News and Announcements

1/6/2015 – Stranded Snowshoer

SAR Staff, Hasty Team, RAVEN, SVU, and WCSAR responded to the area of Sheep Flats on the report of a snowshoer that had fell into a hole and couldn’t get out (turned out to be a creek), and couldn’t get his snowshoes off. As SAR assets were arriving at staging, it was learned that a passing person on snowshoes found him, and was able to help him out of his predicament.

1/2/2015 – Missing Person Search

SAR Staff, Hasty Team, and WCSAR responded to an area off the Mt. Rose Highway on the Incline side to search for the driver of a vehicle involved in a fatal head-on accident the previous evening. Witnesses stated that it appeared he had major lacerations of the head when he was last seen walking away from the accident scene.

Possible Signal Fire – 12/13/2014

SAR Staff, Hasty Team, RAVEN, SVU, and WCSAR responded to the Garson Rd. staging area on the report of a possible signal fire in the area of the microwave towers on Chimney Peak. As teams were driving to the possible location, RAVEN located the smoldering fire and reported the coordinates to SAR Staff. The coordinates were relayed to the teams in the field. Shortly after, an ATV rider was encountered coming down the road, saying that he was the reporting party, and that he had come upon a smoldering campfire with no one around it. He tried to put the fire out, but was unsuccessful. Teams continued to the location and located the fire. It had traveled in the duff about 20 feet from where it was started, and fire was still active under the pine needles and duff. Using water, snow, and shovels, an attempt to put it completely out was unsuccessful. Command staff notified NDF, and the incident was turned over to them.

Lost Hikers – 11/28/2014

SAR Staff, Hasty Team, SVU, and WCSAR began responding to a staging location at Tunnel Creek Station on the report of two hikers that were not prepared for the weather, and weren’t sure of their location. Before SAR assets arrived, SAR staff was able to locate the subjects at the Marlette Trailhead at Spooner Lake.

Triple Drowning – 11/25/2014

SAR Staff, Air Squadron, Hasty Team, RAVEN, REMSA, SVU, and WCSAR responded to Pyramid Lake to assist Pyramid Lake SAR units in searching for two overdue fishermen that were reported to be in the Hells Kitchen area, and possibly hypothermic. As more information came in, there was not a specific location of where the fishermen were, and that the Pyramid Lake SAR boat had checked the Hells Kitchen area as well as White Cliffs with no results. RAVEN had come on scene and was checking the area from the Pyramid, up to Hells Kitchen. Shortly after RAVEN began their search pattern, they spotted a capsized boat about 2 miles off shore, just south of the White Cliffs. They deployed two swimmers who were able to locate one victim with the boat. The other subject was not located. The deceased subject was loaded onto the PLSAR boat, and a Pyramid Lake Police boat stayed with the capsized vessel. The deceased subject was brought back to staging. In the meantime, M20 and M50 had arrived at the lake and were sent to the area to conduct a search for the missing subject. Upon arrival at the capsized boat, M20 deployed a Hasty swimmer in an attempt to check the interior of the boat more thoroughly. Due to possible entanglement issues, the swimmer was not able to get underneath the boat, so it was decided to wait for Hasty divers. It was also learned that there had been three subjects on board, not two. M20 then went and searched the shoreline while M50 searched the area of probable drift from when the capsizing occurred, which could have been up to 30 hours previous. When M20 finished the shoreline search, they joined M50 in searching the probably drift area with no success. RAVEN returned and deployed two divers to check the entire underneath area of the capsized boat, but nothing was located. M50 transported the divers back to staging, M20 stayed in the area while RAVEN and the Air Squadron continued searching, and the Pyramid Lake Police boat began towing the capsized boat back to staging at Pelican Dock. After a thorough search of the area by both boats, a helicopter, and air assets, the search was called off.