Recent Searches

The first wave of cold weather and snow in the mountains in addition to some local searches made for a busy month for BAMRU.  Below is an overview of our last month and the corresponding news articles.  As always, BAMRU was honored to work with our neighboring SAR teams.

10/11:  BAMRU responded to a search in San Mateo County for a local missing man.  http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Union-City-teacher-found-dead-3943998.php

10/22: BAMRU called to assist in a mutual aid search in Alpine County for two missing hunters. http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/news/article_7d8f728e-1f85-11e2-b3df-0019bb2963f4.html

10/24: Mutual aid search in El Dorado country for missing hiker.  http://www.laketahoenews.net/2012/10/overdue-hiker-safely-rescued-from-desolation-wilderness

10/28:  BAMRU responded to a mutual aid call for an overdue hiker in Fresno County.  http://www.ksee24.com/news/local/Missing-Backpacker-Found-Alive-176339761.html

11/3:  BAMRU responded to an in-county call for a missing 67 year old man who was later found to be alive and well outside of the search area.

11/5: BAMRU responded to a call out for a missing hiker in the Santa Cruz mountains.  http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_21939487/body-missing-redwood-city-man-found-aptos-hills

Technical Trainings

BAMRU has had a wonderful fall so far and suddenly winter is upon us!  We enjoyed what seems to have been the last of the warm and beautiful weather in the mountains with a few technical and alpine trainings (more on the alpine trainings to come!).


First we stayed local and refreshed our basic technical rescue skills.  We reviewed anchoring systems, mainline lowers, raises, rigging and pick-offs at our Redwood City facility (courtesy of the San Mateo Sheriff's Office) before moving to Mori Point where we got to run live systems over the edge.

Later we ventured to Yosemite for our advanced technical rescue training.  It was a warm and beautiful weekend in the valley!  We spent three days alternating between classroom learning and running systems in one of our favorite places to train.  We ran two line systems, first with the litter in a horizontal orientation and the next day, vertically (pike and pivot).  On day three was the grand finale of systems; a Kootenay highline over the Merced.

These trainings take a lot of logistical planning, safety precautions and time to execute.  Many thanks to the BAMRU team members and leadership who organized and proctored us for these invaluable exercises.

The Little Radio That Could

Operation Puxing 777 Retrieval (Photo Credit: Tyler Phelan)

Summer is almost officially over, and the BAMRU blog has been quiet, mostly because we've been outside soaking up the sunshine and mountain tops sans snow and ice.  As a new season approaches some of us are more ready than others to start scanning gear catalogues for fleeces, puffies and split boards.  If, like me, you're not quite ready to check out the fall & winter gear, perhaps you'd like a review on a very small but very important piece of gear that can be used all year round.

If you're in search of the perfect radio, one that can survive a 150ft drop or a month in the freezing temps on Denali....read on:

Most search and rescue teams rely on radio communications in the field, and BAMRU is no exception. For many years, we used "cheap and cheerful" Family Radio Service (FRS) radios, which are, well, very cheap, and don't require a license. But there's a lot of traffic on the FRS bands, the range is short, and they don't interoperate with the radios used by the public service agencies with which we often interact.

Puxing love on Mt. Shasta
(Photo Credit: Abi Fitzgerald)

A few years ago, we decided to switch to HAM radios for intra-team communications, and added a training requirement that every member earn a HAM license. This has worked very well for us: handheld HAM transceivers are reliable, boast reasonable power for our operations, and are built to withstand the rigors of heavy use. The VHF bands are not very busy, and we chose a set of standard frequencies for our team to use. To seed the pool of radios, we acquired some used Motorola "bricks" and associated hardware, and members started purchasing their own radios.

After a year, we had at least six different radios on the team, and came to the realization that we should standardize on a single radio that could be recommended to new members who had no radio experience. It needed to be relatively inexpensive, robust, and easy to program.

Ideally, it would also work in the public service bands (155, 166, 172 MHz). Many HAM transceivers can be modified to work in an extended frequency range, but a) this is not strictly legal, as the radios are not type accepted under part 90 rules and b) they tend to be much less efficient transmitters on those frequencies, due to design limitations. Another requirement was that the radio support the transition to narrow-channel FM mandated by the FCC for public service licenses.

With all these criteria, one radio stood out: the Puxing PX-777+. This is one of a range of Chinese-made transceivers that started appearing around 2006. Cheap and robust, built to commercial standards and widely available. Many versions do NOT meet the requirement of FCC Part 90 approval to transmit on all the frequencies we use, but the version sold by Argent Data comes with the appropriate FCC sticker.

Our experience with these radios over the past two years has been uniformly positive. There are only two problems with the radio: it doesn't have an AA battery pack, and is miserable to field program.

The radio weighs about 8 oz. This is about 1/3 less than the comparably-sized VX-150 despite having 70% more battery capacity. One of our members used his on Denali for a month when working for the NPS, preferring it to the NPS-issue Bendix/King "super brick" which weighs almost 3x as much. He charged it with a small solar panel.

Another member recently dropped her radio during an op; it came to rest on the rocky beach approximately 150 feet below. When she got there, the battery had popped off, but there was no other significant damage. After reuniting the battery with the radio, it worked great.


Below is a brief shot of the Puxing in action on a search
where we needed to coordinate helo pick up.

Contibutors: Blake Gleason, Chris Kantarjiev, Eszter Tompos
Radio details and specs:  http://puxingradio.com/pro_disp.asp?OIWareId=804&CurLanguage=en

Challenging Search in Pacifica

Over the past few days, BAMRU has been involved in a challenging search for a missing woman in Pacifica. This was a collaborative and mutual aid based effort from multiple agencies. During the busiest period, there were more than 100 resources deployed in the field.

BAMRU turned out for the first operational period on Wednesday with a team of responders that worked through the night into Thursday that included multiple field and overhead assignments. Follow-on operational periods included mutual aid from across the Bay Area counties and as far as from Placer and Fresno.

Regrettably, the subject is still missing.

More News: Mercury News | ABC News

Expecting the Unexpected Night Out

Earlier this summer, two members of our team headed to Yosemite for a weekend trip up Mt. Conness.  Conness stands at 12,590ft. and has several routes to its picturesque summit.  The planned route for this trip was one of the more technical options.

After going slightly off route late in the afternoon and unable to climb higher, the team was forced to spend the night on a cramped ledge.  Below is the trip report as told by Chris, and a wonderful example of why it is so important to be prepared and to expect the "unexpected".   

BAMRU is a "type 1" SAR team, which means, among other things, that we may be deployed for up to 72 hours without additional support. Members don't carry a full sleep system in their search pack all the time - but we try to be prepared for an unexpected night out, just in case, because we tend to draw the search assignments that are farthest away and last to be retrieved and, well, things happen.

We carry this over into our non-SAR lives, too, of course. So when Eszter Tompos and I found ourselves behind schedule at 12,400' on the western flank of Mt Conness in Yosemite National Park, we were able to pull out headlamps, and extra layers, and eventually a foam pad and space blankets in order to insulate ourselves from the cold granite and windy conditions of our bivy spot just below the summit ridge. A few extra energy bars and some chocolate didn't hurt either. A small HAM radio put us in contact with fellow BAMRU teammates Blake Gleason and Rachel Farrand, who were back in camp, and a GPS unit let us communicate exactly where we were.


"We were prepared as a matter of habit and that showed." -- Eszter 

When first light dawned, we were able to correct our route-finding error and continue our climb to the summit, where Blake and Rachel met us with hot soup, chai, and other yummy snacks, and much-needed good cheer after a long and chilly night.

So what was in our packs that made this potentially dangerous scenario have a happy outcome? 


Even though we (mostly) believe in Yvon Chouinard's famous quote "If you bring bivy gear, you're going to bivy", we also know that things don't always go as planned. Carrying the "ten essentials" always *seems* like carrying too much. But then, we had light rain gear, an insulating layer, and warm hats for each of us. Tiny first aid kits, some extra food and adequate water (and purification tablets), duct tape and Swiss Army knife, map, compass and GPS, headlamps and whistles, radio, and space blanket/emergency bag. My pack has a piece of closed cell foam as part of the suspension (a "bivy" pad), and the pack itself provided some insulation when I stuck my feet in it.

According to the Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, the ten essentials to carry in the back country are:

    Map
    Compass (optionally supplemented with a GPS receiver)
    Sunglasses and sunscreen
    Extra food
    Extra water
    Extra clothes
    Headlamp / flashlight
    First aid kit
    Fire starter (matches, chemical heat tabs, canned heat, or a magnesium stick)
    Knife

It then recommends supplementing the ten essentials with:

    Portable water purification and water bottles
    Ice axe for glacier or snowfield travel (if necessary)
    Repair kit, including duct tape and basic sewing materials.
    Insect repellent (or clothing designed for this purpose)
    Signaling devices, such as a whistle, cell phone, two-way radio, satellite phone, signal mirror.
    Plastic tarp and rope for expedient field shelter.

So, without really trying, we had all that and more, plus all of our climbing gear to draw upon. Carrying all of that stuff slowed us down some, but we already knew we would be slow when we put the rope in the pack. A dedicated soloist wouldn't be caught carrying it, but someone soloing this route (the North Ridge) would probably know the way and be a lot faster than we were. And that's always the tradeoff.


Thankfully the weather, although cold and windy, was cooperative for Chris and Eszter and it didn't rain, hail, or lightening which can be common in the high Sierra during the summer months.  Some of you outdoor enthusiasts may, like myself, enjoy reading harrowing tales of epic journeys gone awry and survival stories that seem impossible to be true, however, if you would like to reduce your chances of being the author of one such tale, it's always a good idea to carry the ten essentials and possibly this even a HAM radio if you are licensed to use it.  Although not on the packing list, having two team members at base camp that have your back through thick and thin is always a plus too!