Palm Springs Rescue

Written by Shani Pynn

At about 4:00 AM I woke to the sound of our team being called out for a mission. We were to assist our neighbours, Palm Springs SAR, with a rescue of a stranded hiker they had been working on since the day before in the Las Palmas Estates area. So, I rolled out of bed and a few minutes later I was riding out to Palm Springs with Michael. Since I was riding shotgun, I checked in with our call captain Gwenda, and got some more info on the mission. Tyler, Tony, and Glenn were also on their way and Eric was going to come out a bit later. We were going to be assisting the Palm Springs team as necessary with their rescue.

We arrived at the command post at roughly 5:45 AM and I checked in with the SAR team. They had been hoping for some help carrying some of their gear up the hillside as it was going to be a very hot day. By the time we were able to drive out though, they had decided to go for it and their people were already out in the field. I let them know how many people we had coming in and that we were here if they decided they wanted any help or anything else carried in. We chatted with them and watched their team with binoculars as they finished their hike in and began to set up their rescue system. They had a helicopter scheduled to fly out from LA at 6 and head our way to do a pick off-of their subject, a man stranded on the slope below the trail. They weren’t using Star 9 because the heat and terrain wouldn’t allow it to get close enough to the subject to rescue him safely.

At about 8:00 AM Glenn decided, and we agreed, that some of us should hike in to offer to help carry gear out since we were there anyways. Tyler, Michael, and I hiked in to the base of the slope the team was working on and checked in with the people up top over the radio. They had us stand by, so we waited where we were and had a nice view of the helicopter when it arrived. The helicopter was able to get to the hiker and transported him and the SAR team on the slope to a landing zone nearby. Since everything went smoothly we hiked back out to the command post and our vehicles. After checking out just before 9:00 AM we headed home, happy to have been there as backup for our fellow SAR team.

RMRU Members Involved: Michael George, Glenn Henderson, Eric Holden, Tony Hughes, Shani Pynn, and Tyler Shumway.