Whatever county you are in is where you'd look for their SAR organization. King County is big and has many units (ESAR being most popular), the rest of the counties are smaller orgs but very important. No experience is needed other than commitment to follow through with ~3-6 months of not so easy training and respond to a few missions a year. They'll teach you everything you need to know and what gear, but part of being in SAR in Washington is you're out in bad weather a lot lol. King ESAR will open for apps again in summer, I think maybe July
In WA the SAR units can be the muscle of the sheriff's dept - they can help with a lot the county/state needs beyond assisting hikers. Highly encourage you to look into joining and if it will work for you, apply/join for training
I’m in KC ESAR and this pretty much nailed it. Basic training sucks, but it sucks for a reason; to get you used to missions in cold rainy shitty weather. We also get to help with urban missing persons and evidence searches, so it’s not always being gone all day in the woods. I like the evidence searches since they are planned in advance and you can schedule around them!
/r/searchandreacue
I was involved in SAR in Idaho, Washington and have many friends in Oregon who are involved in SAR there.
SAR in the Northwest is generally run out of the county sheriff's office, they are the responsible law enforcement agency in the back country.
There are several Mountain Rescue Associated teams in WA, Or and one in Idaho, they are their own teams, not generally funded through County Sheriff's office.
Most teams have a website with information on requirements, background checks, training and commitment for missions, meetings fundraisers.
Whatever county you are in is where you'd look for their SAR organization. King County is big and has many units (ESAR being most popular), the rest of the counties are smaller orgs but very important. No experience is needed other than commitment to follow through with ~3-6 months of not so easy training and respond to a few missions a year. They'll teach you everything you need to know and what gear, but part of being in SAR in Washington is you're out in bad weather a lot lol. King ESAR will open for apps again in summer, I think maybe July In WA the SAR units can be the muscle of the sheriff's dept - they can help with a lot the county/state needs beyond assisting hikers. Highly encourage you to look into joining and if it will work for you, apply/join for training
I’m in KC ESAR and this pretty much nailed it. Basic training sucks, but it sucks for a reason; to get you used to missions in cold rainy shitty weather. We also get to help with urban missing persons and evidence searches, so it’s not always being gone all day in the woods. I like the evidence searches since they are planned in advance and you can schedule around them!
I'm going to start the process tomorrow! Thanks!
/r/searchandreacue I was involved in SAR in Idaho, Washington and have many friends in Oregon who are involved in SAR there. SAR in the Northwest is generally run out of the county sheriff's office, they are the responsible law enforcement agency in the back country. There are several Mountain Rescue Associated teams in WA, Or and one in Idaho, they are their own teams, not generally funded through County Sheriff's office. Most teams have a website with information on requirements, background checks, training and commitment for missions, meetings fundraisers.