Some of AVSAR’s early members (L-R): Ray Cotnoir, Paul Cormier, Michelle Cormier, Diane Holmes, and Mike Pelchat.
The following was provided by one of the original members of AVSAR: Mike Pelchat.
The main reason we started a search & rescue team in Gorham in 1988 was due to a sudden need for rescuers. The number of rescues was steadily increasing while the availability of willing and qualified people to go out on a backcountry rescue call was decreasing. This decrease in available manpower was primarily due to the way AMC housed its off-duty summer staff at Pinkham Notch. Bunk-rooms were turned into office space to meet AMC’s growth of faculty managers in the years after Joe Dodge.
Off duty hut and trail crew staff, once plentiful to field a litter team, where off campus and no longer handy to Fish & Game for SAR calls. Plus USFS was feeling budget cuts and no longer had any “extra” staff that could be spared to help other than during the winter months in Cutler River Drainage where snow rangers were in charge of SAR. They were required by statue to SAR missions in the immediate Tuckerman Ravine area from December to May. There was no local volunteer SAR organization in the area other than Mountain Rescue Service based in North Conway, whose focus was on helping get technical rock and ice climbers off the big cliffs like Cannon Cliff, Cathedral Ledge, and in the notches.
Technical climbers not hikers is who they formed and trained to assist. As a member of Gorham Ambulance and Wildcat Ski Patrol, I could see many locals who were not professional guides (which MRS preferred to enlist on their team) but had other necessary backcountry skills and first aid training who lived locally and were willing to volunteer their time to come out when called to assist their fellow hikers.
Hiking and exploring the White Mountain trails was a common sport they all enjoyed and wished to contribute their time to help when a hiker injury occurred. AVSAR gave them a local volunteer SAR team to join. Since its earlier beginnings in 1988, AVSAR became a 501(c)(3) non-profit in 1993 which enabled it to receive tax deductible donations. The team has grown in size now limiting its membership to a manageable 80 volunteers. AVSAR is managed by an all-volunteer Board of Directors, and has several specialty teams such as three-season, winter-below, winter-above, technical, and a recently formed drone team.
AVSAR, in the beginning responded to rescue calls across the northern half of New Hampshire. As hiker rescue calls continued to grow, however, other volunteer SAR teams formed to tap their local hiker talent to assist with calls in their parts of the White Mountain National Forest.
This should shed a little more light on when and why AVSAR formed. As many of us who were in at the very beginning of the team, such as Ray Cotnoir, Diane Holmes and myself (Mike Pelchat) followed by the Bill and Barbara Arnold, and Paul and Michelle Cormier, our memories become less sharp and it is good to get our early history recorded!
Images from the start of AVSAR prove that this organization has been there for you all along. Click image to zoom in.