Anyone know what teams are active in southwestern Pennsylvania? K9 and/or mountain rescue.
Welcome to PA! The team I am a member of in eastern PA has a western division that, while much smaller in members than the eastern, is still just as ready and professional! If interested look into Pennsylvania Wilderness Search and Rescue (PaWSAR) West at http://www.pawsar.org
I'll answer any questions I can as well, although I don't know a ton about the western side other than seeing them at the monthly meetings lol
There are a variety of teams in that area. Two big ones I know of are : Allegheny mountain rescue group, based out of Pittsburgh Mountaineer Area Rescue Group (North), which has a lot of members in the same general region.
There's also a well-organized team in Erie, but I'll call that Northwest PA.
There is no shortage of dog teams. If you are looking for one to join, I would recommend you find one that has been around for a while and build some credibility. There is a common perception in the area that brand new K9 teams are usually started by somebody who got kicked out of an established team because they weren't able to work well with others.
Perfect thank you. Do know have any idea what kind of call out rate theyre getting? I'm on a K9 team that's through the sheriff dept in southern CA and we have searches maybe 4x a month but there are a bunch around here that are more like SAR themed social clubs I'd rather avoid.
Both the teams I listed have significant SAR chops and are well respected among AHJs. I'm not a member any longer, so I can't speak to their call out rate, but several a month seems about right.
The new K9 team perception is similar out here and is exactly why I was looking to avoid it.
AMRG reported 41 in 2023 and has K9 resources. It's also out of the county I'm looking to move back to so that's a great one to look into. Appreciate it.
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If I was in the southwest I'd definitely have a look at AMRG, the only MRA-accredited operational team in the state.
They do have K9s as well, I just was an an event with one of their handlers a couple weeks ago. I'm in the east, in the Poconos, with PAMR (we're _aspirational_ MRA, aka we focus on technical/mountain rescue but we're building up our capacity and have not yet applied to the MRA).