Michael 'Mickey' Sattler <mickey@GearQueen.com>

I created this site as the decades of experience with mountaineering, camping, desert survival, emergency medicine, search and rescue, earthquake preparedness training, and the like accumulated and the pile of gear in my basement grew and grew. I'd been giving much of it away, when I realized that I was explaining the techniques I use with each item anew for each person I was gifting. Hence this site. Rather than revisit old hardware, I'm starting fresh with the equipment I'm using right now.

My experience includes

• American Red Cross Lifeguard, First Responder

• PADI Rescue SCUBA Diver, PADI Divemaster

• Bay Area Mountain Rescue Unit (BAMRU) - vertical cliff rescue, wilderness search and rescue

• San Francisco Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) - urban search and rescue, earthquake preparedness

• Emergency Medical Technician - EMT-A with emergency room and ride-along experience

• Ranger at the Burning Man festival in the high desert of Nevada, annually since 1996. Includes shifts in the communications branch of the Emergency Services Department, monitoring the location, health, and safety of assets in the field.

• small-tour leader in Yosemite National Park and Hetch Hetchy, California

• licensed radio ham, with experience coordinating and relay direction of wilderness rescue teams, urban earthquake response

My Gear Queen status was established long ago, when I took put more care and thought into packing my "geek bag" for trips than my other supposedly vital supplies and clothes.