Feb 21, 2014 "Emergency Manager’s Weekly Report," by the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM)

Download it here.

Wilderness First Aid: The sling & swath—how to use triangular bandages, bandanas, or cravats to immobilize an arm, shoulder, or collarbone injury. By Tod Schimelpfenig, NOLS

 

• NOLS

UK & Irish Mountain Rescue Conference: September 12-14, 2014 in Cairngorms National Park, Aviemore, Scotland (UK)

Learn more about this conference here.

Knot tying—The Figure-9 and Figure-10 knots, by Schalk van der Merwe, "Technical Rescue Magazine"

To learn more about Technical Rescue Magazine, which is published in the UK, point your Internet browser here.

K-9s: Introduction to Scent Theory “Pheromone” Communications, by Charles E. (Chuck) Melvin, North American Search Dog Network (NASDN) Gazette

Scent theory and “pheromonal” communications are attempts to explain to dog handlers in simple scientific terms what stimuli their dogs may be responding to in the search arena.

Neither category of stimuli is well understood and hence is often controversial.

Controversy notwithstanding, the basic understanding of what scent might be and how the dog might process it would seem to be baseline required knowledge for all search and rescue canine handlers interested in finding the lost subject most efficiently. 

Because both topics are occasionally called into play within a court of law, both need to be understood and articulated professionally.

Basic scent theories currently proposed are the raft theory and the chemical theory. Both theories have newer supporting research.

As is often the case, the truth is likely composed of elements of both...Read article here.

Survival gear: The Compass-LED-Firestarter survival bracelet accessory unit is coming soon from Columbia River Knife & Tool (CRKT)

A cool new survival bracelet accessory that includes a compass, LED flashlight, and firestarter will be released soon by Columbia River Knife & Tool of Tualatin, Oregon, USA.

Weighing only one ounce and measuring 1.95 inches in length, this glass-filled nylon unit will fit onto paracord bracelets and some other wristbands.

CRKT on their forthcoming Compass-LED-Firestarter survival braclet accessory unit...

Because you never know when your adventure might get crazy.

Being prepared is a lifestyle. It takes careful training of both mind and hands to make your environment work to your advantage. And that's where these paracord bracelet accessories, designed by Tom Stokes, help you mold your situation to give you every chance of survival.

The compass, LED and fire starter combo is the premier accessory in the line. It features all the essentials and it fits perfectly on the CRKT Para-Saw™ Bracelet . It's made from a durable injection molded, glass filled nylon that will stand up to rough weather and intense adventures.

• The magnesium fire rod is 1.125 inches (28.575mm) long and detaches from the main housing to set your tinder ablaze.
• The LED light has an included LR41 battery that's ready for use and replaceable.
• The compass will help you get your bearings and make your way to safety.

To attach to a paracord bracelet, simply unscrew the disc-lock on the underside of the accessory, slide it over the bracelet, then reattach the disc-lock to keep the accessory from sliding.

The accessory is designed to fit snugly on a "Solomon Bar" weave bracelet made from 550 paracord and may fit other similarly sized paracord survival bracelets as well. The opening of the accessory is .9 inches (22.86 mm) wide and .43 inches (11.43 mm) tall.

The Survival Bracelet Accessory helps you get home from your latest adventure so you're still around for your next adventure.

Also available in a Compass and Fire Starter Version , and a Compass and LED Version.

Learn more about this product (No. 9703) here.

Source: Soldier Systems—An Industry Daily

Rope Rescue: How to lighten your wilderness litter loads, by Andy Maguire, "Park Ranger Magazine"

This article is brought to you through the generosity of the fine folks at Park Ranger Magazine.

Published by TR Media Ltd., in Waterlooville, England (UK), Park Ranger is the magazine for operators worldwide involved in:

• wilderness EMS
• wilderness SAR
• wildfire
• heli-ops
• and law enforcement

All Rights Reserved. Excerpted with expressed written permission.

To learn more about this magazine, or subscribe, point you Internet browser here.

Lost Person Behavior: Children 1 to 3 years old, by the Arizona Search and Rescue Coordinators Association

How to make a map protractor and UTM roamer scale easier and faster to use while underway in the bush

Source: This article was adapted from The Ranger Digest, Handbooks 1 thru 9, by US Army Ranger Rick F. Tscherne. Copyright © 1988-2012. All Rights Reserved. Excerpted With Expressed Written Permission. Order this e-book series at www.KoboBooks.com.

Rick F. Tscherne served twenty-one years (1972-93) in the United States Army in various demanding leadership positions including Airborne-Infantry/Anti-Tank Squad Leader, Airborne-Ranger Platoon Sergeant, Drill Instructor, Cold Weather Instructor, Small Arms Repairman, Battalion S-3 Assistant Operation Sergeant, and US Army Headquarters G-3 War Plans Division Operation Sergeant.

• 1974-1976: 1st/509th Airborne Recon Platoon Team Leader (Sgt/E-5)
• 1976-1978: A-4-3 Fort Dix (N.J.) Drill Instructor (Ssg/E-6)
• 1978-1980: 1st /75th Ranger Bn. Weapon Section Leader/PSG (Ssg/E-6)
• 1980-1981: 1st /31st Mech/Inf (ROK) Assistant Platoon Sergeant (Ssg/E-6)
• 1981-1985: 1st /509th/325th Airborne BCT—Infantry Platoon Sergeant (Sfc/E-7)
• 1985-1987: 3rd /325th Airborne S-3 Assistant Training/Operation Sergeant (Sfc/E-7)
• 1987-1992: USASETAF Headquarters G-3 War Plans Div. Operation NCO (Sfc/E-7)

Rick has attended and graduated from schools such as the US Army Infantry, Airborne, Ranger, Jumpmaster, Drill Instructor, Combat Intel, Small Arms Repair schools, and the Advance Non-Commission Officer Training Program. His foreign training includes German Army Weapons Qualification Course, Italian Airborne school, French Commando school, and Belgian Para-Commando school.

His US Army awards and commendations include: US Army Ranger Tab, Master Parachutist Wings, Drill Instructor Badge, Expert Rifleman Badge, Jungle Expert Patch, Army Commendation, 5 Army Achievement awards, 3 Meritorious Service Medals, 4 Overseas Service Ribbons, etc. He qualified as an expert with weapons such as the M16A1, M203 Grenade Launcher, and M60 MG.

Since retiring from the US Army, Rick served as an Advisor/Trainer to the Bosnia & Herzegovina Army (1996-97) under the US State Department "Train & Equip Program." Always willing to share his personal experiences, tips, tricks and ideas in how to survive & thrive in the outdoors with others, he's published nine volumes of the Ranger Digest, developed a series of Special Ops Survival (SOS) Kits, and regularly instructs military and outdoors enthusiasts in wilderness survival.

• Rick's Personal Facebook Page
• Rick's SOS Survival Kits Web Page
• Rick's Survival Outdoors Web Page

The Feb 2014, 34-page, issue of the National Search Dog Alliance's "SAR Dog News" is online

Download this magazine here.

Man-Tracking—How to use light to your advantage, by David Scott-Donelan

The main reason we are able to see tracks is because light from the sun casts a shadow in the imprint of the sole pattern on the ground. It follows then that footwear with a deeply cut sole pattern will cause deep imprints on soft ground and therefore cast more distinct shadows, and shallow sole patterns will create less distinct shadows.

The time shadow effect. Note that the shadow effect is more prominent in the early morning when the sun's angle is low. As the sun moves higher in the sky toward the midday, the shadow diminishes until it can no longer be seen. As the sun drops toward the horizon throughout the afternoon, the shadow reappears. Therefore, the optimal times for tracking are early to mid-morning and late afternoon.

It also follows that the lower the sun angle relative to the footprint, the more distinct and obvious the shadow will be. As the sun rises to its peak, the shadow in the print will become less distinct until at midday, with the sun directly overhead, it disappears completely. With the passing of the day, the sun, moving down to the horizon in the west, will cause the shadow effect to reappear, making the print visible again, as illustrated.

The cross-section of a plain, un-patterned sole. Due to a lack of sharp edges, this sole does not cast any shadows.

With this in mind, the optimal time for tracking is from early to mid-morning and mid-afternoon to early evening. The worst time is from shortly before to shortly after noon. As combat trackers we must never let this influence the follow-up, which must go on nonstop irrespective of the time of day, until contact with the quarry is made. Tracking is a little more difficult during the midday period, but if the tracker sticks to the basic principles progress will be made. Bear in mind that your quarry may want to stop and rest during the heat of midday, giving the tracker the opportunity to cut down the time/distance gap.

The tracker must learn to take advantage of the sun's angle and look for the spoor from a position where the prints are between him and the sun. This way the shadow effect is maximized and the prints are easier to see. To illustrate this, place a line of prints on clear, soft ground and walk around them in a circle. You will see that at certain angles the shadow effect is greater and the prints seem to stand out. If you look up you will see that the prints will be directly between you and the sun. By tracking from this angle, even if you have to look back over your shoulder, your progress will be better and faster.

As has already been stressed, operational trackers must keep the follow-up momentum going in an aggressive way whatever the light conditions. Very often there will be no sunlight at all, or the trail will pass through shaded areas, making the tracks difficult to see. Tracking is still possible in these conditions, and with practice you will overcome these temporary handicaps.

If pursuing armed and dangerous fugitives, under no circumstances should tactical trackers operate at night. Search-and-rescue tracking, however, can be carried out in the dark using flashlights, lanterns, or car headlights as a substitute for the sun.

Source: This article was adapted from Tactical Tracking Operations: The Essential Guide for Military and Police Trackers, by David Scott-Donelan, founder of the Scott Donelan Tracking School (TSDTS). Copyright © 1998. All Rights Reserved. Excerpted with Expressed Written Permission. To order your copy of this manual, point your Internet browser here.

David Scott-Donelan is a Rhodesian Special Air Service (SAS) veteran with nearly 30 years of active, counter-insurgency, war-zone service in Rhodesia, South Africa, Mozambique, and South-West Africa/Namibia. His service included an assignment with the famed Selous Scouts, commanding a remote Bush Warfare & Tracking School.

In 1994, he founded the Tactical Tracking Operations School (TTOS) in Arizona, which remained an internationally-recognized tracking venue while under his stewardship.

In 2010, Scott-Donelan founded The Scott Donelan Tracking School (TSDTS), offering a wide variety of variety of professional man-tracking courses including three levels of combat tracking for military personnel; tactical tracking for law enforcement personnel; non-hostile man-tracking for search-and-rescue personnel; and basic tracking for civilians.

Like his other business ventures—including heading up the US Army Combat Tracking School at southern Arizona's Fort Huachuca for several years; and developing the US Marine Corps Combat Hunter Project, which consisted of training US Marines in Day and Night Observation, Combat Profiling (now called Human Terrain Analysis) and Combat Tracking—TSDTS quickly became an internationally-recognized visual-tracking venue for elite military and law enforcement units including US Army Special Forces (SF), Marine (USMC) Force Reconnaissance, Navy SEALS, USAF EST, and police SWAT, SOT and SRTs.

TSDTS-trained trackers have successfully tracked down insurgents, criminals, and fugitives; collected evidence/intelligence crucial to the apprehension and prosecution of criminals; detected IEDs (counter); captured and killed enemy combatants; and reclaimed weapons caches in operational theaters around the globe.To learn more about TSDTS, or schedule training, click here.

Feb/Mar 2014 issue of the Colorado Search & Rescue Board Newsletter is online

Download it here.

How to build a campfire, by ScoutMasterCG

Source: ScoutMasterCG

SAR Fatality—Manitoba, Canada: Searcher with Lac Brochet Search and Rescue (Rangers) found deceased during search for missing subject; second searcher in critical condition

Global News is reporting...

WOLLASTON LAKE, Sask. – A search and rescue member has been found dead and a second one is in critical condition after they were found near the Saskatchewan/ Manitoba border on Tuesday afternoon.

The two men, members of the Lac Brochet Search and Rescue (Rangers) were part of a search party who were looking for a missing man who had set out for Wollaston Lake, Sask. from Lac Brochet, Man. last week.

The snowmobiler was located but there was no word from the Rangers who were in a yellow Tundra 550 truck.

They were reported missing to Wollaston RCMP on Tuesday afternoon and were located a short time later [a]pproximately 25 kilometres east of Wollaston Lake.

A 47-year-old man was discovered dead. An autopsy has been order to determine the cause of death.

The second man, 40, was in critical condition. He was taken to a clinic in Lac Brochet and then transport to Winnipeg for further treatment.

Police continue to investigate.

Wollaston Lake is approximately 700 km northeast of Saskatoon.

Source: Global News Canada

How to conduct a rescuer-based pick-off of an unsupported victim, by Tom Pendley

Source: This article was adapted from The Essential Technical Rescue Field Operations Guide, 4th Edition, by Tom Pendley of Desert Rescue Research in Glendale, Arizona. Copyright © 2011. All Rights Reserved. Excerpted with Expressed Written Permission.

To purchase a copy of this handy, 196-page, spiral-bound, pocket-sized field guide, point your Internet browser here.

Tom Pendley is a native of Arizona and grew up on the family apple orchard in Oak Creek Canyon, just north of Sedona. The apple orchard was known as Slide Rock Fruit and Vegetables.

Slide rock was a popular tourist attraction that was a busy scene every summer with lots of swimmers and hikers enjoying the red rocks and water. Almost every week the local fire department was called to ‘carry out’ a minor injury and, on occasion, there was a high angle rescue operation right in his back yard.

In 1985, his family sold the homestead to the Trust for Public lands and it became Slide Rock State Park. The family moved to Phoenix, and in 1987 he joined the Central Arizona Mountain Rescue Association (CAMRA).

Tom spent 14 years as an active member of CAMRA. Very interested in rescue, he progressed through the ranks. He was promoted to Operations Leader in 1993 and was elected as Team Commander for five years.

His time with CAMRA was very rewarding. Maricopa County is one of the largest counties in the country and he had many interesting rescue missions over the years. In his time with CAMRA, he served as swift water coordinator, alpine coordinator, mine rescue coordinator, and training officer. He received the Posseman of the Year award in 1993.

In 1990 he joined the Peoria Arizona Fire Department. His experience with mountain rescue gave him an opportunity in technical rescue. His department was forming a technical rescue team in 1991 and he was able to attend instructor school for the Arizona State Fire Marshal Office (ASFMO) in 1992. He really enjoyed teaching and taught many rescue courses for ASFMO through the 1990′s.

Tom became a paramedic in 1991 and served as a firefighter paramedic on a busy city engine company for many years. In 1996, he founded Desert Rescue Research.

In 2007, he was promoted to Battalion Chief with the Peoria Fire Department. With 140 sworn members, the department has two technical rescue companies and an advanced hazmat company. Tom has served as the special operations manager for Peoria since 2007.

K-9 Handlers—Dog Food Recall: Pro-Pet Dog Food of St. Marys, Ohio, USA, recalls 'Hubbard Life' and 'QC Plus' dog food

Learn more here.

Winter 2014 issue of the Mountain Rescue Association's "Meridian Magazine" is online

Inside this issue:

• The Alpine Near-Miss Survey
• NASAR Conference 2014
• President’s Message
• Interview with Neil Van Dyke
• ITRS 2013 Report
• Selective Spinal Motion Restriction in Mountain Rescue
• What’s in my Winter Rescue Pack?
• The Rescue and Caving Industry Loses a Pioneer
• Notes From the Editor

Download it here.

SAR GEAR: 'Search & Rescue' worn-look, embroidered, navy blue baseball hat

• 100% bio-washed chino twill
• Six-panel, low-profile
• Pre-curved visor
• Adjustable self-fabric back with tri-glide buckle close

Learn more at Gear4SAR.

Frostbite—To Thaw or Not to Thaw, by Tod Schimelpfenig, NOLS Wilderness Medical Institute

Frostbitten toes. (Photo courtesy of Dr. S. Falz, WikiMedia.org)

I was recently asked what to do if you can't make it back to the trailhead in one day with frozen toes and have to spend the night in the field? How do you keep the toes from thawing while keeping the rest of your body warm?

This is a practical and real question. Thirty-four years ago I spent a night in a tent with my toes frozen, then walked 6 miles and traveled another 25 to a hospital. I know this situation first hand, or first foot as it were.

As so often happens in medicine, there is no easy answer. At every step of the way there are risks and benefits. What do we need to consider when making this decision?

If your feet are frozen, there are often accompanying issues of hypothermia, exhaustion, and dehydration that make walking unlikely. If you thaw a frozen foot in the field it’s hard to imagine walking. If you thaw a frozen toe or toes, you might be able to walk. Let’s talk about this scenario.

The benefit to frozen toes is the ability to walk. The risk is that the longer tissue is frozen, the worse the injury. Medicine can't give an exact timeline to help with this decision.

Practically speaking, keeping toes frozen is a challenge. It's likely your toes will slowly thaw overnight, especially if you can get inside shelter with clothing, sleeping bag, warm food and drink.

The benefit to rapid thawing in warm water, the treatment of choice, is that it gives the best chance for saving tissue. However, thawed toes often hurt and swell, and you put your toes at risk for a freeze-thaw-freeze injury, which is very likely to increase tissue loss.

Rapid thawing in warm water is easy to talk about in a classroom, but difficult to do in the backcountry.  If you think your toes will thaw slowly, it’s better to “get er done” quickly. Hopefully, if warm water immersion isn't practical, your companion will donate their armpits or belly, which can work for thawing fingers and toes.

We weigh all these considerations—some factors we’re sure of, others that are probable, but not certain—and we make the decision.

In my case, it was desperately cold (minus 30F). I did sit up all night, and I kept my toes cold as I read Bradford's Washburn's classic frostbite pamphlet. It wasn’t fun, but it worked. My frozen toes, which still fit in my boots, began to thaw as I hiked out the next morning, but they were essentially still frozen at arrival in the hospital.

I think I was lucky.

The Wilderness Medical Society has released a position paper on frostbite. One of the points they made refers to the decision of "to thaw or not to thaw." Partial or full-thickness injury is ideally thawed in a warm water bath at 99-102°F (37-39°C). However, in the backcountry, skin-to-skin contact might be most practical. If this is not possible, spontaneous or slow thawing may be unavoidable and should be allowed. Don't purposely keep tissue frozen for extended periods of time. Read the entire paper at:

"Wilderness Medical Society Practice Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Frostbite," by Scott E. McIntosh, MD, MPH; Matthew Hamonko, MD, MPH; Luanne Freer, MD; Colin K. Grissom, MD; Paul S. Auerbach, MD, MS; George W. Rodway, PhD, APRN; Amalia Cochran, MD; Gordon Giesbrecht, MD; Marion McDevitt, DO; Christopher H. Imray, MD; Eric Johnson, MD; Jennifer Dow, MD; and Peter H. Hackett, MD. Wilderness & Environmental Medicine (Volume 22, Issue 2), Pages 156-166, June 2011.

Source: This article was adapted from Frostbite—To Thaw or Not to Thaw, by Tod Schimelpfenig, EMT, FAWM, Curriculum Director, Wilderness Medicine Institute (WMI), National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). Copyright © 2014 by the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), Lander, Wyoming. All Rights Reserved. Excerpted with Expressed Written Permission. To learn more about WMI and NOLS, point your Internet browser here.

February 2014 issue of "Waypoint AirMed & Rescue" is online

Read it here.