>>264316Say a husband/wife rent sleds for a day, then find out the hard way that snowmobiling's a little harder than it looks... having little to no experience in the backcountry but still within phone coverage, they call 911.
That's what SAR is good at in the winter, and from what I understand, comprises the majority of their rescues (backcountry/sidecountry skiing/snowshoeing's no different, just a different method of transport).
Technical snowmobilers that get into places very few other people go to, with experience/gear/training to do it as safely as an "extreme" sport allows, is a little beyond SAR's capacity when time is critical. Generally if a good experienced rider has to call SAR, it's a pretty big fuckup.... not an "i'm out of water and a little cold and it's getting dark can you help?".
Weather and avalanche conditions do play a big part in that, so yeah, I'd say snowmobile/winter rescues involve both worse conditions and that SAR guys can't into snowmobiles.
I shouldn't bash on them all too hard though, gang I'll be riding with in two weeks (>pic related, fuck i cannot wait to head out there) works with the Gallatin NF avy center and SAR. They're among the best riders I know.
But my experiences with local SAR has been less than stellar.
