After a very busy summer sent search and rescue crews to all corners of Mesa County to locate lost and injured hikers, hunters, boaters and bikers, the winter months are expected to be a bit quieter for volunteers.
Mesa County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue President Jim Reed said during the winter, some calls search and rescue teams will be sent to include helping lost skiers on the mesa.
“It’s cross-country skiers, mainly, that we do get. We get calls up there occasionally, maybe a couple times a year. Some years we won’t have any,” Reed said.
The larger portion of their winter is spent dealing with snowmobilers that have gotten themselves into trouble.
“We’ll respond to snowmobile incidents where the vehicle has stalled, gotten stuck somewhere or even fallen through the ice,” Reed said.
Although the county’s swiftwater and boat rescue and technical rescue teams may get more action during the summer, the snowskippers, which consist of winter search and rescue operations with snowmobiles, and the Western Slope ATV teams are typically called more during the winter.
The most recent mission Mesa County Search and Rescue was called to occurred on Nov. 12 after a female hunter tracking an elk near Whiskers Pond near Palisade reportedly blew out her knee.
“We got the call and were staging by 9:30 p.m. on Thursday and finished it up by 9:30 a.m. the next morning,” Reed said. “Because of (where she was) there was no landing zone for the helicopter.”
Part of being a member of Mesa County Search and Rescue is simply being prepared, for there’s always a chance the volunteers can spend a night on a rescue in below freezing temperatures. Members of the Search.
Rescue Ground Team always have a gear pack ready to go for when they do get those calls but what goes inside the bag changes with the weather.
“That includes heavier jackets, paying more attention to having food available for cold weather,” Reed said.
“In that environment… you burn a lot more calories in cold weather than warm. You might be out there overnight in the cold and want to be prepared for that from a health standpoint.”
The change to winter gear is something experienced across all Mesa County Search and Rescue teams.
“I’m sure they started making those adjustments now. The ATV Team meets every year for a pack check to make sure they are ready to go out on a moment’s notice should they get a snowmobile call,” Reed added.
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November 29, 2020 at 02:15PM
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Search and rescue teams change with seasonal adjustments - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
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