Ground Operations
Our ground teams cover the ground search, high-angle rope rescue, and litter evacuation that bring a lost or injured subject back home — working the sky islands, washes, and canyon country that define Cochise County terrain.
Boots on the ground, across every kind of terrain.
From the 9,000-foot pine forests of the Huachucas and Chiricahuas down to the desert grasslands and dry washes of the San Pedro and Sulphur Springs valleys, our ground teams operate wherever a subject is reported missing. Field members deploy on foot in hasty teams and grid-search lines, carrying their own water, navigation, and overnight gear so they can stay self-sufficient for long operational periods.
Every responder is radio-equipped and trained to work under an Incident Commander, feeding clue and track reports back to base so the search effort can be tightened around the subject's most likely location.
What the field teams do
Ground search & tracking
Hasty teams, sound-sweep and grid-line searches, and sign-cutting to follow a subject's track. Members work probability-of-detection assignments handed down from the search planner and report every clue with a grid reference.
High-angle rope rescue
Technical rope systems for cliff, ledge, and steep-canyon access — raising and lowering rescuers and patients on belayed mainline and backup lines, with anchors built and progress-captured for steep terrain that a hiker can't be carried out of.
Litter evacuation & wilderness medicine
Packaging an injured subject into a wheeled or carried litter and moving them safely over miles of trail-less ground, paired with wilderness first-aid and patient assessment to stabilize and monitor them all the way to the trailhead or landing zone.
Search teams work hand-in-paw with our dogs
On many missions the ground teams deploy alongside trained search dogs — air-scent, trailing, and human-remains detection canines that can clear ground far faster than a hasty team alone.