SOUTH LAKE TAHOE
HIGH ELEVATION RESCUE
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El Dorado Search and Rescue's South Lake Tahoe (SLT) Team is one of the nation's busiest backcountry rescue teams, operating in the 200,000-acre wilderness of eastern El Dorado County. Like their West Slope counterparts, the SLT Team is skilled in Technical Rope, Swift Water, Canine, and Helicopter rescue. However, Tahoe's extreme weather, towering peaks, lakes, and forests demand specialized training to navigate its challenging alpine terrain.
Trained and equipped for helicopter-assisted alpine rescues
Training to enhance the SLT Team's proficiency in "all conditions" includes:
Alpine Climbing and Mountaineering: Navigating challenging mountain terrain, including rock, ice, and mixed conditions.
Snow Travel: Efficiently moving across snowfields, including techniques like switchbacking and using an ice axe for balance and self-arrest.
Avalanche Awareness and Rescue: Understanding avalanche formation and risks, identifying and mitigating avalanche hazards, and honing avalanche rescue techniques.
Mechanized Snow Travel: Traversing snow-covered terrain using motorized vehicles such as snowmobiles and UTV tracked vehicles.
Winter Survival: Acquiring the knowledge and skills to endure harsh winter conditions and navigating complex terrain in adverse weather conditions, including whiteouts and deep snow.
Cold Water Survival: Understanding the physiological effects of cold water immersion and implementing appropriate rescue strategies.
High-Altitude First Aid: Providing medical care in extreme conditions, such as hypothermia and altitude sickness.
Specialized equipment and gear used by the SLT Team include:
Mountain climbing and technical rope equipment to access and extract rescue subjects from treacherous terrain
Avalanche beacons, probes, and shovels for locating and recovering people buried in avalanches
Personal searcher locator beacons to transmit a distress signal to satellites in case of an emergency
Ice axes and crampons for traversing icy and snowy terrain
Cold water immersion survival suits to protect searchers from hypothermia in cold water environments
Hypothermia blankets and warming blankets to prevent hypothermia in cold conditions
Specialized equipment is needed to package and warm the patient
Exceptional endurance and high altitude rescue training is required for mission success
Night rescue of an immobilized patient demands careful navigation and safety
Proficiency in technical rope and mountain climbing are essential for Tahoe's steep terrain
Time is critical when you are injured or lost in the Tahoe wilderness.
Your donation will directly fund essential safety equipment, specialized training, and critical operational cost so our South Lake Tahoe Team can stay at peak performance to continue their live-saving alpine search and rescue work in the summer and winter.
To learn more about our South Lake Tahoe Team, visit eldoradosar.org. Contact the SLT Team by emailing join@eldoradosar.org or call 530-573-3058.
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