by Mo Mullenax and Kyle Griffin. Photos by Howard Paul.
Scenarios at SARCon provide an opportunity to apply new skills learned at the conference in a live, hands-on setting. What’s better, attendees get the opportunity to apply these skills in a mutual aid setting with other teams from across the state of Colorado. These are rare opportunities which help us build relationships so we can effectively work together on the next multi-day search or resource intensive technical rescue. This is a report of both the search and technical rescue scenarios at the 2025 SARCon.
The search scenario this year was held in Officer’s Gulch, west of Frisco. Attendees arrived at 8:00am to hot burritos and a report of a missing 64 year-old who enjoyed foraging and wilderness survival. The team of 25 quickly sprang into action, building an incident command team representing six different search and rescue organizations. Command staff took up residence in Summit County Rescue Group’s new mobile command vehicle and began orchestrating a search plan.
Within 30 minutes, field teams were dispatched, the reporting party was being interviewed, and a shared CalTopo map was tracking the progress of the search across the site. Field teams fanned out in all directions, using incident command as the last known point. Soon, those searching the northwest section discovered the lost party’s bivouac camp complete with a book, scent articles, and tracks in the vicinity which shed light on the subject’s movements and intentions. This establishment of direction led to more clue discoveries in the area and some initial discussions of the next phase of the search. Bringing field teams back to incident command, the command staff then developed a plan for the second operational period and a handoff report for the theoretical incoming command staff. In a large group debrief, we shared what we had learned with one another. There were many individual take-aways, but all agreed that the exercise of working together and learning from each other’s protocols was both challenging and rewarding.
The technical rescue scenario was conducted at Porcupine Rock near Keystone Ski Area. Participants arrived around 7:30am and the scenario began at 8:00am. Three teams were created out of 40 -50 participants, and each team implemented a similar technical rescue scenario.
The scenario involved rescuers packaging a subject into a rigid litter/stokes basket and building a steep/high angle lower and raise system. This year, the scenario emphasised using span anchors between large trees for the anchoring system. With this approach for the technical rescue scenario, participants were able to rotate, get hands-on in different roles, and have a couple iterations of the rescue.
Participants were back to the parking lot by 12:00pm. The process and content seemed well received and the proctors recognized a lot of quality conversation and networking between teams from different agencies.
