Utah County’s 2,144 square miles of towering mountains and cliffs, winding trails, rushing rivers, wide lakes, and deep caves
make it a natural paradise for hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors. That paradise can quickly become unforgiving
when accidents happen, people lose their way, or people get trapped by treacherous terrain or weather.
That’s when you’re fortunate to have a highly skilled team of 60 volunteers, organized under the Sheriff Department’s Emergency
Services division, who are ready to drop everything when the call for help arrives.
Glance across Utah County and you will note the beautiful and extreme geography of cliffs and steep mountain slopes. Utah County SAR specializes in safely and effectively working in such inherently dangerous and steep terrain. Technical rope systems, secure anchors, clear communication, and smooth teamwork are necessary to help retrieve trapped or injured hikers and climbers and deliver them as quickly as possible to waiting family and healthcare workers.
Whether children wander from campsites or boaters fail to return to the marina when expected, Utah County SAR responds with organized search plans, expert tracking skills, and familiarity with lost person behavior and our diverse geography to execute effective searches before situations go from bad to worse.
Utah County SAR cooperates with other agencies to provide the quickest and best emergency response. Some of these agencies include:
Mounted Horse Posse, Sheriff ‘s Communication Auxiliary Team (SCAT),
Timpanogos Emergency Response Team (TERT), Volunteers in Police
Service (VIPS), patrol deputies, local fire departments, local police
departments, Utah Highway Patrol, Utah Department of Public Safety,
Life Flight, Air Med and other regional SAR teams.
More than 50% of Utah County SAR’s volunteers are also medical professionals, ranging from doctors and nurses to paramedics and
EMTs. The rest of the team is trained in basic lifesaving and
wilderness medicine. All team members are trained regularly on the
latest life-saving best practices to stay sharp and ensure good
performance in real-world emergencies to keep our patients alive
during search and rescue operations that can sometimes take hours.
Utah County SAR members speak to youth groups and other organizations about outdoor safety with the philosophy that an ounce
of prevention is sometimes worth all the cure in the world
(Preventative Search and Rescue – PSAR). We also provide helpful
resources and content here on UtahSAR.org, and on social media. See
our resources page for more information on free material, outdoor
safety courses and more.
Several team members have trained canines that can be very useful in search operations. Even though our dogs are all very friendly and well trained, we thank you for not petting and distracting them while
they’re busy during a search mission.
Few emergencies place our rescuers in more immediate and serious danger than swiftwater rescue scenarios. Understanding hydraulic forces and how to use tools and techniques effectively are crucial in
retrieving patients and victims from our rivers. Whether it’s a boating
accident or fall from a rivers edge, Utah County SAR has many certified
Swiftwater Rescue Technicians ready to respond when these urgent
calls for help reach us. Please be especially cautious when rivers surge
throughout the county every spring season.
With hundreds of miles of steep, narrow trails winding through our mountains and deserts, our SingleTrack motorcycle team of
experienced riders can cover ground far faster than regular ground
teams. These riders are an asset by helping resolve searches
quicker and accelerate treatment for medical emergencies when time
is of the essence, lives hang in the balance, and every moment counts.
Utah Lake’s 100,000 acres makes it a very large search area when boats capsize or fail to return to shore. We employ various tools and strategies including air support, various boats and watercraft, radar, sonar, SCUBA divers, real-time position mapping, historical weather and wind reports, and more to successfully locate and rescue or retrieve boaters and swimmers.
To get an intimate look at how we operate, order a copy of 75 Search and Rescue Stories: an insider’s view of survival, death, and volunteer heroes who tip the balance when things fall apart, written by team member and university writing instructor Shaun Roundy. Order from Amazon.com in paperback or Kindle ebook at bit.ly/utahrescue