One of the saddest events in my SAR career was attendance at the memorial service for two helicopter pilots who died in a crash - last flight of the day and they were en route to base camp or some of my compatriots would have died as well. The cause of the crash was mechanical failure. Choppers are very dangerous appliances.

There is nothing about SAR service that immunizes you from making stupid mistakes. I would have been the object of a SAR search many years ago when I didn't return on time from a solo winter climb of Mt. Humphrey (Arizona's highest) if there had been a capable SAR team in the area at the time (1962). I exacerbated dumb decision #1 by abandoning my snowshoes at timberline, figuring I wouldn't need them on the way down. The bottomless powdery snow forced me to bivouac as the sun set on Dec 21 - shortest day of the year. What saved me was the decision to tuck a small gas stove into my pack and to wear and carry adequate clothing. I went through a cycle of sleep, wake, melt snow, make hot tea, wiggle toes and fingers, doze off, and repeat as needed. I rested enough to extricate myself surprisingly easily when the dawn finally came. I count at least four dumb decisions, and one good (which saved at least my digits). Did I mention that I intentionally forged ahead to the summit when my companions decided to quit battling the crummy snow conditions? This was a training climb for a trip to the Mexican volcanoes over Xmas break. Orizaba was a piece of cake compared to the foul Arizona powder.

I have been on operations where friends and/or colleagues were the victims. Those are very emotional times, to say the least.