Sr Dingdong
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Another student in my paramedic class has been working as a volunteer on a SAR helicopter in the Himalayas, and is inviting me to come along with him when the high season begins. He says I most likely will get accepted since I have some years experience from the ambulance service here in Norway.
However I have no SAR experience, but he says you get a 3 days course in SAR before starting there. The company he worked for is called Alpine Rescue Services. Before he started there he had a lot of rock climbing experience, some experience as a glacier guide and SAR work in New Zealand.
To me this sounds quite intriguing, but also irresponsible and dangerous. Doing heli SAR in the highest mountains in the world after just a 3 day course sounds too crazy to be true.
SAR operations are dangerous enough as they are without inexperienced people thrown right into it without proper training.
He says they always are looking for new volunteers (I guess that might not be a good sign), and that if we can get 2 weeks off from school, he´ll be able to get us a job.
I talked to a friend of mine who works in the airforce as a rescue swimmer (except they do all kinds of rescue, not only in the water) which is probably the most difficult job to get here in Norway, and he had a hard time believing it when I told him, and advised me against going if it turns out to be correct that they put you on a heli after just a 3 day course.
I tried googling them but nothing more than their web page came up. It seems like there are several heli services providing SAR in the Himalayas tho, but hard to get any info besides their own web pages.
Does anybody here know anything about the SAR services in the Himalayas or have any first or second hand experience?
Should I just stop playing with the idea of going there right away or is it worth looking more into?
Could it be a stepping stone to doing paid SAR work in another place like the Alps, Rocky Mountains, New Zealand or other places or wouldnt it be considered valid because of the apparent laxed approach to training?
However I have no SAR experience, but he says you get a 3 days course in SAR before starting there. The company he worked for is called Alpine Rescue Services. Before he started there he had a lot of rock climbing experience, some experience as a glacier guide and SAR work in New Zealand.
To me this sounds quite intriguing, but also irresponsible and dangerous. Doing heli SAR in the highest mountains in the world after just a 3 day course sounds too crazy to be true.
SAR operations are dangerous enough as they are without inexperienced people thrown right into it without proper training.
He says they always are looking for new volunteers (I guess that might not be a good sign), and that if we can get 2 weeks off from school, he´ll be able to get us a job.
I talked to a friend of mine who works in the airforce as a rescue swimmer (except they do all kinds of rescue, not only in the water) which is probably the most difficult job to get here in Norway, and he had a hard time believing it when I told him, and advised me against going if it turns out to be correct that they put you on a heli after just a 3 day course.
I tried googling them but nothing more than their web page came up. It seems like there are several heli services providing SAR in the Himalayas tho, but hard to get any info besides their own web pages.
Does anybody here know anything about the SAR services in the Himalayas or have any first or second hand experience?
Should I just stop playing with the idea of going there right away or is it worth looking more into?
Could it be a stepping stone to doing paid SAR work in another place like the Alps, Rocky Mountains, New Zealand or other places or wouldnt it be considered valid because of the apparent laxed approach to training?
