About SMSAR

Spokane Mountaineers Search & Rescue (SMSAR), is an adult search and rescue team that is an integral part of the Spokane County Department of Emergency Management (DEM). We were accepted into the Spokane County Search and Rescue (SAR) Council in August 2004. SMSAR is affiliated with the Spokane Mountaineers.

SMSAR Team Members

SMSAR currently has over 40 people on the roster. Most of the members have completed the training requirements and are certified as "field-qualified" SAR Personnel.

SMSAR Monthly Meetings and Training

SMSAR meets the 2nd Monday of every month at the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) building at 7:00pm for a monthly meeting. Prospective new member orientation begins at 6:30pm. Classroom training immediately follows the monthly meeting, starting around 8:00pm. Usually we will meet one Saturday a month for field training. Occasionally we will have an overnight training, but this is very rare. For SMSAR's training schedule please see the Training Calendar.

SMSAR Time Requirements

All "field-qualified" personnel are on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's a fact that everyone will not be able to make it to every search. We all have families, careers, school, vacations, etc. This is a volunteer organization, you decide if you want to go on the search.

The SMSAR Team has taken this into consideration and have come up with the following requirements to be in good standing with the team.

Attend 50% of the general meetings
Attend 10% of all callouts
Attend basic SAR training courses on an annual basis including:
- Search Techniques
- Map & Compass
- Survival Techniques
Complete 20 additional hours annually (these hours are not hard to get, a usual Saturday training is 6-8 hours)