The ASRC has three major recurring annual events. These are:
- Next: ASRC Winter Retreat: Martin Luther King weekend (a long weekend that includes the third Monday in January) at the Appalachian Trail Conference/Potomac Appalachian Trail Club’s Bear’s Den Lodge on the Appalachian Trail in northern Virginia
- ASRC General Membership Meeting: usually in late summer just south of Morgantown, West Virginia at Scout Camp Mountaineer
- ASRC/University of Pittsburgh Wilderness EMS Day: usually in late fall near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Appalachian
Search and Rescue
Conference
Annual Winter Retreat
The next ASRC-wide event will be the annual ASRC Winter Retreat, on the Martin Luther King three-day weekend, 15-18 January, 2027. It will be at the Appalachian Trail Conference/Potomac Appalachian Trail Club’s Bear’s Den Lodge on the Appalachian Trail in northern Virginia.
For over half a century, the ASRC has been a center of excellence for wilderness search and rescue. With such luminaries as:
- Bob Koester, known for Lost Person Behavior
- Gene Harrison, known for search and rescue communications
- Chris Ruch, known for technical rescue and the current President of the Mountain Rescue Association
- Andrew Hower, known for his Federal government expertise and networking as past National Emergency Management Program Manager of the U.S. Forest Service and past Deputy Chief of Emergency Services for National Park Service
- Patty Lindsay, known for her work on, and advanced teaching of, SARTopo
- Don Scelza, known for his incident management skills and teaching, currently ASRC Search Manager Cadre Leader and Executive Director, Pennsylvania USAR Strike Team 1
- Steve Weiss, known for his work creating National Incident Management System), and
- Keith Conover, known for his wilderness EMS work
The breeding ground for much of this expertise? During the annual ASRC Winter Retreat. At the fireside in the Bear’s Den Lodge mansion/hiker hostel. It’s atop the Blue Ridge Mountains right along the Appalachian Trail. Come to hear educational presentations by experts and network with others to develop your own expertise. .
The weather may be unpredictable; bring gear suitable for cold rain, freezing rain as in the above picture, or deep snow. Bring appropriate clothing and footgear, including boots and creepers/instep crampons/microspikes (definitely needed for the morning in the above picture from the 2017 ASRC Retreat). If there’s significant snow, you might want to bring your snowshoes and/or XC skis to take some time to get out on the trails surrounding the lodge.
A schedule of events and registration information will be provided as we get closer to the Retreat.
