Chieftain Publishes Lengthy Feature Article About NMT's Search and Rescue Club
April 4, 2019
El Defensor Chieftain recently published a lengthy feature article about Socorro Search and Rescue, which is largely made up of NMT students. Here is an excerpt from Larson's article. Click the link at the bottom of this page to read the full story.
By John Larson/El Defensor Chieftain
Two weeks ago a 911 call came in from a stranded hiker in the mountainous White Mountain wilderness south of Carrizozo. The weather had turned cold and snowy and the hiker had gotten turned around. He was able to give just enough information on the 911 call to give Search and Rescue an idea where to start looking first.
(Photo by Jacob Barker/Socorro Search and Rescue.)
A team from Socorro Search and Rescue (SSAR) was assembled and headed out.
Socorro Search and Rescue is a volunteer organization whose members consist primarily of New Mexico Tech students, but also boasts several community volunteers. The local group acts as a member team of the New Mexico Search and Rescue Council, and provides primary search and rescue capabilities to Socorro county, as well as back-up support for the entire state.
Evelyn Byrd, a Biomedical Science major at Tech, was part of the SSAR team assembled to find the missing hiker in Lincoln County.
“It was probably the most intense search I’ve been on, because of the weather. We were out in the mountains. It was snowy. The winds were blowing 80-plus mph. It was really terrible out,” Byrd said. “We were looking for a guy who got lost hiking the day before and ...