Finding a place for wilderness EMS.

[Mountian_Man]

Greetings. I come to you all with a question: Where and how would I get into Wilderness Rescue/EMS/Fire? I've been a Volly from the time I was in High school (started out as Jr. Firefighter), and I'm currently in medic school. While in Medic school, I found a love for the backcountry. Backpacking, hiking, camping, climbing, canoeing, I love it all! Right now, I'm looking for something where I can do SAR, EMS, and/or firefighting in the wilderness setting, so I can spend time doing the 2 things I love, Emergency work, and outdoorsman work.. I visited the US forestry Site, Mountian rescue sites, but only found some volly departments.

Can anyone give me any info on getting involved in Professional wilderness work?

[1aCe3]

Check out the search function... or scroll down a bit in this case.

http://www.emtcity.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4339

I posted about this recently. There's some information that should be helpful to you.

[Mountian_Man]

Thanks, but I had already seen that question. That question focused on training, what I'm looking for are services to employ me. I already have rope and swift water rescue training from my VFD. While I do look forward to attending classes on to further my skills, right now, what I am asking in this post is for places to work, not places to train.

Again, thanks for the help, but that isn't exactly what I'm after with this post.

[Dustdevil]

Think about it. Where in this country do you think this sort of thing happens commonly enough that they would employ full-time professionals to sit around waiting for it? Answer: nowhere. Consequently, you'll have to find a job doing something else and hope that somewhere down the line they might assign you double duty to be on-call for rescues and such. Probably the only places that really do it seriously are some law enforcement agencies on the west coast, like California. Even getting hired is extremely competetive. Once you do, you're going to have to spend a few years just writing speeding tickets to even be considered for a special assignment. And frankly, not many agencies even have such a unit.

The U.S. Park Police have rescue trained techs in their helos, I believe. They, of course, are in very limited locations though, with Washington, DC being the only aviation unit I am aware of.

Sounds to me like you need to join the Coast Guard. Bout the only full time job for what you are talking about is there, and they are the best.

[Scaramedic]

Here in the Northwest the only thing I can think of is the RAT Team that is part of AMR in Portland. The Reach and Treat (RAT)Team works out of quarters in Sandy, Oregon. They are a specialized unit that does wilderness and mountain rescue including going up on Mt Hood. I do not believe it is an entry level position though, I would try and contact AMR Portland to find out more.

Here's some articles from about them.

http://www.traditionalmountaineering.org/N...ndyHeadwall.htm

http://www.wemjournal.org/wmsonline/?reque...3&page=0208

http://www.amr.net/news/releases/2004/051804.asp

Peace,

Marty

:thumbleft:

[chbare]

Mountain_Man, have you considered the military? I have trained with several PJ's and search and rescue is their full time job. We have a National Guard medical aviation unit in my state that is very active in wilderness SAR and I imagine there are other similar units in States that have allot of wilderness and national forest land.

Take care,

chbare.

[Guest CHP medic]

Check with the National Park Service. All the national parks here in Central California have park-medics who do rescue. We work fairly often with YOSAR (Yosemite Search and Rescue), most their guys are full time employees who also perform law enforcement or fire suppression when not on rescues. I have no idea how difficult it is to get hired by them though.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/sar/

[Mountian_Man]

Yeah, you make a good point, Dustdevil. I guess if Wilderness rescue was a weekly-daily problem is some area, it wouldn’t be a very populated…

As for the Military, I have looked at Army and Air Force and Coast Guard. They all said the same thing, my mild asthma will keep me out.

Going off of what Dustdevil said, what kind of advice can anyone give me for a career while doing Wilderness EMS? I heard Ski patrols are good, seasonal jobs, or forest firefighters... any thoughts on that?

[chbare]

Mountain_Man, I am sorry to hear that. I think CHP medic has a good idea. I know that national parks hire nurses for seasonal work, and the same is probably true for EMT's. Yosemite sounds like a pretty busy place, or you could look in my home state for medical positions at Yellowstone. If you want to go full time law enforcement, you may want to check out Border Patrol. I know that they have BORSTAR teams that specialize in search and rescue. It would take a while to work you way into this position after the long hiring process, the academy, and the probationary period as an agent.

Hope this helps.

Take care,

chbare.

[Tibby]

I have already looked into this, buddy, and Dustdevil is right. There are very few places (save Armed Forces) that would have full time, paid wilderness rescue. There are, however, plenty of Volly groups you can join. http://www.mra.org has a bunch of listings under "team info." Maybe you can join a paid fire or Medic service in the Area and be a volly for a Mountain rescue group.