The Southwest Virginia Mountain Rescue Group is a dynamic group of professionally trained volunteers based out of the Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Squad. In addition to providing support to BVRS, we also have MOU's with the Virginia Search and Rescue Council and VDEM. This allows us to not only respond locally, but throughout the state of Virginia as well. We encounter a variety of tasks while on mission that can include: searching for missing persons, searching for downed aircraft, performing semi-technical and technical evacuations, search management, and assisting in disaster recovery. The conglomeration of our training includes, but is not limited to: wilderness medicine, survival skills, land navigation, search tactics, search theory, clue awareness, sign cutting, tracking, remote rescue operations, disaster response, and search management. Beyond missions, SWVaMRG provides a variety of services to the surrounding community, as well as a series of informative sessions to local groups (CAP, CERT, Scouts, etc.). Services rendered include medical standbys for events in wilderness terrain that require specialized training (i.e. mountain bike and cross-country horse races). Informative sessions encompass three major areas: search and rescue awareness, wilderness safety education, and survival training.