 Hi, I'm Brian May. It is one of the most beautiful areas in all of Northern California and Oregon for that matter. I'm talking about Mount Shasta, but within the beauty of the mountain lies a tremendous amount of danger if you don't know your ability and the conditions. It happens every year. A family of three on their way home to Arcada got tropped in the snow on Friday needing to be rescued. A well-meaning trip to the snow We lost two people in one day. Turns in to a search and rescue mission. If something does happen, which way are you going to go? Which is why this group of search and rescue coordinators from across California are here in Mount Shasta. They're learning how to perform search and rescue missions in severe winter conditions. This is a good kind of hands-on to get everybody understanding, again especially in the winter environment. There's a lot of things that could go wrong and we want to make sure that they're planned. It's an important hands-on training course offered by the Cal OES Law Enforcement Branch. This year it's being hosted by the Sisq County Sheriff's Department. It's a perfect blend of volunteers who have a passion for giving back to the community with the proper oversight from the local law enforcement community. After learning the basics in a classroom, the group moves outside into the elements hands-on on a snow-covered Mount Shasta. From this course we have about a 50-50 split where we have 50% volunteers. A lot of volunteers have a lot of experience and then 50% where their law enforcement's sworn so they're from different jurisdictions. One of the volunteers at this week's exercise is Dr. Mary Cable, an expert in the use of canines in search and rescue. She does love this. She's itching to go. Mary's here to show the class how her working partner, Inka, a four-year-old Belgian Malinois can be utilized. They can detect that from a pretty good distance. She brings the ability to detect somebody that's buried that you would never be able to see because we can't see through snow. So she's really a different type of sensor instrument. Whereas we use our eyes, she uses our nose. From paws on the ground to eyes up in the air, this training covers every type of resource and mutual aid that could be used if needed. We were at 450 with our breeze on our old helicopter. This gives us 500 pounds. We've done a little bit of everything. We've gone over medical considerations, what we can expect to see in the field and also how to prevent that from happening to our searchers. We've learned how to manage missions that start out small but can go large. We've learned sheltering, we've learned what sort of resources we can request from snow cats to snowmobiles, canines and that sort of thing. At times there is no question this class can seem more like winter recreation but behind the fun lies critical training that will save a life. Thinking ahead about what you're going to do and this training we're doing is essential for that because it gives you the tools to give you ability when you get out there and to do that pre-planning and be ready when you get out there. People like to come in and enjoy the nature. This is some great stuff. And folks will get into those situations where they didn't plan on it and we have to be prepared to go out and understand that, hey, accidents happen and we have to go out and help them. For more information on the Cal OES law enforcement training classes you can visit caloes.ca.gov. For all of us at Cal OES, I'm Brian May.