Membership and Training
Membership and Training
Interested in becoming a mountaineer with the Altadena Mountain Rescue Team? Currently, our Team has a full complement of members. However, we continue to recruit both rescue members and support members on a competitive basis.
To become a trainee member of our Team, you first must attend 3 of our monthly meetings, fill out an application, and be interviewed by our board of directors. If selected, you will fill out a reserve deputy application and begin the Sheriff’s Department background investigation process. The background process is slow and may take between 3 to 9 months. During this time you will continue attending meetings and will begin attending trainings. While waiting to complete the background process, you will learn the “ground school” of mountain rescue, i.e., knots & systems. After completing backgrounds you will be issued gear and start mountain rescue training, i.e., climbing, rappelling and helitac.
Since the Team is a Sheriff’s reserve unit, all members must complete the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Academy training program, which fulfills the standard training requirements as mandated by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST). Upon graduation from the Academy, each member is certified as a Reserve Deputy Sheriff. Applicants that are disqualified from becoming a reserve deputy, unfortunately will not be able to remain a member of the Team.
We meet the 2nd Thursday of each month at 7:30 pm in the Altadena Station. If you plan to attend a Team meeting, you should call in advance to let us know that you’ll be coming. Deputy Gabriel is our reserve coordinator at the station and he can give you general information regarding our Team. He can be reached M-Th at (626) 798-1131.
We are a great group of individuals from all different walks of life. If you live closer to another Sheriff’s Station with a rescue team, it might be worth your while to check them out too. Just call and ask to speak with the Reserve Coordinator at that station and they can help you out.
Required Mountaineer Training
An avocation such as mountain rescue requires a tremendous amount of qualified manpower and available personnel. The key to a team’s successful operation is its training program and its training officers. For the new recruit, the training begins almost immediately.
The first step to full membership is a standard trainee / probationary period, which averages about 18 months. You will start as a trainee member and during this stage you will learn everything you need to know about field survival: knots and rope management, climbing, mountaineering, and rappelling, snow and ice maneuvers, air rescue, communications, trail and terrain, navigation, and, of course, search and tracking. After our training officer feels you are ready, you become a probationer. This is a time for you to put your new skills to work and gain valuable experience during search and rescue operations.
Once the probationary period and academy training have been completed, the new member must then participate in the team’s on-going training program. These monthly and quarterly classroom and field sessions concentrate on the basics of mountain rescue. Special sessions are also held for the more complex operations, such as emergency air evacuation and the location of downed aircraft.
In the area of emergency medical care, the team requires that each member be certified as an Emergency Medical Technician - Basic. The Sheriff’s Department will provide this medical training through an Emergency Medical Technician-Basic (EMT-B or EMT-1) Training Program designed specifically for mountain rescue team personnel. This four to six month program provides intensive study in physiology, diagnosis and treatment, and basic/advanced life support systems.
Quick Links :
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Reserve
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Emergency Medical Technician Program