Team work By DAVE BEMIS South Coast Beacon No one decides to get stranded on a mountain ledge or lost in the forest, but dozens of people do just that in Santa Barbara County every year. Maybe people would be more careful if they knew their rescuers were likely to be a financial planner, a real estate broker, a personnel manager, a few college students, a handful of businessmen and assorted other white-collar types. Then again, it doesn’t seem to matter. Victims don’t really care about anyone’s occupation when the trained amateurs of the county’s Search and Rescue Team rappel down cliffs or launch boats into white water to pull them from danger, or fan out through miles of wilderness to bring them home safely. “I have nothing but the greatest respect for the Search and Rescue Team,” said Lanny Ebenstein of Santa Barbara, who got lost three years ago near La Cumbre Peak. While driving on East Camino Cielo to catch a sunset view, he spotted an unfamiliar trail and decided to explore it briefly, but he had to cut through heavy chaparral in steep terrain to reach it. “It was later in the afternoon and I went too far,” he recalled. “It started to get dark, so I turned around. “As I was hurrying (back) through the brush, my glasses came off and I couldn’t find them,” he added. “Then it got real dark.” Dressed only in light clothing for his impromptu hike, Ebenstein spent a night alone on the steep slope. The next morning, tired and hungry, he thought he could more easily hike downhill to civilization than back uphill to his car. After an arduous descent of three or four miles, with his vision limited to about a foot without his glasses, he was exhausted and disoriented by the time he stumbled upon Michael Nickel of Isla Vista, who had set up camp in a remote spot. “He went out (another three or four miles) and got Search and Rescue and brought them back in,” Ebenstein said. “If it hadn’t been for Michael and Search and Rescue, I wouldn’t be here today.” A half-dozen volunteers hiked in with medical, rescue and shelter gear and, since Ebenstein couldn’t walk further, several team members spent the night with him and then called in a helicopter to lift him out the next day. Not every call ends so dramatically for the Search and Rescue Team. In fact, about half their calls are canceled before members reach the team’s rendezvous point. Last weekend, they hiked uphill through heavy brush, carrying ropes and climbing gear, to reach two hikers stranded on a ledge in the Seven Falls area above Mission Canyon. In the end, their role was limited to helping guide a Ventura County Sheriff’s Department helicopter that hoisted the victims off the cliff and dropped them at Santa Barbara Airport. Team members then gave the hikers a lift back to their car on Tunnel Road. Members train hard and long in rappelling, white water rescue, stretcher work and wilderness medicine, tracking, navigation, survival and radio skills, team president Jim Frank said, so they’re prepared to work “in the worst weather, the most hazardous terrain, the most remote places.” “It’s a tremendous time commitment,” he added. “Our team leaders can easily put in 50 to 100 hours a month.” Much of that time is spent on planning, administration and committee work for the nonprofit group, which is a volunteer branch of the Sheriff’s Department. All new team members must train for about 40 hours, mostly on weekends, during a six-month “academy,” Frank said. They must also pass fitness tests and a 120-hour class to become an emergency medical technician, and meet other commitments such as buying some of their own equipment. “We have about 35 people we call active” members, he added, and about 60 total. His goal is to raise the number of active members to at least 50. About a dozen typically respond to each call, depending on their work and family commitments at the moment the dispatcher’s phone call sets off their pagers — which happens once or twice a week. “Most of us are lucky. If we’re not self-employed, we have supportive employers,” not to mention supportive families and friends, team member Jenna Endres said. In addition to participating in search and rescue operations, she has spent a year training her dog to be certified for searches. As chairwoman of the team’s development committee, she also spends hours applying for grants to replace aging four-wheel-drive vehicles. Why do the volunteers make such a commitment? “We’re deranged,” she said with a laugh. “For most people it’s a desire to serve the community. It’s a fondness for being outside and learning these skills,” she added. “A lot of people on the team are ‘alpha males’ — males and females,” Frank said. “There’s a real drive to be good at something. “It’s teamwork; it’s doing something that’s challenging, that not many people can do; it’s public service, and it’s doing something you like to do while giving back to the community.” When Search and Rescue responds, volunteer team leaders are trained to take charge until one of the Sheriff Department’s three designated supervisors can arrive. In many cases, however, the county Fire Department takes command because it is the first agency on scene. Sometimes Search and Rescue volunteers are asked to assist and sometimes they’re called off entirely. The team’s role has evolved toward more searches over the years as fire departments have begun doing more rescue work, Frank noted, though the team’s log of 89 calls in 2001 still showed more rescues than searches, as well as the recovery of three bodies. The team is recruiting now, holding one-hour informational meetings about twice a month leading up to candidate interviews in July or August and the annual training academy beginning in December or January, Frank said. Volunteers can do nonphysical jobs such as administration or radio operation, but “we attract the outdoor enthusiast. In some ways, it’s an outdoor sport combined with public service.” Another continuing effort is fund-raising, since the team is a largely self-supporting nonprofit organization. The Sheriff’s Department budget includes some money each year but the amount varies and doesn’t go far enough, Endres said. Last year the group raised about $82,000, mostly from local foundations. For more information: www.sbcsar.org or 692.5711.