Pacific Northwest Search and Rescue
Serving Oregon's Region 2 and neighboring communities since 1993
Recent Notable Missions
On May 17th, PNWSAR Assisted Skamania County with a packout near the top of Dog Mountain.
On May 10th, PNWSAR and the Hood River Crag Rats Located a Mother and Child who were reported missing near Tamanawas Falls.
April 5th, PNWSAR assisted with the extraction of an injured hiker on the Eagle Creek Trail near Cascade Locks.
Pacific Northwest Search and Rescue (PNWSAR) is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to providing search and rescue assistance for people who are lost or injured out of doors. We provide ground search teams, rope support teams, drone teams, and other SAR resources to the official agencies responsible for search and rescue activities in our region. We are on call 24 hours a day and 365 days a year to respond quickly when called by the Sheriff's Office at any time, day or night, and are equipped and able to operate in challenging weather and terrain. In 2024, PNWSAR members collectively donated 16,578 hours over 98 mission operational periods and 121 scheduled trainings.
PNWSAR is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization. We rely entirely on donations and grants for funding, we aren't funded by any government organizations. We are setup to receive tax-deductible donations online and by check. You can also help support PNWSAR by donating your used vehicle and shopping at Fred Meyer with your Fred Meyer Rewards Card.
Please visit our donations page for more details.
We work very closely with the Hood River Sheriff’s Office search and rescue coordinators for training and testing, as well as other regional search and rescue organizations. We also belong to the Mt. Hood SAR Council, and participate in joint training operations with other search and rescue groups in the region. This prepares our teams to effectively participate in missions that require high levels of coordination and teamwork with the many diverse resource groups (i.e. dog teams, snowmobiles, high-angle rescue, medical teams, and other ground search teams).
Our specialty is ground search operations. We focus our training on the development and maintenance of wilderness navigation, search techniques, patient evacuation, and survival skills. All field operations volunteers are trained to exceed the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association search and rescue certification standards. We have a mountain bike and swift water teams, embedded FAA-licensed search drone pilots, and certified rope rescue technicians to augment our ground searches when needed. We also train to develop skills that will be utilized in command post and base camp functions during a SAR incident.
