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Scottish visitor garnering<br>SAR info as part of U.S. tour<br>

Jonathan Hart may speak with a distinctive accent, use terms like "flop house" and "cheerio" and work on a mountain much smaller than those in the United States. But the visitor from Scotland has a common interest with Grand Canyon National Park’s search-and-rescue rangers — learning the best techniques possible to help visitors in distress.

Jonathan Hart has been job shadowing Grand Canyon's SAR crew. (Photo by Brad Fuqua/GCN)

Hart arrived at Grand Canyon last week on a Winston Churchill Traveling Fellowship, a program created in the memory of the famous British leader that sends citizens to various places around the world to further their education in everything from child care to mountain rescues.

While here, Hart will be job shadowing search-and-rescue rangers to learn more about American methods of handling emergencies.

"We would like to provide Jonathan with the opportunity to observe how we manage emergency incidents at Grand Canyon," SAR coordinator Ken Phillips said. "He’s interested especially in the high volume of EMS calls ... mostly he’ll be shadowing SAR shift rangers and how we manage calls."

Hart works on the northwest coast of Scotland with the busiest search-and-rescue team in the high-terrain region near Fort William. The area includes Mount Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the United Kingdom at just under 4,500 feet.

"Ben Nevis is as high as the Grand Canyon is deep," said Hart, who is part of the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team. "It’s a very popular mountain for climbing, especially in the winter."

While in the United States, Hart wants to learn different skills in as many areas as possible and stay busy on his various assignments.

"I want to get good hands-on experience," Hart said. "Different teams have different skills in different areas. Grand Canyon has a good reputation for teaching rope work and helicopter evacuations and (emergencies) around water. Even though my environment is very different and we’re very busy in the winter, all the principles are the same."

Hart began his three-month tour of the United States began with the St. Louis County, Minn., Search-and-Rescue team, which works out of Duluth. After Grand Canyon, he’ll spend time with the SAR team at Canyonlands National Park in Utah, in the Rocky Mountains with a unit near Vail, Colo., with the metro SAR team in Las Vegas, the Altadena SAR team north of Los Angeles and the Yosemite National Park SAR team in California.

Hart is not brand new to the search-and-rescue game. He’s been full-time with the Lochaber group for four years and is a professional mountaineer.

One of his main goals while in the United States is to learn how to methodically go through certain steps while on emergencies.

"A big drive for me coming over here is because of the litigation you have in America," he said. "People are quick to sue and Europe is going that way. All of our teams at home are having to get to that position. I want to see how American teams handle that internally ... and put those things in place while providing the best service and care. I’m driven by providing better service to casualties and to research on how to defend our actions."

Hart lauded the skills of American rescue teams and singled out the expertise of GCNP’s Phillips.

"People like Ken, he’s one of the world’s authorities. Ken is well-known in Europe," Hart said, mentioning the International Commission on Alpine Rescue as a source of such information.

"Regardless that I work in the Southwest, there’s still a commonality there," Phillips said. "Anything we can pass along ... plus we hope to learn from him."

Hart said he’s enjoying his trip to the United States.

"This is my first time out West and I’m really enjoying it here," he said. "Everybody has been fantastically hospitable. I don’t know if that’s the American way or if it’s the after-effects of 9/11."

Hart gave a slide show Monday of his team’s rescue activities in Scotland. He’ll leave Grand Canyon on Friday.


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