On a cold snowy night in December 1972, a group of forty-five Summit County residents met at Swan's Nest on Tiger Road, the historic home of Ben Stanley Revett, the "Gold Dredge King," to talk about the need for a local search and rescue organization. In July of the following year, Summit County Rescue Group (SCRG) was incorporated as the sixth mountain rescue team in Colorado.
SCRG is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization incorporated under section 501(c)3 of the IRS code. We operate under the statutory authority of the Summit County Sheriff's Office, and our mission is to fulfill the Sheriff's responsibility to provide backcountry search and rescue services to the county. Summit County Rescue Group is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, at no charge to its rescue subjects.
Like any organization, we've grown tremendously over the years. Due to our scenic location on the I-70 corridor and many outdoor recreational opportunities, we attract visitors from all over the world, which has led to us becoming one of the busiest teams in Colorado. Through the decades we have expanded with more members, more equipment, and larger facilities. We've developed new technical specialties and become more sophisticated in our internal and external communication and educational programs. Despite all that, our core mission has never changed: our team exists to save lives.
Today we have about 70 active members, several of whom are mission coordinators. The mission coordinators rotate in an on-call role and act as the initial point of contact to assess a 911 call for backcountry assistance. Each active member receives notification directly to their phone from Summit County's 911 dispatchers when a mission coordinator determines that an "all-call" is needed. SCRG receives about 200 requests for help each year, and these requests usually translate into 80-130 "all-call" missions.
SCRG's missions occur all throughout the year. Our busiest season is in the summer, when we go out for lost or injured mountain bikers, climbers, hikers, four-wheelers, and paragliders; in the fall, lost or injured hunters; in the winter, injured or exhausted backcountry skiers and snowboarders, nordic skiers, snowshoers, ice climbers, snowmobilers and stuck vehicles; and in the spring, river accidents. The group also responds to the occasional exhausted dog, downed airplane or helicopter accident, or over-the-edge highway motor vehicle accident. An average mission runs for 3-4 hours, but missions can extend overnight or even into multiple days for extractions in challenging terrain or missing parties that take time to locate.
SCRG is headquartered in Frisco, Colorado. In 2025, with the support of our donors and Summit County Government, we moved into a new facility that houses Summit County Rescue Group, Summit County Water Rescue, and the Special Operations team of the Summit County Sheriff's Office. This facility now stores all of our equipment and provides classroom space, a board room, an office, an incident command center, a kitchen, a shower, and a high angle training facility. The bays of the building hold four emergency response vehicles, a number of ATVs, UTVs and snowmobiles, two tow-behind evacuation wagons (one for summer and one for winter), and several trailers to get it all to the trailhead.
At minimum, every member is required to have current CPR and First Aid certifications. A large portion of the team exceeds this minimum as a Wilderness First Responder, Emergency Medical Technician, or Paramedic. We also enjoy partnerships with our local fire districts, Red White and Blue and Summit Fire & EMS, who send SAR Paramedics into the field with us to provide the best possible patient care to our subjects.
Weather permitting, Flight for Life medical evacuation helicopters are available to us for backcountry extractions of critical patients. One of these helicopters is permanently stationed at the level 3 trauma hospital in Frisco. Flight For Life also assists SCRG in aerial searches, provides rescuer transport in time-critical situations, and plays an essential role in transporting Rapid Avalanche Deployment teams including dogs, dog handlers and snow technicians to backcountry avalanches. The National Guard's High Altitude Aviation Training Site (HAATS) in Eagle, Colorado also supplies helicopter support upon request to help us with air search operations, backcountry insertions and extractions, or hoist operations.
The Summit County Rescue Group is a member of the Rocky Mountain Region of the Mountain Rescue Association (MRA). The team must recertify every five years with the MRA to retain accredited status, which involves a series of tests in five separate search and rescue disciplines over a two-day period. In addition to responding in Summit County, SCRG is available for assistance on major wilderness search and rescue missions anywhere in the state, through a mutual aid agreement with the Colorado Search and Rescue Association (CSAR). SCRG may also be activated to assist in larger incidents, such as wildfires or floods, where there is a need for organized search or evacuation.
