MOUNT HOOD - They are always ready when someone is lost or injured in the wild, but search and rescue teams go through a lot of training to make sure they are ready to answer that call.

KATU’s Thom Jensen joined up with search and rescue teams from across the United States and Canada at the base of Mount Hood to see how these crews are able to solve the mysteries of missing people.

Millions of visitors travel to the forests and streams of Oregon and Southwest Washington every year, but annually dozens of people are lost or injured in the outdoors. That’s when search and rescue teams go to work.

“Everybody is doing this for the same thing. We just want to bring that person home,” said Kim Kelly, a rescuer.

Kelly is one of 225 search and rescuers who just completed a week of training.

Some of the training included the use of dogs.

A German shepherd from southern Nevada named Mia learned how to sniff out the trail of people even as an Oregon rain storm washed away their scent.

But even in the rain, she put her nose to the ground in a mock search for missing people.

“There are two subjects out here currently who are lost in the woods,” said Kelly Slocum, Mia’s handler and search volunteer.

Incredibly, the dog’s innate intuition helped her find the subjects’ scent. By giving her handler subtle cues, Mia can communicate that she’s on the trail. Slocum said knowing the dog’s cues is essential to the search.

“It’s 90 percent of what your handler has to learn,” she said.

In drier conditions human trackers use their eyes, not their noses, to find clues. Down on their hands and knees, trainees piece together a person’s footsteps across a forest carpeted with pine needles.

 “I have always been into puzzles, and this is like the grand puzzle,” said one trainee.

Meanwhile, the men and women who provide transportation to crews in the rugged terrain learned how to pull themselves and others out of trouble with 4x4s. They learned to use what was originally a farming implement to recover a vehicle when winches and elbow grease are not enough.

In a converted bus outside The Resort at the Mountain, a local company, FLIR from Tigard, taught search and rescue teams how to use the latest thermal imaging cameras to find someone as far away as five miles.

The technology, training, and time put in by these crews is especially crucial for some of the most vulnerable citizens. Just ask Kelly who specializes in finding lost Alzheimer’s patients.

“An Alzheimer’s patient not found in the first 24 hours, if they’re found at all, have a 46 percent mortality rate,” she said.

She said in some California counties they have never recovered Alzheimer’s patients alive when they have been missing for more than a day.