Understand how Official Search and Rescue Works

When Ingmar and I parked at the trailhead we texted Peter from Ingmar’s inReach and asked him to call 911. The message was painfully slow in sending, taking about 10 minutes to transmit. When we reached Jake’s bike at the campsite on the West Ridge trail 15 minutes later, Ingmar sent another text confirming that Jake was still on the mountain. In our naivete, we thought we’d activated an SAR response and expected their arrival within an hour or two, but the truth was more complicated, and far slower than we imagined. 

Earlier in the evening while driving out of Bellingham, Ingmar had called Peter and asked if he would be our SAR contact on the off chance we needed to call 911. There’s no reliable cell service on the West Ridge trail, Peter is familiar with the area and with Jake, and he had good phone service at his house in Bellingham.

Once Peter received our text and called 911, he packed supplies, and at 11pm handed off SAR contact duty to his wife Julianna - calling 911 again to give them Julianna’s phone number - and met Ingmar and I at the Nooksack Market. At midnight we began the hike in. 

We had phones with TMobile and Verizon service, allowing us a better likelihood of finding cell reception, and two inReaches between us. Julianna called the sheriff’s office during the night and gave her cell number again, but there was no response. At daybreak Peter called 911 again from our make-shift camp at 5000 feet, and shortly afterward we had our first contact with the SAR deputy, 10 hours after our initial call. 

There is variation in official search and rescue practices depending on location, so it’s important to be familiar with your local search and rescue structure. Starting a rescue is typically done by either calling 911 or activating a personal locator beacon/satellite device. Calling 911 requires reasonably good cell reception. Expect to receive further calls once you make the initial call, so the ability to answer the phone is important. 

When you speak with 911 or a SAR contact, the more information you can provide, the better. The best is GPS coordinates and severity of injury. Other key details include the missing person’s medical history, level of familiarity with the terrain, and the equipment available on scene.

Activating the SOS feature on an inReach (or similar) device sends a message to their dispatch center which contacts local emergency dispatch, and can function similar to calling 911 or in tandem with it by providing GPS coordinates and facilitating communication with those closest on the ground. 

In Whatcom County, once our local dispatch receives a SAR request it’s routed to the SAR sheriff’s deputy on duty. SAR deputies triage SAR requests received through 911 based on a number of factors such as the missing person’s experience level, medical history, familiarity with the terrain, and the weather. It is possible that they will decide not to activate an SAR team based on these factors, but at a minimum the SAR deputy will call back within an hour of your 911 call. If you haven’t received a call from the SAR deputy, no response is underway. 

The night we searched for Jake, the deputy on duty declined to activate a SAR team, judging that Jake’s experience, good health, familiarity with the mountain, and the mild weather didn’t warrant urgency. Unfortunately, we never received this message, and expected SAR to appear at any time. At first, this expectation affected our decisions. We didn’t immediately prepare to hike the West Ridge trail, assuming we’d talk with SAR prior to the next step. As the wait passed an hour, we decided to begin the hike anyway.