i found this interesting you tube video.

8:57 min video here

New Hampshire Fish and Game Conservation Officer Brad Morse describes what - as a member of the search-and-rescue team - he carries in his rucksack.

your needs / carry will vary geographically. but i think it provides a good basis for what type of things you may want to carry when you're off the asphalt and concrete.

The typical SAR pack in our Arizona unit contained virtually identical contents. It can get pretty cold in the mountains at night. The summer pack was a different story.

Great link, but...Did I hear him say the rucksack weighs 55 lbs?

Ooof.

SAR used what is called a 24 hour pack - enough that the searchers can survive 24 hours without resupply

PDF of 24 hour packs and other supplies

This list sartech II packing list is for a test and they really, really mean it. Every item, exactly as listed. ( just for the test though)

the CAP list civil air patrol Includes shoeshine polish


ETS thread

For real, I hope whoever he is rescuing is near his vehicle. Thats just a little overkill. IMO
Thats plenty of Gear for two men, why not just split the weight, travel in pairs, and cover twice (or 3x) the ground.

I am a big fan of "the more you carry between your ears the less (gear) you need on your back"..

Pretty typical pack for the LEO to have on hand while they
run things from the com center. If they need to get into the
field they have most anything to draw from.

This would be called a 48 hour pack, with shelter, stove and
sleeping bag. A 24 hour pack would be lighter and expect the
searcher to be up and around the whole time.

The climbing gear adds quite a bit of weight, tho he did a great
job of minimizing that.

Hard to chase someone down on skis or snowshoes or run a few miles
on a trail to a known medical emergency with a 55 lb pack.


Didn't notice any grid ribbon,

For a cold weather pack I didn't see skis/skins or snowshoes, avi beacon, shovel, probe.

I imagine that this would be the typical carry out to the start of a search. Once at the scene, the SAR member could easily review his contents and leave a portion of it back in their vehicle. For example, if it was an urban search vs a field search, the contents required would be different. Again, same with the changing of the seasons. The SAR bag would have to be updated fairly often simply because the batteries for the radio etc. will only hold a charge for so long. All that said, it may be that his 55 lb bag gets pared down to 30 lbs in some situations.

I noticed he also has a fair bit of redundancy. You and I in our daily hiking packs might reduce that redundancy but when you are putting your life on the line in the possible rescue of another life then that is a reasonable assumption when outfitting the bag.

Regardless of the contents, I think his biggest asset is the radios. Keeping in contact with the other SAR members (often within visual range) is key to conducting wide scale searches.

Up till the shear mass greatly limits probability of success. Searchers shouldn't be on their own and should be able to rely on their partners (we ski in teams of 4) for some redundancy.

Skiing with a 15 pound pack is way safer and more efficient
than a 30 or 55 pound one.

I dunno. Maybe he's just really super fit?

Some great ideas to be had from SAR guys, though, to be sure.

Wow! That's a pretty comprehensive kit. That climbing gear has to be a big chunk of the weight.

I agree that 50 pounds is pretty heavy, but what would you take out? Whenever we hear someone ay "I counted on my partner for that" we ETSers shake our heads and tsk tsk someone for not being prepared. Wouldn't it be even worse if it was a SAR guy? Am I wrong to think that there's a chance a SAR guy could get caight out during a rescue, and need to take care of themseleves and perhaps a victim or two?

I can see ditching one of the insulated parkas, the plastic containers for the food stuffs and maybe one of the nalgenes. What else would you eliminate?