About our Membership levels

There are three levels of membership in RMRG: Support, Rescue Support, and Qualified. An individual interested in becoming a member (always starting as a Support member) is known as a "prospective member" (PM).

Support members must be able to participate in rescue operations in the field. They are expected to be able to work safely under any conditions encountered in Colorado on all operations for which they might volunteer. More importantly, each member is expected to know NOT to volunteer for an operation unless properly equipped, skilled and physically conditioned at the time. Support members are expected to help carry loads on trails, to ascend and descend fixed safety lines with loads, and to assist in searches and evacuations. All members are expected to assist in making equipment mission-ready.

Our Rescue Support and Qualified membership levels are our leadership ranks. A Rescue Support is a highly trained and qualified field team leader; this role generally supervises field operations, builds highly technical systems, and performs other tasks at a similar level. The Qualified members are the mission leaders of the group and provide senior leadership and management of the team.

All members must meet minimum meeting, practice and mission attendance requirements each year. These requirements generally mean that even members meeting only the minimum requirements are volunteering close to 100 hours a year. Most members volunteer much more than that.

The skills on our team range from basic hiking experience to world-class free-climbing and aid climbing experience, and everything in between. While most of our members carry a basic first aid card (the minimum entry requirement), we have WFR's, EMT's, Paramedics, PA's, nurses and emergency room physicians. Areas of employment range from undergrad students to professional engineers, entrepreneurs to Sheriff's officers, carpenters to consultants. There is no one skill set or experience level that defines our group; the most important traits are solid judgement and dedication.