It’s 2 a.m. on Canada Day weekend.

A woman has been alone below a cliff in the Tranquille slot canyons for 14 hours.

She has no shoes. She’s cold, her muscles are cramping, and she can’t climb out.

The phones of the Kamloops Search and Rescue volunteers go off. 9 rope team members with their ready-to-go response kits respond.

In the dark, two rope rescue technicians are lowered down to reach her. They bring water, food and a pair of boots for the woman from one of the volunteers.

The team moves her to safer ground, secures her in a rescue litter and hauls her up the slope.

As the sun comes up, she’s handed to paramedics.

Every volunteer on that slope was clipped into their own personal rope rescue kit.

Every rescue starts with the right gear.

Why personal rope kits matter

When someone is stuck in a ravine, on a cliff ledge or at the bottom of a steep slope, ropes are often the only way to reach them and bring them out.

KSAR’s rope team handles everything from low and moderate slopes to steep slopes and full high-angle rescues across the Kamloops region.

Each rope-qualified volunteer carries a standard personal kit. It lets them move safely on steep ground, build anchors, reach a patient quickly and rescue themselves if they need to.

Every kit has to be the same, so every volunteer can work in any part of a two-rope rescue system, with any teammate, at any hour.

Gear wears out. Ropes, slings and harnesses take a beating on rock and in rain, and life-safety gear has to be retired when it’s worn or damaged.

This week, help us fill Locker 1.

Our goal is $10,655. That equips five KSAR volunteers with complete personal rope rescue kits.

What’s in each kit

A rescue harness. At least four rescue-rated locking carabiners. Two prusik loops for gripping the rope. A personal lanyard. Webbing. An anchor sling. A helmet. Rope gloves. Safety glasses. A headlamp.

Ready to respond. Every call. Every time.

Kamloops Search and Rescue volunteers gave 12,559 hours last year. They completed 59 call-outs and saved 10 lives.

They leave their homes, families and workplaces at a moment’s notice, often in the middle of the night.

But being ready takes more than dedication. It takes training, and it takes the right gear.

That’s where you come in.

Help fill the rope rescue locker this week, and help build HomeBase, a permanent home for the volunteers who answer every call.

Equip the team. Build the base.