![]() Keb also trains in avalanche and disaster rescue. Keb is certified as both a human remains detection and airscent search dog, known for her “body slam” indications when she finds lost subjects. Suzanne also has a four-year-old Lab named Keb who started training at two months with Bosse’s help. But later it would allow me to feel the success of stepping into my fear, embracing it and using it to propel myself forward in many aspects of my life.” For many years it would severely limit me. She was able to spend more time with her husband, save lives, work in the mountains, and conquer her fears.Īs Suzanne reflects in her blog on her executive coaching site, “Looking back on it all, I now see, in sharp relief, how that tragic day came to importantly shape myself as a person. She adopted Bosse, her now retired yellow Lab rescue dog, and enrolled in Mountaineers scrambling and climbing courses. Then, in 2001, the much-publicized 9/11 rescues inspired her to overcome her fear of heights and help with mountain rescue - as her husband Scott was already doing. It left her with a fear of heights that hindered her outdoor and mountaineering adventures for years. Suzanne describes it as happening in slow motion – an image forever etched in her memory. It was an incident that happened more than two decades ago though that changed her life and eventually paved the way for a future in search and rescue missions: She witnessed the death of a close friend as he slipped off a granite rock atop a waterfall, near Yosemite Park. Suzanne has been part of the K9 Search and Rescue Team for over thirteen years. I asked why each of them became rescuers: Suzanne, Bosse and Keb (search and rescue dogs) All four are members of the Everett Mountain Rescue Unit. ![]() These teams were among the first responders to the mudslide and - like many other specialty rescue teams - made up of entirely of volunteers. I had the pleasure of interviewing four of our very own Mountaineer members who helped out during the Oso rescue: Suzanne Elshult and Chris Terpstra of the K9 Search and Rescue Team, and Dave Zulinke and Oyvind Henningsen of the Helicopter Rescue Team. Unlike historical tragedies, they had a major advantage: highly skilled and organized rescue teams. ![]() But to the people of Oso, it was very real. To me, it seemed like something out of a history book – before land surveillance and building regulations. It covered a square mile and engulfed nearly 50 homes in Steelhead Haven, Oso. On March 22, 2014, a natural disaster hit the state of Washington in the form of a massive mudslide.
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