About PVSART | Pemigewasset Valley Search and Rescue Team

Our Mission

The Pemigewasset Valley Search and Rescue Team (PVSART) is a volunteer organization formed in 2005 to assist with woodlands searches for lost or missing persons and with carry outs. It provides support to the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, which under RSA 206:26 (XII) has controlling authority for all woodlands search and rescue services in the state of New Hampshire. PVSART responds only to requests from NH Fish & Game or other public safety agencies. The primary response area for the team is Grafton County and the western side of the White Mountains.

PVSART also promotes hiker safety by providing trained speakers to address local school groups and other organizations and by posting safety information and resources for hikers on this site.

Membership is open to all hikers 18 and over in good physical condition who live in the local area. Click to learn more about joining.

We Take Part In:

SEARCH

When someone is reported lost or missing in the woodlands, we assist NH Fish & Game in coordinated search efforts to locate them and bring them home.

RESCUE

If an individual is injured or incapacitated out on a trail, we are often called in to hike out to them, provide any possible field first aid, and carry them out for medical attention.

RECOVERY

On the tragic occasions where there is a fatality in the backcountry, we are sometimes called to assist in carrying out the deceased to return them to their loved ones.

History

In March 2004, two hikers failed to return on-time from a day-hike on Mt. Lafayette and the next morning New Hampshire Fish & Game commenced a search for them. Fish & Game, which relies heavily upon volunteer search and rescue groups to provide the large number of personnel necessary for such operations, called upon the Mountain Team in Gorham, and the Upper Valley Wilderness Response Team in Hanover both well outside the immediate area of need. At this time, there simply wasn’t a locally organized search and rescue team ready and available to assist Fish & Game.

That changed in June 2005 when a hiker slipped on the Old Bridle Path on Mt. Lafayette and broke her ankle. She needed to be carried out to an ambulance and treated at a hospital. This time Fish & Game only had to call upon one volunteer group: Seventeen members of PVSART responded to that callout and, along with five Fish & Game officers, completed the mission in just over four hours. Many years later, PVSART remains one of New Hampshire’s foremost volunteer search and rescue teams, composed of dedicated, compassionate and highly skilled individuals ready to assist those in need.

Today, PVSART averages 30 missions per year with a roster of about 75 members.