If you’ve ever wanted to meet a true hero I’d tell you to go to Yosemite and find John Dill. Dill has been THE face behind Yosemite’s Search and Rescue for over 38 years now. He’s taken part in almost every major rescue, he was there at the beginning when the original wall rats were frequently being called upon to rescue fellow climbers from the steep granite walls of Yosemite and he’s been a driving force behind the growth and upkeep of YOSAR. That’s why Wednesday night the National Park Service honored Dill and his lifetime of achievements by giving him an award for “superior service” at a reunion dinner being held for past and present rangers of Yosemite.
SFGate: “Nobody knows that better than John Dill, who has been involved in almost every significant rescue in the park over the past 38 years, predating the formation of the esteemed Yosemite Search and Rescue team, of which he is an integral part.
He has pulled rock climbers off the big walls, plucked hikers out of gorges, saved swimmers from drowning and protected many a fool from himself.
Try to sing the praises of the 70-year-old ranger, though, and you will feel his wrath.
The National Park Service and the Interior Department took that risk Wednesday night by giving Dill an award for ‘superior service.’ The honor, essentially a lifetime achievement award, was bestowed at a catered dinner during a ranger reunion in Yosemite Valley. The ceremony was kept secret because everybody knew that Dill would never have shown up had he known such a thing was in the works.
‘He’s in competition for being the world’s most modest man,’ said Lincoln Else, the former Yosemite climbing ranger and now the director of the Sierra Wilderness Education Project. ‘The truth is he’s been extremely influential in the development of the search and rescue program, rescue techniques, and he has saved many lives.’
Protest as he might, Dill is the brains behind Yosemite Search and Rescue, called ‘YOSAR’ by almost everyone.
He arrived in Yosemite in 1970 after graduating from MIT with a degree in physics. He was just a rock climber then, dirt-bagging it in historic Camp 4.
At first he was among the volunteer climbers who were called upon when rangers needed help rescuing someone off a cliff. He was one of the first members of Yosemite Search and Rescue when the program was formally established in 1974.”
Since I know the YOSAR guys read Yosemite Blog I just want to say what a great job all the members of YOSAR are doing. They risk their life every time they have to go up (or down) one of the big walls to pull someone in trouble off. They do it night and day with little thought but for the person they’re going after. You guys are awesome. Congratulations John, you deserve it.