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Click on the video beside this text to give yourself a general overview of what the Wyoming Search & Rescue Conference is.
Takeaways & Summary from 2026
The 2026 Wyoming Search and Rescue Conference was held on Saturday, May 2, at the Platte Valley Community Center in Saratoga, Wyoming. This one-day conference brought together Wyoming's SAR community — county sheriffs, SAR teams, state council members, technology experts, and medical partners — for a mix of strategic discussion, technical training, and hands-on skill-building. The event featured over 60 participants, including speakers, panelists, sponsors, and attendees. Participants hailed from 15 Wyoming counties.
The day opened with a keynote from Rulon Gardner, a Wyoming-born Olympic gold medalist who shared a personal search and rescue story and then moved into governance discussions about the possibility of formalizing a statewide structure for search and rescue. The afternoon sessions shifted toward practical and technical sessions (avalanche operations, technology tools, helicopter operations) and closed with a team skills competition and social hour.
Three major takeaways from the 2026 SAR Conference included:
- Wyoming SAR is moving toward formal statewide coordination
- Technology and resources remain central to modern SAR missions
- Peer-to-peer learning drives the program
The goal of the Wyoming Search and Rescue Conference is to bring together Wyoming’s search and rescue community of law enforcement officers, SAR coordinators and volunteers, and other emergency management professionals. Building relationships, sharing knowledge and experience, and growing statewide support for SAR efforts are cornerstones of this annual event.
