Kodiak Island Search & Rescue

Three years ago there was a group of construction workers trapped by bad weather atop Sharatine Mountain. KISAR successfully rescued these members, but the high winds scattered tents and other equipment all over the mountain.

On October 15th, in association with Kodiak Island Trails Network, KISAR members returned to clean up the site. Tom Walters with Maritime Helicopters sling-loaded the trash that the KISAR team collected.

The event provided our members with valuable experience with helicopter-borne searches and also handling of trail lines under a helo’s downdraft.

Afterwards, the KISAR members did some anchor setting and rappelling training.

KISAR ended up on the front page of the Daily Mirror. You can read their story, here.  You can see more pictures from the event at our Flikr Stream.

Harry and Brigid Dodge run Kodiak Treks

Kodiak Island Search and Rescue (KISAR) will hold a general meeting at 7:00 PM Thursday, Oct. 20th, at the Bayside Firehouse. KISAR members and interested persons are encouraged to attend.

The evening’s training will be a presentation on Bear Safety from noted local bear expert, Harry Dodge.

A climber places fixed protection

KISAR will hold its general meeting at 7:00 PM on Thursday September 22nd at the Bayside Fire Station. A training session will follow the short meeting. The training will be “Installing Anchor Bolts”. The tentative location of the training will be Gibson Cove. The location may change and will be announced at the meeting. Make sure to bring your rain gear, headlamp, and warm clothes. If you have a helmet and other climbing gear, please bring them, too.

Two KISAR members responded to a callout on August 16th, for a hunter in distress. You can read more details at the link below. The Kodiak Daily Mirror site is behind a paywall.

” James Brooks / editor@kodiakdailymirror.com Kodiak Daily Mirror

    KODIAK — What started as an Alaska hunting adventure ended in an unexpected helicopter ride for 25-year-old Daniel Mangum and his brother Alex, a Coast Guardsman stationed at Air Station Kodiak.

On Tuesday, the two and a third brother were descending from Barometer Mountain when they separated and Daniel became trapped among two ravines and thick brush.

After trying in vain to reach Daniel, Alex descended the mountain and contacted Coast Guard police. They passed the …”

Click here to read the entire article

The basic features of a compass

KISAR will hold its next meeting at 7:00 PM on Thursday July 21st at the Bayside Fire Station. A training session will follow the brief business meeting. The training session will be “land navigation”presented by a guest instructor. Please bring a compass and GPS unit, if you have it.
The meeting and the training session are open to the public. There will also be a field training session on Saturday, which is limited to KISAR members only. The details of the Saturday training will be announced at the Thursday meeting.

KISAR members go over the basics of using a map and compass

Yesterday three KISAR members gave a presentation to students participating in KANA’s summertime “Explore the Rock” program. The program provides an opportunity for kids from 6th to 12th grade to go on guided hikes around the island. At each hike a local instructor will give a short class on a topic. Last week they learned about edible plants while hiking Termination Point.

 This week the location was Old Woman mountain and KISAR members were asked to teach another survival topic.  One of KISAR’s missions is “PSAR” or Preventitive Search & Rescue so we were eager to help out. KISAR members chose to present a short overview of the “10 Essentials” packing list and some very basic land navigation techniques.

The weather was clear and beautiful and the students were eager to learn. What more can you ask for?

The all-new, wordpress based, KISAR website is now live, at our http://www.kisar.org address. You can still reach the old website at kodiakislanddesign.com
This new website will allow our members to submit their own news articles, in a blog-style format.
You can leave feedback about the website in the comments below.

Photo taken by USCG Kodiak

The June KISAR general meeting was held last night, the 16th of June. One of the topics of interest was the possibility of expanding KISAR to include an Urban SAR contingent, that would be a C.E.R.T (Community Emergency Response Team) group. KISAR met with Kenai CERT at the recent tsunami exercise. In the event of a large scale disaster KISAR would be called out to assist. We are a good resource because we are trained in first-aid, self-organized, self-sustaining, and equipped with our own communications equipment.

After the general meeting Milt Bohac, a detective with the Kodiak Police Department, gave training on best practices when dealing with evidence and potential crime scenes in a missing person case. Milt answered lots of questions and the training was very beneficial. I will definitely feel more prepared on my next search.

What do you think about the idea for expanding KISAR into the Urban arena? You can comment below. Here is a link to more information about the CERT program. www.citizencorps.gov