A mountain rescue team, composed entirely of volunteers, saves stranded lives in local mountains. They are rewarded by the adrenaline rush of the job and the satisfaction of giving back to the community.
By Sylvie Belmond/Special to The Malibu Times
A girl is hanging on for dear life on a steep rocky ledge. She unintentionally kicks a rock, which lands and cracks the helmet of a rescuer who is on the way up to save her from falling.
However, the rescuer is undaunted by this mishap; he continues to climb. In the end, he safely manages to get the girl out of the dangerous situation.
Yet, this dedicated rescuer is not a paid professional, he is a volunteer who may very well be a record executive, a doctor or a carpenter.
This took place in the Santa Monica Mountains in Solstice Canyon; it is one of many similar rescues that often take place in local mountains where hikers and day adventurers venture beyond their abilities.
That is when the Malibu Mountain Rescue Team (MMRT), composed of sheriff’s reserve deputies and some civilians who donate their time to save people out of such situations, steps into action.
“People go for a hike and their hiking goal is too ambitious so they try to take a short cut out of the canyon before it gets dark,” said Steve Sullivan, who has been rescuing people through the MMRT for 24 years.
But then they realize the shortcut not only dead-ends, in some cases they can’t go back.
“It’s more difficult to climb down something than it is to climb up,” explained Sullivan.
The MMRT reserve volunteers come from all walks of life. What unites these hard-core mountain rescuers is their commitment to save lives and to give back to the community.
The MMRT has been in existence for 25 years and is part of the large volunteer group that supports the efforts of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The Malibu unit, based at the Lost Hills/Malibu Sheriff’s Station in Agoura, has 23 reserve deputies and five civilians on its team.
L.A. County Sheriff’s Sgt. Gary Stephens, MMRT coordinator, said this team represents a wide variety of professionals. There are firefighters, two doctors, two nurses, lawyers and even a record executive.
The rescue team specifically trains for search and tracking techniques as well as rescue activities, using rope systems and cliffhangers.
Rescue situations include many circumstances. Aside from helping stranded hikers, the team also responds to calls for stranded motorists who may have driven off a steep mountainous cliff. They aid snakebite victims and help search for missing persons. The MMRT can also function in urban environments, for example, to help look for a missing child.
Apart from the SWAT team, the MMRT is the only team in the Sheriff’s Department in which every member is a trained emergency medical technician.
This enables the group to help deputies in case of riots, as they provide on-the-spot medical services to the platoons that have to enter dangerous situations. Anything that’s off the beaten path is in their realm.
During his long career with the team, Sullivan found the areas that generate the most activity for the MMRT are Malibu Creek State and Topanga parks, and Paramount Ranch.
Sullivan joined the team when he was in college and continues to work with the MMRT, even though he now works with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department as a crime analyst.
Over the years Sullivan has been in so many rescue situations he can no longer single out a notable incident.
“Every single mission leaves a mark, an impact, a lesson learned or an experience that doesn’t fade,” he said.
The mountain rescuers can get called when they are sleeping, and 20 minutes later they are in a helicopter flying to a mountain peak. They may be dropped off in an area where it will take three days to hike out because it is so inaccessible.
“All rescue team members are on call seven days a week, 24 hours a day,” Stephens said.
Most MMRT team members carry their gear in their car, ready to go.
They operate in this unique fashion because the geographic layout of the area they cover, which includes the Chatsworth-Simi Mountains, the Santa Susana Mountains and the Santa Monica Mountains, requires them to be ready since the sheriff’s station is not in a central area where team members gather before they respond to an incident.
Last year, the team responded to about 70 calls in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Aside from responding to calls, MMRT reserves usually work 20 hours a month, performing routine patrols to maintain familiarity with their jurisdiction, and check areas that commonly generate rescue activity. When they are out and about, they talk to the public and work on public relations matters with other agencies, and, like their paid counterparts, the MMRT has also been on standby, ready to respond if there is a terrorist attack.
Although he likes the adrenaline rush, Sullivan said, “Taking risks just to take risks doesn’t make sense, but doing it for a cause justifies it.”