Cliffhanger: Seattle Mountain Rescue preparing for busiest season to come

KING COUNTY, Wash. — If you ever get lost, hurt or stranded on a mountain trail, chances are search and rescue volunteer expert Bree Loewen will be the one leading an elite team prepared to scale hill and high water to get you out.

"We have at least one sort of world-class rescue probably every two months," said Loewen, a team leader with Seattle Mountain Rescue.

Memorial Day weekend was the busiest any member of SMR can remember. KIRO 7 was there as SMR helped to conduct the seventh hiker rescue in three days, and Loewen showed KIRO 7 why so many people are getting into trouble. She took cell phone video Sunday of a crowded trail on her way up to get an injured climber.

"Literally, every holiday weekend we have more rescues than we've ever seen before," she said.

That's why SMR's highly trained volunteers keep sharp by practicing rescues of stranded dogs and pulling injured people straight up rock walls seven stories high.

"We're bumping up the numbers of our organization, too, to be able to handle that additional load of all the people on the trails," Loewen said.

Loewen said volunteers have to be ready for anything and in 20 years as a rescuer, she has seen almost everything. She packed hair-raising rescue stories in a new book she wrote entitled "

which also may be the sweetest word for rescuers.

"We've got the backs of every hiker and climber and backcountry enthusiast in King County," Loewen said.

She expects SMR's need to grow even more if present trends continue. "Definitely, I have enough material for a sequel," she said.

Cox Media Group