SAR: what is the most visible color?

For you SAR types.  What color is the most visible when searching for a subject?
I suppose it has to do with terrain: woods, open rock, snow, time of day, etc..

Not that I'm planning to need it, but what would be the safest color for a tent / jacket etc?

What ever is opposite the color wheel of the terrain you are in.

That or highly reflective

Florescent orange, yellow, and pink. That is why all construction clothing is made with it. 

There’s a reason hunters in a lot of locations are required to wear dayglo orange - it’s stupid obvious where you are in a lot of terrain. That said, blue can be more visible in desert terrain, similar to what Rob said above about the color wheel.

You're probably best of asking hunters or whoever manages fish, game, and wildlife, but i would bet the answer is blaze orange.  From what i've read, florescent yellows are actually brighter to the eye during the day, but may provide less contrast in a wilderness setting (blends in with greens), whereas oranges are more visable at night and provide very strong contrast with the typical browns and greens in a wooded setting.  You can consider getting some 3m reflective material and attaching it to your gear.  I've got a bunch of it on the back of my motorcycle for this reason.  They make adhesive versions that look black in ambient light so it's hard to tell they're there during the day.

Greg Miller wrote: There’s a reason hunters in a lot of locations are required to wear dayglo orange 

Because deer are color blind and most humans are not?

RJNakata wrote: For you SAR types.  What color is the most visible when searching for a subject?
I suppose it has to do with terrain: woods, open rock, snow, time of day, etc..

Not that I'm planning to need it, but what would be the safest color for a tent / jacket etc?

A powered, blinking light is going to be pretty noticeable. Ever wonder why your head lamp has a blinking setting? It's because it's annoying (and noticeable) AF! 

Know what else is noticeable? Whistling! From, a whistle! I found one built into my headlamp strap!

There's a few other essentials on a list somewhere but I can't remember them right now.

I actually got to be a "victim" last May. All my top layers are bright, so I quickly grabbed a cheap olive green rain jacket to wear that day. My "mission" was to be an unconscious victim, so hold still and be quiet. In addition, the leader wanted the drone guys to have to work to see me.

The drone and I were eye to eye, and they missed me. Even after they were given coordinates from a cell phone ping, the guys still almost missed me on a foot search, from a few feet away. It was pretty sobering.

Orange, on the other hand...


Not search and rescue only, but someone on here once wisely suggested having a rope color that is visible too.

Best, Helen

Long Ranger wrote:

Because deer are color blind and most humans are not?

Only rifle-hunt deer are color blind.  Bow-hunt deer are not.  

This made me think of a similar thread on 14ers.com which highlighted just how difficult it is for SAR to spot people. They linked the photo I linked and explained that somewhere in the photo is a person wearing blaze orange who needs rescue. Kind of a where’s Waldo.
http://home.pcisys.net/~shawd/mountains/sangre_de_cristo/insignificance.jpg

Jake wander wrote: This made me think of a similar thread on 14ers.com which highlighted just how difficult it is for SAR to spot people. They linked the photo I linked and explained that somewhere in the photo is a person wearing blaze orange who needs rescue. Kind of a where’s Waldo.
http://home.pcisys.net/~shawd/mountains/sangre_de_cristo/insignificance.jpg

Can we get a companion photo where the lost person is wearing dark blue or black?

The human eye is most sensitive to green light, followed by blue and then red. That being said contrast is probably far more important. So the orange is probably a really good choice, if you are hiking in the woods green probably isn't that great, if you are in sandstone red probably isn't a great choice, so i would go with a bright blue.

The hardest thing in the world is finding someone not actively trying to be found. If the subject is incapacitated it is really hard to spot them, even if if they are wearing bright colors.  Muted colors?  Forget about it!  So yeah, blaze orange, green, pink.  Have at least one item in your pack that is a completely unnatural bright, contrasting color.

Help yourself be found!  Put yourself in a conspicous location, flash lights, whistle, move etc.  Most importantly, tell some one where you are going!  If you have a couple of options, make sure they know that.  It is a lot easier to find a needle if we are looking in the right haystack.  

Spot/InReach devices and PLB’s work.  

Is La Sportiva a color?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifmRgQX82O4

Gunkiemike wrote:

Can we get a companion photo where the lost person is wearing dark blue or black?

Or can someone show me where in the original photo the person in blaze orange is... I’m normally pretty good at picking out objects but cannot find the orange person.

Sunny-D wrote:

Or can someone show me where in the original photo the person in blaze orange is... I’m normally pretty good at picking out objects but cannot find the orange person.

Given the helicopter is only like 10 pixels high at this resolution, and relatively close to the lens, it seems like maybe an orange jacket is going to get washed out in the jpg?  Closest I could find was this little smudge... but maybe I'm missing something obvious as well?  (... btw, I do think the pic conveys the message it is meant to convey).

This thread reminds me of a recent episode of The Sharp End podcast where the woman that needed rescuing remembered being taught in a class that making a giant Y with your hands was a universal signal for needing help. So she did this when the rescue helicopter first came, but then the copter just took off, not realizing they were the ones that needed help. The take-away was that you should instead jump up and down and wave vigorously and make it totally completely obvious that you are the ones that need help. I thought that was a good lesson.

Edit: for anyone interested: soundcloud.com/the_sharp_en…

I think the biggest message from this photo is how difficult a search is without an exact location known. Imagine being a SAR team member and scanning valleys of this size from a helicopter. Tough task.

I’ve started buying yellow/red/orange outer layers and almost always carry an inreach that is tracking when I’m doing anything beyond hiking in the mountains. 

Jared Casper wrote: This thread reminds me of a recent episode of The Sharp End podcast where the woman that needed rescuing remembered being taught in a class that making a giant Y with your hands was a universal signal for needing help. So she did this when the rescue helicopter first came, but then the copter just took off, not realizing they were the ones that needed help. The take-away was that you should instead jump up and down and wave vigorously and make it totally completely obvious that you are the ones that need help. I thought that was a good lesson.

Edit: for anyone interested: soundcloud.com/the_sharp_en…

This perhaps needs some clarification, 'cause they were doing this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_distress_signal#Ground_to_air_signaling

Perhaps, along with doing the, "Y" thing, a big, "X" on the ground would help, too? (Hopefully created by launching a flare from within the crevasse and using the blood of the antagonist as paint)

When I see a rescue helicopter scanning an area, I just act like I'm ignoring them (or a friendly wave, then just go on my way).

Cripes, I'm not the only one right? That didn't see the helicopter?