[5] Each member spends a minimum of 30 hours training each year in necessary skills: navigation, alpine climbing, rope work, wilderness survival, patient care, and others.
[6] Portland Mountain Rescue volunteers object to media reports suggesting the members "risk their own lives" as it is hard on their families and inaccurate.
[7] The organization has several procedures and requirements which insure its own member safety, such as working in teams of at least two on high, steep terrain.
In 1959, MORESCO joined several other organizations from the western US and formed the Mountain Rescue Association at Timberline Lodge.
By the mid-1970s, MORESCO was experiencing difficulties related to its wide geographic area; it began reorganizing into regional teams.