Reese Irwin’s parents, K.T. and Greg, were search and rescue volunteers in Wyoming for two decades, so it was no surprise that Reese wanted to join up too. He was training in his early teens, earned his SARTECH II by the age of 12, and became an official member of his parents’ team at 16.
Now a member of Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Team here in Colorado, Reese joined CSAR’s board of directors mid-year in 2025 and was appointed to fill a vacancy in the treasurer role. When asked what drives his passion for backcountry SAR, beyond the family legacy, he tells the story of being on the receiving end of a rescue effort.
It was 2011 and Reese had just graduated from high school. He and his friend Angus decided to do a two-week canyoneering and climbing road trip through Utah and California. Like many outdoor recreationists that year, they were fascinated with the story of Aron Ralston’s survival in Bluejohn Canyon because the movie 127 Hours had just come out the year before. They loaded up the car and headed west.
Reese and Angus had a lot of climbing experience, but they had never done any canyoneering before. They had written directions for finding and navigating Bluejohn Canyon, and they knew the route called for two rappels and then a hike out through the tail of the canyon.
The two rappels went swimmingly. But then the pair came to a third rappel, and that meant something was wrong. They did the rappel anyway, hoping it would lead to a way out, but it didn’t. They couldn’t see the floor of the canyon from there, so they ascended back up, sans rope, chimneying the canyon itself. But now they were stuck. They had pulled the rope from their second rappel, and there was no other way up.
They were only two days into a two-week trip, so it was not likely anyone would report them overdue for some time. Reese did some calculating. Even though they were planning only a day trip for the canyon, his SAR experience meant he was carrying the ten essentials.
He had extra layers, a space blanket, food (most notably a can of soup, which they could boil water in), and a means to make a fire. There was water in a slot below them, which they could reach using their rope. Worst case scenario – they could survive for two weeks, after which Reese’s parents would surely report him overdue. They would be cold and hungry, but they wouldn’t die.
Over the next two days they developed a routine. At night, they put on every piece of clothing they had and huddled in their space blankets. During the day, they spread the space blankets over bushes so the sun would reflect on them. They kept a fire going, and Reese lowered Angus into the slot to collect water, which they boiled in their soup can. They sent smoke signals and put 100 feet of flagging tape over the top of the bushes. Reese was relatively calm, knowing they would eventually be rescued, and he had a book and an ipod to entertain himself with. Angus, on the other hand, paced anxiously, in many ways fearing the worst.
On day three of their trip, Reese’s mom, an experienced search dog handler, had a bad feeling – one she says mothers understand. She hadn’t had any messages or seen any photos posted on Reese’s social media, and that wasn’t like him. She reported him overdue to the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office. They had rescued a lot of people from Bluejohn Canyon since the movie came out, so they didn’t waste any time. They found the car at the parking area for Bluejohn Canyon, but that wasn’t where Reese and Angus were, and there were a lot of other canyons nearby to search, including the one their trip plan called for. After one of the search teams got stuck, they flew a Utah Highway Patrol helicopter overhead to deploy technical rescue specialists and that’s when Reese and Angus were spotted, signaling wildly.
Reese says what was most interesting about the experience was seeing how people react, mentally and emotionally, when they’re lost. “Now when I respond to a call with multiple parties,” he says, “it helps to remember that they can be having very different experiences and as rescuers, and we shouldn’t be judgmental about any of them. People don’t get themselves into these situations on purpose.”
He also realized how lucky he was to have been brought up in a search and rescue family with all the outdoor gear he ever wanted or needed. He says his goal in serving on the CSAR board is to advocate for support of the BSAR community. “Personal expense can be the biggest obstacle to joining a volunteer team,” he says. He would like to see more statewide funding to help responders outfit themselves with the gear and equipment they need.
