WILDERNESS SEARCH AND RESCUE

WHERE?

DURATION?

PHYSICALITY?

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SEASONALITY

LIMITATIONS

The Wilderness SAR course focuses on taking your existing rescue skills (mainly rope rescue) and prting them to the Wildenerness environment. It teaches you how to survive, move and function in an indifferent environment for long periods of time.

The course also teaches a systematic approach to finding a missing person, whether lost, overdue or trapped.

Please note that you must have completed AND PASSED High Angle 2 before you may commence with this course.

You need to be fit enough to:

• Carry all your personal equipment and food for 6 days, as well as your share of the group's technical rescue equipment.

• Walk for up to 10 hours per day carrying this load.

• Be a member of a 6-man team carrying a 100kg patient 300m cross country.

Your fitness will be assessed during the course and if you are not fit enough  then you will not be permitted to complete the course.

The assessment takes place in 2 phases:

• The formative assessment takes place during the practical phase of the course.

• The theory exam is written after the practical phase. It is a written paper of up to 150 marks and has a 50% pass mark.

• Types of wilderness

• Terrain hazards

• Weather hazards

• Creature hazards

• Priorities of survival

• Applying Leave No Trace to Wilderness SAR

• Human thermoregulation

• Energy, nutrition, hydration

• Clothing and layering

• Sourcing water

• Review of the layering systems

• Clothing and footwear

• Load-carrying equipment

• Shelter

• Sleeping systems

• Cooking systems

• Lighting

• Principles

• Maps

• Compass

• GPS

• Techniques of navigation

• Route-finding vs navigation

• Route-planning

• First notice

• Initial response

• Lost Person Behaviour

• Detailed search planning

• Search management

• Wilderness considerations for rescue

• Differences in approach between urban and wilderness technical rescue

• Cross country rescue

• Long-term patient care considerations