What Search and Rescue Missions Teach Us about Staying Calm

When Gabriel A. Silva is on a search and rescue mission in the California mountains, he needs to stay calm despite the possibility of danger lurking at every turn. As he described the experience of a life and death mission, I was surprised by the number of lessons that can be applied to stressful work and life situations. 

He’s on a team, San Diego County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue, and the specialized mountain rescue team within search and rescue, yet alone with his emotions. He needs supplies to get him through, but his pack is heavy. If he brings too much, he’s slowed down and exhausted by the baggage. If he brings too little, he runs the risk of facing a crisis unprepared. Sometimes people stranded on the mountain have attempted strenuous hikes in flip-flops or without adequate hydration. At 2.2 pounds per liter, he often carries up to twenty pounds in water weight alone. 

And yet he enjoys helping people at their worst moments, being out in nature and sleeping in the elements in a shelter.

“The mental and physical challenge of it,” Silva said, “is about as alive as it’s possible to feel.”

In addition to his work in search and rescue, Dr. Silva is a Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and in the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California San Diego. He is Founding Director of the Center for Engineered Natural Intelligence and Associate Director of the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind.  

The Mission

The most important aspects of a search and rescue mission are:

• The context
• Adapting to the environment
• How much you can carry
• Training and preparation
• Teamwork

Let’s take a look at each one of these. 

The Context 

“The context,” Silva said, “determines the tools you need to succeed.”

And it creates constraints. Sometimes Silva’s mission is to look for elderly Alzheimer's patients or children lost in urban environments. Other times, mountain climbers get lost, injured or dehydrated. Avalanche survival is completely different than a city search. Silva and some of his teammates train and sometimes help other agencies in different counties  with mutual aid searches in snow and rugged conditions at higher elevations. 

“Snow brings on a whole new level,” Silva said. For that, he has to carry a snow shovel in his pack and build snow walls for insulation. “You don’t have to be too deep in the snow to die. This is about as intense as it gets aside from confined space rescues like caves.”

Adapting to the Environment

Every context’s unknown variables can lead to an unexpected path, but it’s important to understand the starting point to avoid making a crisis situation more dangerous. Ambiguity is inevitable, but some of it can be mitigated by understanding and adapting to an environment. 

I was struck by the idea that for the past eighteen months, as knowledge workers collaborate remotely, the environment has changed. Instead of getting better at understanding the difference in the environment, many companies have expected workers to act as if they’re simply in a domestic version of the office. At home, however, many people have been dealing with children, spouses and domestic partners also attempting to focus, often at the same table or in adjacent rooms. Pets, deliveries, health issues and general stress have also impacted the shape of the environment.  

And sometimes an environment you prepare for can suddenly shift. One of Silva’s recent training missions in the snow ended abruptly when he had to deal with a real life emergency. A woman fell off a mountain. 

What you need to accomplish determines what you carry

“You can only carry so much on your back,” Silva said. “The weight gets to be too much.”

Even stripped back to essentials, it all adds up. Sleeping gear, clothes, water, food and medical supplies. 

Packing for a mission requires a layered approach. If the avalanche training suddenly becomes a mountain rescue, you have enough of what you need to get through it successfully instead of running out of supplies and creating a new hazard for yourself and others. 

Silva never leaves home without certain practical items that will get him through almost anything he might face in regular everyday life. 

“But you have to think it through in the heat of the moment,” Silva said. “Gear is useless if you don’t know how to use it. Skills and knowledge matter. Knowledge always transcends gear.” 

Training and preparation

When I first met Silva he sent me a list of books about survival. In reading them I was struck by a few things. The laws of physics are simply inescapable. If you’re in cold water for too long, there’s no amount of presence of mind that can overcome that. But preparation is still key. 

“While it’s possible for someone who is extremely well prepared to crumble in the face of stress,” Silva said, “or for a particularly resilient unprepared person to survive a catastrophe, the truth is, preparation can mean the difference between life and death. The more you train, the better the fighting chance you have in reality. You expose yourself to those stressors. You go over scenarios.” 

This is the essence of imagination; conjuring a scenario and picturing what you might do. 

“Practice, practice, practice, practice,” he said. “You know what they say about the difference between amateurs and professionals? Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong. Always learning. Running through scenarios in your head. This dovetails into Applied Imagination. Being prepared. This extends to academic endeavors and everyday life. Read broadly. Learn. Apply imagination to your particular survival situation. It could be work, life or a medical situation. The idea of applied imagination can also be applied to our planet and climate. Here in southern California, for example, people are realizing we can’t rely on the power grid. So imagination needs to be applied to thinking that through. Applied imagination is a way of moving forward. Giving up is the philosophical and intellectual equivalent of physically dying.”

Teamwork

When Silva goes on search and rescue missions, he’s part of a team. Sometimes they may have an hour of daylight left to search around a lake, or in nearly impenetrable brush for signs of life or limb. For most people, searching in limited visibility would be terrifying. Not for Silva. 

“That is what we are trained to do,” he said. “People on the team watch out for each other. They train us not to panic or freeze.”

Even on loose rock when the climb is steep, they are trained to focus on their footing instead of allowing emotions to overwhelm them. They have a clear objective on each mission: to find a person, treat them, and bring them back. 

A team without a clear mission isn’t a team. And it doesn’t have to be life and death. Even if the mission is to pursue curiosity, then curiosity should be vigorously pursued and celebrated as if it is the only mission in the world. At that moment, it is.