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About TSAR

TSAR is an all-volunteer organization with high standards of professionalism and service who operate year round in all of the off-road areas surrounding Taos, New Mexico, throughout the state of New Mexico and occasionally into Southern Colorado. Our team searches for lost hikers, climbers, hunters, children, etc. in the spring, summer and fall, and lost skiers and snowmobilers, etc. in the winter. We rescue persons injured in backcountry settings, which include the mountains, the high desert, and the Rio Grande Gorge. We are also called in for urban, off-road searches. Our deployment is through the New Mexico State Police.

TSAR is on call 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. We provide training for all areas of expertise required on a mission. This includes: litter packaging, medical scenarios, low and medium angle rescue, avalanche training, search for downed aircraft, navigation with map and compass, use of GPS units, and communications. We are always looking for volunteers. We have ground teams (hiking, snowshoeing, skiing), a K-9 Unit, a Mounted Unit, a High Angle Unit, a Bike Unit, and base camp personnel. If you are looking for a way to serve your community, consider joining Taos Search and Rescue.

 

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MISSIONS - First Quarter, 2007:

Date:
Mission #:
Location: Area at the head of the Mora valley and around Holman hill.
Situation: Satellites picked up ELT signals from a possible downed aircraft. The satellite information showed several different possible locations.
Detail: Our team met the Incident Commander and members of the Philmont SAR team at the base of Holman hill around midnight. Our team drove north toward the town of Chacon with 2 ELT receivers. Several of the satellite locations were in that area. We spent several hours at various locations taking readings and plotting possible locations for the aircraft but could not find a definite location with any confidence. Meanwhile several other ELT teams and ground search teams had arrived and were scouting other areas. Base camp was established in the firehouse at the town of Cleveland north of Mora. ELT teams and the State Police helicopter continued to search through out the morning.
Outcome: Around 10 AM the helicopter located the aircraft. It had flown into the mountainside just below the highway on Holman hill. The pilot did not survive the crash. There were no passengers. The reason that it took so long to find the aircraft was that the signal from the ELT transmitter on the aircraft was reflecting from surrounding mountains and ridges and made it very difficult to pinpoint its location.

 

Date: 2/24/07
Mission #: 07.07.04
Location: Near the town of Truchas
Situation: A man's car ran out of gas on an FS road a mile east of Truchas. He left his car and had not returned for 11 days. The local sheriff initially investigated the incident. Eventually the State Police became involved and our team responded to base camp at the Truchas fire station.
Detail: Starting at 9:00 AM we were given a large area to cover on both sides of the FS road where the car had been before it was towed. The ground was covered with one to two feet of snow and several barbed wire fences crossed the area. One of our teams searched on snowshoes between the road and a creek, while the other team used skis and snowshoes to cover large fields up above the road.
Outcome: Around noon the search was called off because a man walked into the fire station and said that he had picked the subject up hitchhiking, the day his car ran out of gas, and taken him to Espanola. Further investigation that day disclosed that he had returned to his mother's house and she had given him a gas can and taken him partway back toward Truchas and dropped him off at an undisclosed intersection.
Tragic Denouement: An article in a local newspaper 2 weeks later stated that a snowmobiler, on a Forest Service road several miles south of Truchas, discovered his body.

 

Date: 2/6/07
Mission #: 07.07.02
Location: BLM Visitor Center in Pilar
Situation: A woman called 911 from a phone booth at the Visitor Center, saying that she was injured when she ran her car off the road and needed an ambulance. The State Police called Taos Fire Dept. and with them search highway 68 from the horseshoe curve to several miles south of Pilar without locating the car or the woman.
Detail: Around midnight our team was called to search the area around the Visitor Center and along the Rio Grande with our dog team and a ground team worked its way up through the village of Pilar along the side road and along the Rio Grande.
Outcome: The State Police suspended the search around 3:00 AM. Later in the morning State Police notified the IC that the woman was located in bed at a house in Albuquerque. The most likely explanation is that she called her boyfriend after calling 911. He came and helped her get her car going and then they drove to Albuquerque without notifying anyone.

Date: 2/3/07
Mission #: 07.07.01
Location: Broad plains north of Cerro de la Olla and east of San Antonio Mountain in northern NM.
Situation: Four people in a pickup truck were hunting when they ran out gas around 4:30 PM. The dirt roads they were on were covered by one to two feet of snow. They alerted their families by cell phone to their predicament. Two men in their early 20's chose to try to walk to highway 285, eight miles to the west for help while two people stayed in the truck.
Detail: The family eventually called 911 and a State Police Sergeant managed to drive to the truck and rescue the remaining two people. Our team and two snowmobile teams were called and responded to base camp on highway 285. All teams assembled by 2:30 AM. It was 13 below zero. The IC asked all teams to stay put until it was light. One vehicle team cruised the highway where the two men might come to it. At first light snowmobile teams searched the area between the highway and the truck while another vehicle guided a snowmobile team toward the truck from the south. An hour after dawn a National Guard Blackhawk helicopter arrived and found the two missing men in less than 10 minutes.
Outcome: The two men had given up trying to reach the highway after several miles of wading in thigh deep snow and found a small building to hole up in until dawn. They survived the night in inadequate clothing but were suffering from mild hypothermia and frostbite. Their prognosis at he hospital was good.

 

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March 2007 Training: Mock Search: Line Search and Bouldering Techniques

As usual, I found March’s training to be both informative and fun. The training consisted of two parts. The first was talking about line search techniques and doing a mock search. We were given GPS co-ordinates of a search boundary which we then marked on a quad map. Then, we established a line and searched the area looking for clues. As is typical, the mock search training is run like a real search. When clues are found, they are called in to base and given a degree of reliability as relates to the circumstances of the search. In the line search we practiced using a GPS, using UTM co-ordinates on a map, actually finding the search quadrant and searching, looking for clues and using the radio. We also learned that it was very difficult to do a line search with 15 people so on the return search, we did a different technique and it worked much better. We did miss several clues even though we searched the area twice.

 

The second part of the training involved one of our team members hiding in a large boulder field. We split into teams of 3 or 4 and started our search. The boulder field was very steep, had huge boulders and was very rugged. Climbing ropes came to mind! There were also many large caves created by the large rocks which made it even more difficult to search. After making a “thorough” search of the area, several clues were found and their locations called in to base and noted on a GPS. However, the subject was not found. Several teams went back out and searched around the area of the clues and still nothing! We had completely missed our subject! Apparently, several of our trainees went right over the subject.

I feel that it was a great training. The location on the edge of the gorge was beautiful and we had a good team turnout (16). We all learned a lot and had fun doing it!

Donna LeFurgey

New Team Member

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Other News: TSAR Holiday Party

Tis the season and even us wilderness types like to dress up a little for a holiday party...

or not (dress up that is)!

 

The TSAR gang gathered Friday, December 15th for their annual end-of-year holiday party. The dinner was fabulous...at the also fabulous Ronnie Lee's Supper Club. The atmosphere was warm and beautiful, the service excellent...hey wait, aren't we always the ones serving? Ah, oh well...it was a night of being served... wonderful food and drink. No more dehydrated trail food for us! Ronnie Lee's treated us like royalty. We all left with a smile on our face and....oooops...was that a mission we just got called out for? But our fealess leader Sue (and Incident Commnader for the evening) took control and helped them make the find before we could launch. Well, I guess its off to training tomorrow morning instead of the real thing! And train we did! (the training report is above).

 

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