Summit County Search and Rescue volunteers responded to eight calls in January, an average number for this time, but strategic challenges that arose at the start of the pandemic persist.
Courtesy of the Utah Avalanche Center
The pandemic drove people to head for the hills, the popular thinking goes, a COVID-fueled exodus as people sought outdoor recreation and a safer way to get out of the house.
But when that adventure turns out not to be so safe, it’s up to members of Summit County’s Search and Rescue team to respond.
“There are so, so many people out there,” said Kevan Todd, the team’s vice commander. He said parked cars can stretch 2 miles from a popular lot on the Mirror Lake Highway.
That would threaten to strain search-and-rescue resources even in the best of times, but last year certainly was not that. It featured a backcountry snowpack of rare instability and danger, resulting in multiple fatal avalanches, and the pandemic itself provided logistical challenges that prevented team members from training together or responding to calls the way they normally would.