Mountain Rescue Association

The Mountain Rescue Association (MRA) was founded in 1959 at Mt. Hood, Oregon. It was a continuation of the Mountain Rescue Council (sometimes also known as the Mountain Rescue and Safety Council), which was founded in 1948 by Ome Daiber, Wolf Bauer, and Otto Trott in Washington State. Interest in creating a national association developed at a training conference attended by 400 people at Timberline Lodge around 1957. Such conferences had been occurring for a number of years and grew to attract attendees from across the west. Eleven rescue teams, primarily from Washington and Oregon, signed the original Mountain Rescue Association bylaws in 1959. MRA is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization that conducts rescue operations and promotes mountain safety education. Administratively, it is divided into regions and then into teams. In 2011, there were 100 teams, including two in Canada.