Survival Guide - Top Tips From A Veteran Ranger

On the eve of his retirement, Bil Vandergraff, Grand Canyon's most experienced search-and-rescue ranger, sits down for a career debriefing and explains why you should absolutely hike in wet cotton and never leave home without cold pizza.

- Annette McGivney

Bil Vandergraff walked into the Grand Canyon backcountry in 1990 and never left. That’s good news for you. In his 25 years as a SAR ranger, he logged 3,600 missions in the busiest national park for rescues, 10,000 backcountry patrol miles, and more than a few opinions on what’s wrong with hikers today. “Bil became the go-to person when a complex or rapidly developing incident required the best SAR expertise and decision-making,” says Ken Phillips, Branch Chief of Search and Rescue for the National Park Service and former SAR program director at Grand Canyon. Phillips adds that Grand Canyon has the “busiest and most complex” SAR operation of any national park, with 324 SAR incidents in 2014 that involved 267 injured or ill patients. Coming in a distant second was Yosemite, with 181 incidents and 71 patients. In June, Vandergraff retired, having helped develop the park system’s SAR manual and been awarded the Harry Yount Award, the highest honor given to rangers by the NPS. We caught up with him the day after he finished his last wilderness patrol. He shared his wisdom on searching for the missing, saving the injured, finding the dead, and not pampering the whiners. Consider these 7 rules to live by, no matter what terrain you’re in.

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