Steve Crandall, captain and team coordinator, Salt Lake City Fire Department

Steve Crandall took his first climbing course at age 14 in the summer of 1978 and has been on rope ever since. Three years later, he was suddenly and unceremoniously introduced into the world of rope rescue as he performed his first pickoff rescue of an entangled rappeller while climbing at the local crag in Utah where he lives. While working on his degree in Outdoor Leadership, he volunteered for the local backcountry SAR team, eventually becoming training officer and team leader of the mountain rescue group. He also discovered his love for teaching during this time as he moonlighted as an ice climbing instructor and guide, and worked part-time then eventually full-time after graduation as an adjunct faculty member in the university’s Outdoor Program teaching rock climbing, winter camping, backpacking, wilderness survival, and leading groups into Utah’s backcountry.

In 1990, he stepped away from his faculty position to turn his love for rescue into a full-time career in the fire and rescue service and has been there ever since. He currently serves as a captain and team coordinator for the Salt Lake City Fire Department Heavy Rescue Team where he has worked as a Firefighter/EMT, Paramedic, Training Captain, FEMA/USAR Rescue Officer, Recruit Trainer, and lead instructor for the department’s Heavy Rescue School. He also currently serves as a tactical medic and team leader on the SLC SWAT team. Prior to coming over to work with Reed at RTR, he operated a multi-disciplinary technical rescue training company (similar to Mike Green) specializing in rope rescue, confined space rescue, trench rescue, heavy vehicle and machinery extrication, and rope-based tactical entry techniques. He has attended numerous rescue classes and taught rescue and ropes courses to volunteer and professional rescue teams, private industry, and military special operation groups in the US and abroad. He is a technical rescue advisor for the Petzl Technical Institute, Level II SPRAT Technician, rescue book author, and still an active rock and ice climber, but first and foremost, a devoted family man.

He won’t remember this, but I first met Reed in 1990 at the N.A.T.R.S. (North American Technical Rescue Symposium which was later changed to International Technical Rescue Symposium or I.T.R.S.) conference here in Salt Lake City. At the time, my SAR team was using a Double Rope TTRS through a single DCD. The "Are you really on Belay?" presentation and paper by Dill, Larson, and Thorne coupled with a seminar by Arnor Larson around that same time, had a really big impact on me and shaped the way I thought about rope rescue for the next three decades. I began to acquire copies of Arnor’s BCCTR technical papers and Reed’s old newsletter, The Thorne Group “Rope Rescue Critique”, until eventually I was able to begin attending RTR courses. Over the years, I have come to cherish my relationship with Reed, not only as an instructor and mentor, but as a friend as well. I was very flattered when invited to become a part of the RTR family and am honored to be associated with his program.”