(reverent orchestral music) - I'm Starla Sampaco in the Crosscut KCTS 9 newsroom.

(soft new-age music) Mountain rescue teams throughout the region provide a critical service for outdoor adventurers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and it all started in Seattle.

A recent episode of the "Crosscut Escapes" podcast explores the origins of mountain rescue.

That's one thing that makes mountain rescue teams even more remarkable: They're made up entirely of volunteers.

And while the tech advancements of the last 85 years have helped increase the odds that someone comes home safe, success still depends on old-school methods: hundreds of hours of boots on the ground over days or weeks and many pairs of eyes scanning every rock and crevice.

In plenty of cases, hauling out lost or injured hikers still happens on foot.

I'm Starla Sampaco.

Listen to full episodes of "Crosscut Escapes" on crosscut.com.

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