Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit

14June2026
RMRU Team Members received a callout at 10:00pm for 3 lost hikers east of Saddle Junction along King Trail without food, water, shelter, or warming layers. One member of the subject party also reported symptoms of food poisoning.

All 4 responding team members arrived on scene at 12:15 am, received an updated briefing of patient status and resources, collected their gear, and were dispatched into the field via the Devils Slide Trailhead at 12:50 am.

Team members made contact with the subjects along a spur, intersecting the King Trail at 2:56 am. There, they performed medical assessments and provided the necessary rest, warming, and resources for each subject.

Extraction began at 3:40 am, which consisted of a roughly 4-mile walk out back to Humber Park.

All personnel arrived safely at Humber Park and exited the field at 5:46 am. At that time, subjects were evaluated by CalFire and transported by RSO back to their personal vehicles at the Palm Springs Tram.

Team Member Roles:
Command Post: David Bever
Field Team: Alex Cochran, Matt Frenken, Nathaniel Desforges

RMRU is an all volunteer mountain rescue team. We specialize in high angle rock, helicopter, and snow & ice rescues in Riverside California.

Learn more at: https://rmru.org/

Thank you to all who donate and support. What we do would not be possible without you.

6June2026
RSO Coroners and RMRU performed a Search and Tracking training.
Trainees were tasked with locating and extracting a mock subject in idlywild,CA.
Doing so ensured team members maintained proficiency in man-tracking techniques and backcountry operations

RMRU is an all volunteer mountain rescue team. We specialize in high angle rock, helicopter, and snow & ice rescues in Riverside California.

Learn more at: https://rmru.org/

Thank you to all who donate and support. What we do would not be possible without you.

31May2026

Team members went up to Idyllwild, CA, to practice technical rope work and implementing the pike and pivot technique.
Many team members also got a variety of Type-I and Type-II sign offs.
Sign offs included:
-Operations Lead
-Edge Attendant
-Line Attendant
-First Responder Medical
-Land Navigation

RMRU is an all volunteer mountain rescue team. We specialize in high angle rock, helicopter, and snow & ice rescues in Riverside California.

Learn more at: https://rmru.org/

Thank you to all who donate and support. What we do wouldn't be possible without you.

Saturday 10 May, 2026

In partnership with the Riverside Sheriff's Office Aviation Unit, RMRU performed a Helitack Training in order to re-familiarize members with helicopter operations for insertion and extraction.

Topics trained and/or discussed included:

•Aircraft Safety
•2-Ups
•Litter Hoisting
•Tagline procedures
•Individual Hoisting and Lowers
•Hover-Steps
•Patient Management

The Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit was proud to participate in the 3rd annual Idyllwild Trail Festival.

Our team connected with PCT hikers, trail angels, locals, and visitors throughout the day. The team was able to provide insights into mountain rescue operations, technical rock and winter gear capabilities, and demonstrated our new vacuum spine immobilization equipment obtained through gracious community donations.

We were grateful for the overwhelming support and the many meaningful conversations.
A special thank you to Nomad Ventures for hosting this outstanding event and generously donating proceeds to both RMRU and the Fowler-O’Sullivan Foundation.
Your continued support directly strengthens our mission of serving the community.

Interested in joining RMRU? Visit www.rmru.org to learn more about becoming a member and help make a difference in backcountry rescue.

Participating members: Richard Yocum, Will Pendleton, Jon Butler, Ed Gelabert

Founded in 1961, RMRU celebrates its 65th year of serving Riverside County. Proudly honoring the mottos of "Courage, Commitment, Compasion" and "So Others May Live".

RMRU spent our Sunday at Big Rock working on those technical rock rescue skills. Low angle slab is much harder to work with a litter than dead vertical, and Big Rock is all about that low angle slab.

Good work RMRU. The team passed our technical rock reaccreditation with the MRA.

A few members of the team practiced technical rock training with a small group. With only two people manning the ropes, they had to conduct a lower and a raise of a two person load.

Throwback Thursday! Did you know we have our newsletters published on our website going all the way back 1965?

Check them out here:
https://rmru.org/portfolio/

Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit is an all-volunteer, professional, unpaid non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. All donations go directly to team training, equipment, and supplies. https://rmru.org/donate/