Photo from Summit County Rescue Group
The Summit County Rescue Group has launched a fundraising campaign asking community members for help in supporting training for members, equipment upgrades and other expenses vital to maintaining the team’s operations.
The rescue group was founded in December 1972 and has remained an all-volunteer team ever since. The campaign represents the first fundraiser in the group’s 48-year existence.
“We’ve never really done formal fundraising efforts before,” said Charles Pitman, a spokesperson with the rescue group. “We have so many missions we’re involved with every year, and a lot of the people that we pull out of the backcountry, and their families and friends, donate money to our team. We’re hoping this is the start of a long-term goal for us to have more of a formal effort to raise money, instead of just relying on the goodness of the people we’re helping.”
Talking avalanche dogs help spread message on backcountry safety
The Summit County Rescue Group has come up with a unique way to get backcountry safety messages out to more people this winter. Author: Matt Renoux Updated: 9:47 AM MST January 1, 2021
SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. Heading into the winter, Anna Debattiste and the Summit County Rescue Group knew it would be a busy year.
Ski areas were limiting capacity, which was sending more people into the backcountry where avalanche conditions have been dangerous. This has made life-saving information about conditions more important than ever.
“The question was, how do we get people to listen to us?” Debattiste asked.
She said complacency is the enemy when it comes to accidents in the backcountry. Thinking just because you have experience and you have training and you have safety equipment, that you go and ski anywhere you want, she said. That’s a concern.”
DeBattiste and the team of about 65 volunteers responded to their first call of the season on Dec. 21.
“A couple of snowmobilers came upon a slide up near Elliot’s Ridge, and at the toe of the slide was a mangled snowmobile, DeBattiste said. “It looked like there might be someone buried in that avalanche.”
A 911 call triggered a full response to the area south of Kremmling. DeBattiste said Summit County Rescue Group sent 22 volunteers. There was a medical helicopter in the air and search dogs were ready to be deployed, but DeBattiste said the call was a false alarm.
Grand County Search and Rescue responded Saturday, Dec. 26, to a call of an overdue backcountry skier. Rescuers found a body in an avalanche on Berthoud Pass.Photo from Grand County Search and Rescue
BERTHOUD PASS A solo backcountry skier was killed in an avalanche Saturday, Dec. 26, on Berthoud Pass in nearby Grand County.
Grand County Search and Rescue responded to a call of an overdue backcountry skier at about 3 p.m. Saturday. The skier was in the area of Chimney Chute in the First Creek Drainage of Berthoud Pass, according to a report from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
Search and rescue volunteers found a recent avalanche in the area when they arrived. Crews searched the avalanche path and found the skier fully buried, according to rescue team officials.
Sky-Hi News
Grand County Search and Rescue responded Saturday afternoon to a call of an overdue backcountry skier and found them buried in an avalanche on Berthoud Pass.
Courtesy Grand County Search and Rescue
BERTHOUD PASS A solo backcountry skier was killed in an avalanche Saturday on Berthoud Pass in nearby Grand County.
Grand County Search and Rescue responded to a call of an overdue backcountry skier at about 3 p.m. Saturday. The skier was in the area of Chimney Chute in the First Creek Drainage of Berthoud Pass, according to a report from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
Search and rescue volunteers found a recent avalanche in the area when they arrived. Crews searched the avalanche path and found the skier fully buried, according to rescue team officials.