Rocky Mountain Rescue Group

Background Statement

In January 1947, the Boulder County Sheriff called several local mountaineers to look for a lost little girl. Despite their best efforts the search was unsuccessful and the girl's body was later discovered close to her mountain home. Tracks in the snow revealed that the searchers came within a few feet of where she was later found. It will never be known if this tragedy could have been prevented had there been an organized mountain rescue team available to respond to such emergencies. Her death and others in the mountains that winter brought concerned community members together to form the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group (RMRG). Founded in 1947, RMRG is one of the oldest mountain rescue teams in the country. RMRG started with volunteers from the community and has kept that all volunteer membership through today. In the early years of RMRG, we operated across the state with very few other mountain rescue resources. Since then, many mountain rescue teams have been established, some of which we helped start. Many of these mountain rescue teams, including RMRG, are part of the Mountain Rescue Association (MRA) which is the premier mountain rescue organization in the U.S. The MRA is responsible for ensuring that its member search and rescue teams achieve minimum search and rescue standards. RMRG operates under contract with the Boulder County Sheriff's Office.

Today, RMRG operates primarily in Boulder County, but still assist with searches and rescues across the state and in other states. Boulder County has terrain that ranges from the plains, to the world class rock climbing areas around Boulder, to the high Indian Peaks that form the continental divide. This highly variable and often technical terrain has produced rescuers that are well trained in a variety of mountain search and rescue techniques. Our all-volunteer membership encompasses about 70 members that respond to calls which typically involve 15 to 25 people.