40 years of search and rescue: How Larimer County SAR training, technology evolved
From using maps and compasses to GPS and drones, here's how Larimer County Search and Rescue has evolved in the 40 years since it began.
40 years of search and rescue: How Larimer County SAR training, technology evolved From using maps and compasses to GPS and drones, here's how Larimer County Search and Rescue has evolved in the 40 years since it began. Check out this story on coloradoan.com: https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2019/04/29/larimer-county-search-and-rescue-improves-technology-training/3588177002/
Sady Swanson, Fort Collins Coloradoan Published 8:33 p.m. MT April 29, 2019
Larimer County Search and Rescue trains up dogs
Larimer County Search and Rescue team member Mary Babbitt trains her dog, Jupiter, on trailing techniques during a training event held at Lory State Park on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Joel Blocker / For the Coloradoan
Jay Rigdon, foreground, a member of the Montrose County Sheriffs office and West Elk Mountain Rescue team, holds a tug-upon as a reward for Jupiter, a Larimer County Search and Rescue team member who works with Mary Babbitt, far right, during a training event held at Lory State Park on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Joel Blocker / For the Coloradoan
Larimer County Search and Rescue team member, Jake Udel, prepares his dog, Java, for a runaway drill during a training event held at Lory State Park on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Joel Blocker / For the Coloradoan
Larimer County Search and Rescue team members, from left, Ronnie Guenther and Chris Robertson, take a moment to debrief the last air scent training exercise during a training event held at Lory State Park on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Joel Blocker / For the Coloradoan
Larimer County Search and Rescue team member, Mary Babbitt, prepares her dog, Jupiter, for a training event held at Lory State Park on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Jupiter is trained to follow the trial of scent particles shed by missing persons. Joel Blocker / For the Coloradoan
Joel Blocker / For the Coloradoan Larimer County Search and Rescue team members, from left, Mary Babbitt and Chris Robertson, reward RobertsonÕs dog, Bohannon, an air scent dog, after he found his target during a training event held at Lory State Park on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Air cent dogs are trained to detect scent particles that are carried through the wind from a missing person's location. Joel Blocker / For the Coloradoan
Larimer County Search and Rescue team members, from left, Dan Fanning, Ronnie Guenther, Jake Udel and Mary Babbitt scour an area map looking for locations to train their search and rescue dogs during a training event held at Lory State Park on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Joel Blocker / For the Coloradoan
Larimer County Search and Rescue team member Chris Robertson prepares his dog, Bohannon, for a training event held at Lory State Park on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Bohannon is a trained air scent dog whose job is to "bark and hold" its target until help arrives. Joel Blocker / For the Coloradoan
Larimer County Search and Rescue team member Chris Robertson follows his dog, Bohannon, an air scent dog, as he tracks down a target location during a training event held at Lory State Park on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Air scent dogs are trained to detect scent particles that are carried through the wind from a missing person's location. Joel Blocker / For the Coloradoan
When now 70-year-old Don Davis went on his first mission with Larimer County Search and Rescue in the winter of 1982, he was in the field for four days with a 50-pound pack on his back, hiking in freezing temperatures.
Search and rescue has changed a little since then.
"Now, no, you're not going to be out on a mission for four days," Davis said.
Davis, who now does more work behind the scenes instead of in the field, remembers not having many options for technical clothing or lightweight gear, making search and rescue missions even more challenging.
Now, he says, he's amazed to go into outdoors stores and find tents that weigh 1.5 pounds.
"That's helped a lot," he said, reflecting on carrying a 10-pound tent when he joined in 1981.
Larimer County Search and Rescue team member, Mary Babbitt, prepares her dog, Jupiter, for a training event held at Lory State Park on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Jupiter is trained to follow the trial of scent particles shed by missing persons. (Photo: Joel Blocker / For the Coloradoan)
How the times have changed
In the 40 years since the nonprofit search and rescue group started, improved gear, technology and training have changed how the volunteers work to rescue people.
When the group started in 1978, there were about 20 members, president Sandy Jordan said. Forty years later, they maintain close to 100 members with about 30% women, which Jordan said is likely much different than it was in the late 1970s.
"It was basically all map and compass," education director Jill Reynolds said.
Now, with easier access to GPS devices and using cellphone data, searches can often pinpoint the location of the party needing to be rescued.
"A lot of times we're not searching for anyone, it's just, 'Go get them,'" Davis said, adding that cellphone reception has also improved, which helps get rescuers to the area faster. "People have actually been talked out of the area where they're lost (over the phone)."
While cellphones have been helpful, people have also begun to rely too much on the technology and aren't as prepared when they go out.
"People have gotten a little complacent about technology," Reynolds said.
Joel Blocker / For the Coloradoan Larimer County Search and Rescue team members, from left, Mary Babbitt and Chris Robertson, reward RobertsonÕs dog, Bohannon, an air scent dog, after he found his target during a training event held at Lory State Park on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Air cent dogs are trained to detect scent particles that are carried through the wind from a missing person's location. (Photo: Joel Blocker / For the Coloradoan)
Drones also allow crews to search more technical areas without actually having to go in those areas, putting fewer people at risk.
"The use of drones, it will never replace people, but it's another tool we're starting to look at," Reynolds said.
Technical rescue gear, like climbing equipment, have also become safer, Jordan said. And as equipment has improved, so have the training methods for using that equipment.
They have used tracking — both by dog teams and human trackers — more in recent years, Jordan said. Trackers use clues, like boot prints or broken branches, to figure out where search teams should go and where they should expend their resources.
They can also track people in urban environments — like through neighborhoods and on sidewalks — to help law enforcement find a lost child or memory care patient.
"That probably was not as highly trained and practiced in the earlier days," Jordan said.
A man's best friend for search and rescue
Dog teams are also used in the field more, partially because they've improved training methods since the group began. When they began using dog teams, Jordan said they sent two members on a nationwide search to bring dog training ideas to their team. Those members went on to establish Search and Rescue Dogs of Colorado.
Aside from their weekly dog training and other technical training, the group also hosts educational presentations with the goal of preventing the need for search and rescue by teaching school groups, outdoor clubs and more how to be prepared and what to do if lost.
When Davis first began volunteering with search and rescue almost 40 years ago, they went through intensive survival and technical training — just as they do now — to prepare new members. But, Davis said, it took them awhile to realize they needed some way to support searchers mentally and emotionally, particularly after missions involving a death.
Larimer County Search and Rescue team member Mary Babbitt trains her dog, Jupiter, on trailing techniques during a training event held at Lory State Park on Saturday, April 13, 2019. (Photo: Joel Blocker / For the Coloradoan)
Davis said he often participated in searches where the person died before they were found. At first, he didn't think it bothered him. Then he was part of the group that found a man about his age who had fallen and died.
His wife told him "whenever you came home from a mission that involved a death, you were different for awhile," he said.
Now, every time the group assists with a rescue involving a death, everyone on that mission participates in a critical incident stress debriefing to provide members with a place to talk and find support.
Not everything has changed, though, Jordan said. The nonprofit has always been volunteer-based and has never charged for any of their services.
And "we're still doing the same thing we always did: finding lost people," Jordan said.
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Support Larimer County Search and Rescue
Volunteer: Interested volunteers can fill out a form on www.larimercountysar.org anytime, but they generally bring in new recruits in January.
Donate: Larimer County Search and Rescue is a nonprofit and relies on donations. To donate, visit www.larimercountysar.org.
Sady Swanson covers crime, courts, public safety and more throughout Northern Colorado. You can send your story ideas to her at sswanson@coloradoan.com or on Twitter at @sadyswan. Support our work and local journalism with a digital subscription at Coloradoan.com/subscribe.
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