Nevada can be the perfect place to take your truck off-road and enjoy the natural beauty of this state. But sometimes these adventures can end with people getting stuck out in the middle of nowhere and in need of rescue.
That’s where 775OFR comes in.
775 Offroad & Recovery is a non-profit volunteer organization that helps people who have gone off-road and need help getting their vehicle back from the trails. They go out for person and vehicle recovery and teach people how to better prepare for their off-roading adventures so if they do get stuck, they can often get themselves out.
“Being stuck in Nevada’s backcountry can become life-threatening in a hurry — be it in the cold of winter or the extreme heat of summer,” Rita Heidkamp, 775OFR’s treasurer, said. “Either way, our crew of trained volunteers is there to respond when someone calls our 24-hour dispatch line. But to be honest, we prefer to train folks before they get stuck rather than to have to rescue them.”
Heidkamp said everyone makes a mistake now and then, especially when they are learning, and 775OFR can provide that much-needed safety net that keeps off-roaders and their vehicles from being stranded.
775OFR works with local search and rescue teams to better coordinate volunteers and have the best chance of success to find those in need of rescue. In 2022, the nonprofit had more than 120 recoveries that totaled to about $4,700 in fuel costs and involved 67 trained members.
Joseph Pickett, 775OFR’s president, said the nonprofit was started as a better way to organize offroad vehicle recoveries.
“A couple years ago there was a large snowstorm and different groups went up Peavine to help recover over seven vehicles. It was unorganized and some folks were left behind. There was no command center or any type of leadership,” Pickett said. “775OFR created a solution and can communicate with its volunteers independently of Facebook. We now provide recovery workshops to the community and cover all of northern Nevada.”
775OFR offers training for those who wish to be better prepared in the case of an emergency, such as getting stuck in the snow or on top of a boulder. This training includes self-recovery techniques, safety and best practices.
The volunteers that makeup 775OFR are crucial in a state like Nevada where local search and rescue is also volunteer-driven and funded by donations, not taxes.
According to the Nevada Search and Rescue, each county’s sheriff’s office is responsible for local search and rescue units. These teams are mostly volunteers who have specialty units such as alpine rescue, drone teams and mounted SAR.
