Minus33 Is Seeking Search-And-Rescue Partners For Upcycled Wool Program

New Hampshire’s merino wool specialist, Minus33, is accepting applications from search-and-rescue organizations nationwide to receive its wool warm up kits. The Minus33 wool warm-up kits are provided to mountain rescue operations in order to furnish rescuees with a head-to-toe layer of warm wool for the journey back to civilization.

Minus33 offers the finest quality merino wool basics at a price that everyone can afford. Carrying forward over 100 years of expertise, Minus33 was created by the wool experts of the L.W. Packard Co., in 2002, as a response to the changing global trade and manufacturing landscape. In 2020, the brand set out to bring wool production back to Ashland, New Hampshire, with its Mountain Heritage line of socks, extending a local tradition dating back to 1840, when the Briggs brothers of Leeds, England, built a woolen mill on the Squam River, manufacturing wool products, hosiery, gloves, sporting equipment and paper. In 1916, Luther W. Packard of Berwick, Maine, purchased the mill and named it L.W. Packard. For more history on the L.W. Packard Mill and Minus33, read Their Story.

Minus33’s search and rescue kits help first responders while minimizing waste by repurposing gently used or out-of-spec merino garments. As the program enters its fifth year, Minus33 has provided over 100 wool warm-up kits to search-and-rescue operations, state police and game wardens in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.

For winter 22/23, the New Hampshire merino wool specialist is looking to expand the program to provide additional qualified groups with upcycled merino wool for rescues.

“Preventing or delaying hypothermia is almost always a concern when people need rescue,” said Minus33 Operations Manager Joel Schweizer. “I used to bring my own extra layers to put onto people when they were getting hypothermic, and then they’d end up being cut off in the ambulance or you’d never see them again.”

Qualified programs include regional search and rescue groups, state fish and wildlife agencies and other groups. The program application form can be found HERE or on the Minus33 website. For more information about Minus33’s wool warm up kits, contact the team directly at info@minus33.com.