 Hello everyone, I'm Sean Boyd here in the Cal OES Newsroom. It is that time of year when search and rescue coordinators from around California gather to learn more about winter search and rescue operations. They're going to train, but they have to go to where the snow is. And that means our own Brian May is up where the snow is. He's up at Mount Shasta right now. Brian, you're out there with the search and rescue coordinators and I see you've actually got a little bit of snow up there right now. Well, the key words, Sean, you said a little bit. We're at 7,000 feet, Mount Shasta just behind me. And normally we'd have feet and feet of snow. It's been really warm, almost record high temperature. So if you see behind me, there's only about a foot less than that in some places, trees are sticking out. Now that's not that said, there is still plenty of opportunities to learn. There's just enough snow for that. So let me tell you, weather conditions, at least for us here, could not be better. I mentioned near record high temperatures during the day for this time of year. That's in the mid sixties, not good for the snow, but great for the various sheriff's departments that are here from across the state. And they are here to practice as many forms of snow search and rescue as possible. That means working on multiple types of equipment. We've seen snow cats and snowmobiles. But before the men and women in this week long training exercise hit the snow, they are first hitting the classroom every morning down in the town of Mount Shasta, about 15 miles from here. They're going over techniques and training lessons. They then take that information and come here to hit the mountain Tuesday. They practice working on snowmobiles and snowcats. They also did a lot of work with snow shoes, making sure everyone comfortable getting off the beaten path. And Tuesday, we also got a visitor from up above the California Highway Patrol, landing one of their rescue helicopters right here at 7,000 feet and then going over all of the equipment that they use when they need to make a hoist rescue. The training continuing all week. Today, we have seen demonstrations of a dog search. We had Inca doing a dog search for us in the snow. They're also using poles and doing some probing searches, sticking them into the snow. And the snow is good enough. There's kind of a debate about this, but the snow is good enough so that Shana, as we come back out now live, the group was with us about 15 minutes ago. They have since gone off and they're actually going to build snow caves in the snow and then spend the night in those caves tonight overnight. It's cold. I mean, the temperature, obviously, you can imagine what it's like here, but that's part of their training and that's part of what the men and women are going through here this week, Sean. It's fascinating for us to watch as well. Oh, it is a lot of fun. And I've been there when they had it up here at South Lake Tahoe. And it was much colder and a lot more snow. But like you said, you've got some short sleeves on right now, but it will get cold as soon as that sun goes down. It does. And that's going to be a different variable for all these men and women to work with this week. It's Cal OES is kind of putting this on along with the Siskiw County Sheriff's Department and just a lot of great tips. Even sitting in their classroom instructions, we've learned several things. Get those beacons, but don't trust them exclusively. Don't go somewhere where you're not really experienced to go. And then one of the things that I picked up on this week was the minimum group you want to travel with is four. That way, if someone gets hurt, you can leave someone behind with that person and you're not sending an individual off to go get help. You always have at least two people together. So minimum group of four, it's fascinating stuff for us to learn. And these Sheriff's Departments are picking up a lot this week, Sean. Absolutely. Anytime you go hiking out in the wilderness, you should know your limits, especially when you're talking about the snow, right? All right, well, we're looking forward to seeing more from you guys out there. Stay safe and bundle up. Thank you, Sean. And we don't need to now, but tonight we will. Absolutely. You will. And you're going to go in the snow cave, right? I don't know if we're going to spend the night or not. The options are open. Come on. We have a lot of peer pressure working your way. You can do it. See what happens. All right. Thanks a lot, Brian. We'll talk to you later. All right. All right, Sean. Winter search and rescue, obviously a critical component to law enforcement mutual aid. Our own Jonathan Goodell is here right now with more on that part of the story. John. Thanks, Sean. Yeah, similar to the fire and rescue mutual aid, law enforcement also relies heavily on its own system during disasters. For more on that, we spoke to the state's top coordinator of law enforcement mutual aid, Chief Mark Pason. Well, this is a very important part of what we do in the law enforcement branch is the search and rescue component. Oh my God. We had the terrible calamity in Santa Barbara, where we had the floods, which then had the mudslides. And then we had to go and have the grim task of looking for persons. And sometimes it's a rescue. Sometimes it's a recovery. Rescues in Southern California continue this morning after torrential rainfall triggered deadly mudslides. We start coordinating efforts. We start getting cooperation from the other allied agencies and we go out and do what we have to do. 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. And more than 170 trained volunteers were deployed to Santa Barbara County for the mudslides and thousands more responded to requests in 2017 alone. Sean. All right, John, pretty amazing. Thanks a lot. All right. Well, Brian May and the rest of his team up there at Mount Shasta will bring us more on the winter search and rescue training going on up there at Mount Shasta. And we're going to have that story for you coming up on the next Inside Look at OESNews.com and on our Facebook page for all of us here at Cal OES. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.