Alaska Guard trains with Kyrgyzstan search, rescue team

By Maj. Guy Hayes
Alaska National Guard

(7/21/10) -- The Alaska National Guard teamed up with a Kyrgyzstan Search and Rescue Team to train on procedures and techniques in mountain rescue on Mt. McKinley in May.

The opportunity to train with Alaska National Guardsmen was initiated by Maj. Galen Mcallister, the Montana State Partnership Program director.

Mcallister arranged the Kyrgyzstan rescue team to visit Montana, Wyoming and Alaska to learn how search and rescue teams in the United States conduct rescue in mountainous terrain.

"Kyrgyzstan and Montana have a state partnership, so we're always looking to help each other out and build relationships," he said. "They expressed interest in how we remove injured climbers from rough terrain and wanted a better understanding on how to evacuate wounded during a high mountain rescue, so we jumped at the chance to help them out."

The Kyrgyzstan rescue team traveled to the U.S. for two weeks and began their training in Montana with county search and rescue teams in Libby, Montana and in Teton National Park with the Jenny Lake Rangers and Teton county search and rescue teams in Wyoming.

"They focused on short haul rescues at lower elevations at those two locations before heading up to Alaska to work with the 212th Rescue Squadron and National Park Service," said Mcallister.

In Alaska, the Kyrgyzstan rescue teams worked with Denali National Park Service Rangers and Alaska National Guardsmen in basic glacier travel techniques, rope work, risk assessment and crevasse rescue training.

"They spent three days in Denali National Park and one day in Chugach State Park performing crevasse rescue training and glacier travel," said Lt. Col. Stephen Wilson, State Partnership Program director for the Alaska National Guard. "They even practiced lowering people into a crevasse and would then set-up a pulley system to pull them out safely. It was great training."

The training was broken up by each day, and Mcallister said it was very beneficial to the Kyrgyzstan rescue teams.

"The Kyrgyzstan search and rescue teams said this training was the most valuable event they've been involved in to-date," said Mcallister. "Next, we'd like to take members of the 212th Rescue Squadron and National Park Service to Kyrgyzstan to perform training over there, but that's been put on hold because of the current stability in the region."