r/searchandrescue • u/bpdd1 • 18d ago

Question about yosemite

Hey, just looking to chat about what might look good for a YOSAR application. I come from a fire dept family (am hoping to join my city's department depending on how my test score comes back) and as an avid climber I would love to bring that together to join the Yosemite team. I am a registered nurse, have an EMT license, first aid certified, and am starting an ER job soon to get more acute care experience, can comfortably climb 5.10 and higher, though do not have Yosemite climbing experience which I know isn't great for that. Just want some advice about what I should be doing between now and January when I send my application for next season.

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u/drewts86 18d ago

I just want to throw this out. My old climbing partner left his well paying job to move to Yosemite and pursue the climbing dream and aspirationally join YOSAR. Had his Wilderness EMT cert and all that hullabaloo. After living, climbing and working in the Valley for a year and getting to know the YOSAR guys fairly well, he ultimately decided against pursuing YOSAR. It sounded like team members burn out at a higher than average rate. The climbing community is very small and it doesn’t take long before you end up doing body recoveries on people you know or are friends with. I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t pursue it, but just realize the mental trauma that potentially comes with the job.

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u/BallsOutKrunked WEMT / WFR / RFR / CA MRA Team 18d ago

I work with yosar a lot, there are some nice people but 9/10 are the weirdo antisocial climber you may know, now with a yellow shirt on.

There's a lot of dick measuring and pecking order stuff.

Some of the leaders are legit af but team wise whenever I get near them I just know they will be super insular and standoff-ish.

I spent a day on a field team with a yosar person a couple years back and after the air finally cleared she said they get treated like shit by the rangers.

Whole thing seems weird.