations, including three searches and nine other rescue operations. The Team also responded to more than five requests for assistance in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.

Ten probationary members were added to the Team this year. These newly minted mountaineers are learning how to use all they learned in the SDMRT Mountaineering Academy by going on callouts side-by-side with the full team members.

This year the team received a new addition to SDMRT’s fleet. It is a communications vehicle (which we christened “Robert 8”). The specially-modified Ford Excursion is outfitted with radios, computers, a satellite dish and the most advanced technologies for interagency interoperability. This communications platform will provide better communication in remote areas and allow increased communication with other agencies. The addition of this vehicle led to the first joint training between the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Communications and Fleet Management Bureau, our Station's Disaster Communications Service volunteers, and the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Office. Through the use of the vehicle's technology, we were able to tie several different radio frequencies together allowing each team to use their own communications equipment, but still communicate.

In 2013, the team had two of its members trained in cave and mine rescues. Consequently, SDMRT now has a contingent working with the Sheriff's Department's Mine/Cave Rescue Team. Not long after their training was completed, these two members were sent to an operation in Shasta County in Northern California to search for a missing person who may have fallen into a mine. This was the first time SDMRT members participated in this type of incident.

Finally, in November, the Team was honored by the Sheriff's Department's Reserve Forces Bureau when we were given the Rescue of the Year Award for its participation in a rescue on Mount Baldy which occurred on December 23 and 24, 2012. This operation was selected from a pool of more than 350 rescues in the county and is an example of the dedication of all LASD’s search-and-rescue team members. The operation began as a search and rescue mission for an injured hiker, but quickly added a separate search and rescue mission for another injured hiker also on Mount Baldy. As weather conditions deteriorated into blizzard conditions, both hikers were located; however, the conditions had gotten so bad they were unable to be extracted. Team members moved the victims to shelter and provided medical care until conditions improved. Only then were the victims able to be transported to safety and advanced medical care. We’ll wager that not even Santa would have would hiked to Mount Baldy’s 10,000-foot summit, at night, in a blizzard, on Christmas Eve.

The support of community leaders plays an important role in SDMRT’s successful operations, and its ability to help those who are injured or lost. The Team is looking forward to another year of working together.