South Okanagan search and rescue teams prepare for upcoming busy season

PENTICTON – With tourist season just around the corner, local search and rescue groups are busy preparing for the busy season.

More than 30 members from Princeton, Oliver-Osoyoos and Penticton search and rescue teams gathered to test and practise their skills in an event known as 'SARnival' on Sunday, March 13.

Search and rescue technicians were divided into five teams and dispatched to six training stations where they were given a scenario or task to do.

The training stations included First Aid, water rescue, rope, stretcher evacuation, tracking and map and compass. Once they were engaged, training facilitators watched how the technicians responded to the tasks at hand.

“SAR teams in the South Okanagan respond to more than 75 calls for service annually,” Chief Training Coordinator Brian Lang says in a release. “Events such as this one illustrate just how committed each member is to an effective regional search and rescue service to our communities."

Training sessions continue through next weekend with a full day of helicopter skills training and next Sunday members will practice rope rescue techniques.

The busy season for Penticton Search and Rescue starts in March and continues through November.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.