Pacific Northwest Search and Rescue, Inc.

It is always a pleasure to collaborate with other agencies on missions!

With our third Marine Patrol season approaching, we want to give a special thanks to the Port of Hood River for all their assistance. They have been incredibly supportive of this program from the beginning and have helped us with logistics, parking, fuel, dock space, and much more. Thank you and we look forward to continuing this great relationship!

Yesterday was a very exciting day for PNWSAR, as we received our biggest singular donation to date! As many of you know, our team has spent weekends over the last few summers doing patrols on the Columbia River in Hood River, assisting folks as needed. This has been a very successful program but, unfortunately, our current boat is nearing the end of its functional life. The lovely folks over at Columbia Gorge Wind & Water Association caught wind of our need for a new boat and, just last night, finalized their donation of $60,000 which will fully fund the purchase of a brand new mil-spec boat. As a fully volunteer run, donation funded team, a donation like this is a huge deal! We are so excited to continue our commitment to ensuring the safety of the community in Hood River County, including on the river! We can’t thank the team at CGW2 enough for this incredible donation.

A few weeks ago, our technical rope support team (RST) had their monthly training up at White River Sno Park. It was a beautiful day to practice some snow skills! Our team set up and tested different types of snow anchors, traversed snowy slopes, and practiced other situations we might find ourselves in.

Our RST is made up of members certified through Rescue 3 international in technical rope rescue. This team conducts additional monthly trainings in order to keep up with the highly technical skill set required of them, and is prepared and available should any of our missions require technical rope operations.

It is with a very heavy heart that we share that one of our members, Dean Johnston, has passed away after a battle with cancer. Dean was an integral member of PNWSAR- he joined in 2021 and was awarded “Rookie of the Year” because of his commitments to training and missions during his first year. He went on to join our Training Committee, where he volunteered even more of his time to planning and coordinating training for our team. He always had a smile on his face, and was willing to help wherever it was needed. We all feel very fortunate for the time we were able to spend with Dean as a member of PNWSAR, and our thoughts are with his family and loved ones during this difficult time. 🧡 💙

Training is a critical part of our mission as a team, as it is hugely important that we are up to date on any skills that we might need to use on any given callout. Regular trainings also help us to build and maintain confidence and trust with our teammates so that we can all be ready to respond to a callout any time of any day. This past weekend, our team completed a mock mission by Teacup Nordic skiing area. We were able to practice search techniques and both our trail running and drone support specialty teams were “deployed”. We also were able to practice medical and patient packaging skills (with *fake* blood!).

Our team of 100% volunteers gives 1000s of hours in training alone every year in order to maintain preparedness and relies on these volunteers and generous donors in order continue our life saving efforts. The link to make a tax deductible donation to our team is always available, and we thank you for your support!

https://pnwsar.org/donate

Winter conditions are very much still alive and well on many of our local trails! Exercise caution, and have a low threshold for turning around when things get sketchy. The best outings are the ones you make it home from safely!