Alpine Rescue Team Offers Free Backcountry Safety Classes

EVERGREEN, CO -- Colorado's Alpine Rescue Team wants you to be safe in the Rocky Mountain backcountry. The Evergreen-based search and rescue volunteer group has already participated in eight search operations so far in 2018 and had 134 missions in 2017.

The Alpine Rescue Team hosts regular Skills for the Hills public wilderness and backcountry safety classes in Evergreen to help you so you never have to meet them personally. The classes are free, but the group will never turn down donations, the say. The all-volunteer group does not accept payment for search and rescue help. Classes are held at 28802 Rainbow Hill Rd. in Evergreen.

Forty to 60 highly trained professional non-paid mountain rescuers staff the Alpine Rescue Team at any given time, according to the Clear County Sheriff's department. Volunteers pass a "rigorous training regimen." The organization also maintains a fleet of all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles and plows in Evergreen.

Most recently, the Alpine Rescue Team helped search for missing Denver preschool teacher Peter McInerney, who was last seen Feb. 20 when he went solo cross country skiing on Jones Pass near the Continental Divide. A co-worker found McInerney's car, buried in snow, at the Clear Creek County trailhead, with no signs of the missing teacher.

Upcoming Skills for the Hills Classes include:

• March 8, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM – Skills for the Hills ’18: Technical Rock Climbing Safety
• March 15, 7:00 – 8:30 PM – Spring and Summer Avalanches: Strategic Decisions for Peak Baggers.
• April 5, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM – Lightning, Hypothermia and Altitude Sickness
• June 7, 7:00 – 8:30 PM – Tips for Climbing Fourteeners and Other Backcountry Adventures: Lessons Learned from the Front Lines of Mountain Rescue.

Alpine Rescue offers these safety tips for backcountry skiing:

Be safe when backcountry skiing. Please be sure to

• Tell someone where you are going, and when you expect to return (and be sure they are willing to call 911 if you don't!)
• Have an avalanche transceiver, shovel, and probe AND KNOW HOW TO USE THEM!

• Know the avalanche conditions - check out Colorado Avalanche Information Center with everyone in your party before traveling

You can also download Clear County's Back-Country Survival Guide.

"This guide includes key items that you should always have with you when you travel in to the backcountry. Additionally, there is a form you can fill out an leave in the car so that we have a better idea of how to find you if something goes wrong."

Image via Alpine Rescue Team