The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic games are officially underway. As a volunteer team involved with outdoor activities, is it not surprising Coquitlam SAR members are doing their part to help out. At last count 11 or our SAR members are in various positions around Vancouver and Whistler.

• Two members are providing specialized helicopter rescue services to the Downhill events at Whistler Mountain. One member has already been involved with a HETS extraction of US racer Stacey Cook after a crash while training.
• Two members are providing athlete event medical care.
  • Freestyle events at Cypress Mountain
  • Hockey events at UBC Thunderbird and Canada Hockey Place
• Two members are embedded in the Provincial Regional Emergency Operations Center (PREOC) responsible for coordinating emergency response for the Olympic area.
• One member is part of the Police team in Whistler as part of the Integrated Security Unit.
• A member is involved with transportation of athletes and dignitaries.
• A member is part of the Weasel Workers on the Downhill events in Whistler.
• A member is volunteering on Grouse Mountain, a major international media location.

Of course during games time, Coquitlam SAR is responsible for our usual Search and Rescue capabilities as well as mutual aid to other agencies. During the opening ceremonies, Coquitlam SAR was put on standby to assist North Shore Rescue with a possible missing person on Seymour. She was located safe at home.

Preparations for SAR operations during the Olympic period took a large amount of effort. Coquitlam SAR members liaised with other SAR groups and many outside agencies to work around Olympic specific search and rescue issues. This includes airspace restrictions, planning with Blackcomb Helicopters, and security restrictions on the North Shore mountains.

Coquitlam Search and Rescue's recent recruitment drive resulted in the team taking on 17 new members. The team saw more applications, and of a higher caliber than any previous year. The membership committee, consisting of 7 regular members, spent three weeks winnowing through applications, and interviewing prospective members, the bring the number down to 17. This is the most new members the team has ever taken on at one time.

Now the task of training these members, no small time commitment, falls to the training committee. However, learning from previous years, Coquitlam SAR issued the new members with several essential items of gear as soon as possible, one of these being the team pager. The member-in-training have started to learn all about the pager in the past few weeks, as Coquitlam SAR was called on the following tasks.  

Coquitlam SAR would like to express the team's condolences on the death of North Shore Rescue member Johannes (Hannes) Mullegger.

According to news reports, Hannes and two others were on an 11 day ski traverse of the Compton Neve, a mountainous region in the area between Toba Inlet and the Lillooet Icecap, when he fell into a crevasse. Rescue Squadron 442 (Comox) was dispatched, and he was extracted, but pronounced dead at St Josephs Hospital.

The Search and Rescue community in this province is a tight knit group, spending long hours training, and sometimes even longer hours rescuing people. It's the spirit of community and giving to others that brings us together, and leads us to use our skills to help others. Many of us spend our free time recreating in the backcountry, mountaineering and skiing. 

"On behalf of Coquitlam Search and Rescue I extend our most heartfelt condolences to North Shore Rescue, Johannes family and his companions.
Sincerely,
Mike McRae
Team Leader"

• NSR Blog
• CBC Article

The Canadian Government has reversed the decision to close the Canada Map Office and stop printing paper maps. The Office will stay open and will continue to print high quality, large format paper maps.

These maps are vital to explorers, recreationalists and search and rescue because they provide a view of a large area which is important for planning and for navigation.

• CBC News
• Maps For Canadians