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Helpful Links
Road Conditions SAR Weather
News & Information | Wilderness Safety | Alive & Kicking | Emergency Medicine
SAR Skills | Team Skills | Road Conditions | SAR Weather | Equipment
Maps & Navigation | GPS | SAR Management | Home & Family
Other California SAR Teams
We have hand picked these links because of their interest to El Dorado County SAR members and others. We are always interested in tips about relevant, entertaining, and informative sites. If you have a nomination for our list, please e-mail us.
News & Information
- Basecamp - From Backpacker Magazine. Sections on gear, skills and activities plus classfied ads and more.
- Outdoor Recreation Resources Directory - This "directory" site has little material of its own, but sports a big collection of links to other sites where the real action is.
Wilderness Safety (See also SAR Skills)
- Lightning Safety for Campers and Hikers - Some quick pointers on how not to get zapped from the National Lightning Safety Institute. According to their collection of. It Can't Happen To Me stories, most people survive. (For wilderness-specific advice, see also General Backcounty Safety below).
- General Backcounty Safety - From the Mountain Rescue Association. For anyone who hikes. Covers equipment, clothing, planning, natural hazards, etc. 21 pages.
- Avalanche Articles from Colorado Firstrax - Illustrated articles on measuring avalanche danger, traveling in avalanche country, the use of avalanche beacons, and more.
- First Aid Kit Contents - Many SAR people like building their own first aid kits. Here's advice on what to include.
- Crossing Streams Safely - Streams are a part of most assignments. If you must cross them on foot, here's how to do it safely. From Santa Barbara SAR.
- Risks in Mountain Rescue - Another excellent guide from the MRA. SAR members should know these principles. Team leaders should insist on them.
- Wildland Fire Safety - You may need this whether or not you're in uniform. Written by a Santa Barbara SAR member.
- Helicopter Safety Handout - A handy one-page list of safety rules for people who may be working on the patient near the helicopter. From Brandywine Hospital in Pennsylvania.
Alive & Kicking (& Biting & Stinging)
Emergency Medicine
- Learn CPR - Even if you're current in CPR, check this site out. It has well-illustrated guides to adult, child and infant CPR, and even a downloadable video. An excellent refresher or study aid.
- Snakebite Emergency First Aid - Complete and authoritative. Recommended reading for everyone, including First Responders and EMT's.
- Treating and Preventing Venomous Bites - The FDA's recommendation for treating snakebites. Includes info on identifying and avoiding poisonous snakes.
- Bites and Stings - Straightforward steps for treating animal bites and insect stings.
- Learn2 Treat a Bee Sting - Don't be fooled by the cute cartoons - this site is up to date and complete.
SAR Skills (See also Wilderness Safety)
- Learn2 Tie Basic Knots - Eight basic knots evaluated and illustrated. Check out the animated bowline illustration.
- Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Guide - Covers survival basics, how to build a fire and a shelter, and more. Compare the Boy Scout requirements (on the last page) to ours!
- Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Exam - This 45-question multiple choice exam goes with the handout above. If the kids can pass it, so can you.
- Nine Rules for Survival - From the Search and Rescue Society of British Columbia. Especially good for families with kids.
- Air Safety - Helicopter Ground Safety Course Outline, a quick 10 minute refresher on staying safe around helicopters, especially our favorite, CHP's H-20.
- Air Safety Exam - Helicopter Ground Safety Test
- Helicopters in SAR Operations - Basic - Mountain Rescue Association's basic helicopter handout. Like a complete course in print. 17 pages.
- Helicopters in SAR Operations - Intermediate - Another from the MRA. Includes principles of flight, in-flight emergencies, fueling safety, heliport management, etc. Impressive. 27 pages.
Team Skills
Road Conditions (So you think the roads are open all the way to base camp, huh?)
- Caltrans reports. The straight facts from the people who ought to know.
Highway 49
Highway 50
Highway 88
Highway 89
SAR Weather
- U.S. Weather Service. No fancy pictures, no ads. Just the facts, fast.
Mother Lode (Sierra Foothills)
West Slope Sierra Nevadas
Lake Tahoe Basin & Truckee
- The Weather Channel. For those bleary 3:00 a.m. callouts, here it is in pictures.
Placerville
Lake Tahoe
Equipment
- CAL ESAR Gear List - California Explorer SAR has a minutely detailed equipment list divided into 18- 36- and 72-hour packs. Although carrying the entire list is overkill, you'll need everything sooner or later.
- Gear Review.com - Just what it sounds like. Reviews of backpacking equipment: boots, packs, clothing, etc.
- Equipped to Survive - Emergency survival on land, sea, air. Plus, actual tests of gear you might never see in stores.
Maps & Navigation
- Topographic Maps Online - Topozone.com has collected every USGS topo map in the United States and put them on the web, for free. While it's slower than CD maps like Topo! or Maptech, it's free, and it's faster than waiting for that map of Gopher Junction to arrive by mail. And did I mention it's free?
- Using UTM - This easy-to-read tutorial explains UTM in short bites with lots of illustrations.
- Free Map Tools From BASARC - UTM overlays, scales, rulers, latitude/longitude tools, and more. You download the files then print them on transparency sheets with Adobe Acrobat Reader (likewise free). You can also order hard plastic commercial versions here ($2-$7).
GPS
- Joe Mehaffey and Jack Yeazel - These two fellows can tell you anything about GPS you want to know in this encyclopedic site. And if you like to investigate before you buy, start here.
- How GPS works - Trimble, a GPS pioneer, has one of the best explanations anywhere of how the GPS system works. It doesn't overload you down with technical details. A Shockwave plug-in is nice but not necessary.
- Peter Bennet's GPS Site - A variety GPS material, mainly links to other places. Good collection of software links. Not for beginners.
SAR Management
- SARINFO 'Planning' Library - Forms, documents and suggestions for the well equipped Search Management team. From SARBC.
- Searching for a Deaf Person - Suggestions from a SARBC manager on finding a hearing-impaired subject. Most require some pre-planning.
- Alzheimer's Disease SAR Research - Suggestions for Alzheimer's SAR incidents, based on a statistical summary of 82 such events. Nice work. Print this and keep it in your ready book.
- Urban Alzheimer's Techniques (Download)- A comprehensive guide for managing Alzheimer's incidents in urban areas. Detailed and thorough. From SARBC. (Click this link to start downloading the document.)
- Handling Family and Friends - One of the toughest subjects in SAR: what to do with the familes and friends of the subject. From SARBC.
Home & Family
- Emergency Car Kits - Of course, YOU will never get stranded in the outback. But consider these items for your significant other's car.
- Emergencies and Animals - Don't forget your four-legged loved ones. This FEMA site tells what to do before, during and after an emergency.
- Emergency Pet Preparedness - Emergency planning for your pets. Tips on making a pet evacuation kit, including first aid supplies and herbal remedies
Other California SAR Teams
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