Search and Rescue 2010 (SAREX 2010) is a training competition being held in and around Whitehorse over the next several days.

On Sunday evening, the first Canadian Forces (CF) Globemaster C-17 to land in the Yukon arrived with most of the exercise's 250 participants.

A few more search and rescue technicians from the Canadian Forces Winnipeg 435 squadron dropped in from the C-130 Hercules enjoying a evening training jump. The preparation crews have been around the area for the last week arranging the events.

Search and rescue (SAR) training is structured as a competition among the different SAR bases from across Canada.

Along with these elements, the local RCMP, regional SAR organizations and the Civilian Air Search and Rescue (CASRA) will be involved in holding the event.

Along with the Canadian elements, there will be U.S. Coast Guard aircraft and personnel from the Sitka, Alaska base. International observers will also be on hand to act as judges for the competition side of the exercise.

SAR is not just a civilian operation; often, the CF undertake SAR missions in peacekeeping operations.

All these elements have now arrived at the Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International Airport. Last year, the SAREX exercise was held in Gander, NL.

Capt. Alexandre Cadieux is the media representative for SAREX 2010.

"The national SAREX is a yearly exercise that is being organized and hosted by a different search and rescue unit each year,” he said in an interview Sunday evening, shortly after arriving in Whitehorse.

"For this year's edition, the 19th Wing out of Comox in B.C. was responsible to organize it .... The planning committee got together and decided the best possible location to host the event was Whitehorse because of its relevance, local training values and because of the local organizations we will have a chance to work with as well.”

Search and rescue is a multi-layered system, Cadieux said.

"Often the guys who jump from the airplane with the bright yellow jumpsuits are the ones who get the attention.

They do that SAR work on behalf of the Canadian Forces.

"The CF portion of SAR is just one of many parts, the other parts being civilian organizations, organizations like the EMO (Emergency Measures Organization), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and then a very critical part of the Canadian SAR system is the volunteer organizations.”

"SAR is an amalgamation of many techniques and procedures, from the moment they launch to successfully completing their mission,” said Cadieux.

"It requires many different things to happen. In order to train the operators and to keep them at the top of their games, exercises like this SAREX aims at isolating certain skills and procedures into very specific events so the guys can practise them and hone their skills.”

He called Whitehorse "very relevant” to the search and rescue work.

"Just last year, we executed a major search and rescue out of this location,” Cadieux said.

"So it is important for us to be familiar with all the different locations we may be tasked to work out of and be familiar with other non-DoD (Department of Defence) organizations.”

SAREX is composed of six main events.

They are: A maintenance event for the technicians, a medical event, a ground search event, a precision parachuting event, a marine event and an air search event.

"We have representatives from each Search and Rescue unit, which includes also combat support from Cold Lake (Alta.) and Bagotville (Que.),” said Cadieux.

The marine event will happen over Marsh Lake, where there will be both bundle and people drops.

The clay cliffs in Whitehorse will be the scene of repelling exercises.

The medical testing and the precision parachute jumping will take place at the airport. The airport already has mock bodies and aircraft in distress set up for the exercises.

Part of the training here in the Yukon is to expose the community to Canadian search and rescue techniques.

Friday is a scheduled weather day for SAREX, meaning if weather has postponed events earlier in the week, they will be rescheduled for Friday.

There will be a public display that afternoon if the weather holds and participants aren't busy with events rescheduled from earlier in the week.

Starting at 2 p.m., there will be flybys and different demonstrations of the SAR skills for the public.

Spectators should arrive via Norseman Road to get close to the aircraft, whose operators will be there to answer questions.

"Knowing SAR techs like I know SAR techs, they will be jittery in a plane if they don't get to jump out,” said Cadieux.

"So there should be some exciting parachuting demonstrations on Friday. The community is also invited to come and watch any of the other events, but please respect the flagged-off areas.

"The trail around the airport at the top of the clay cliffs will offer some excellent viewing of the different activities, since many of the competitions will be held on that side of the airport.”

Mark Prins is Whitehorse writer and photographer.