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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- El Paso County Search and Rescue (EPCSR) is bracing for the storm.

But they want to warn people that one bad decision in this kind of weather could cost you your life.

Search and Rescue is run by the Sheriff's Office.  The 70-member crew covers all 2,100 square miles of El Paso County. They are non-paid professionals, and there is never a charge for their services.

Search and Rescue officials say every time there is a big winter storm there a few people who make bad decisions and find themselves stuck in the icy grip of the storm.

And they want to warn those people:  they could end up paying for their mistakes with their lives.

At the headquarters of El Paso County Search and Rescue, their own weather station is telling them a storm is on the way.

"We are just trying to be proactive on this storm that is coming in so we are going to get our snowcats ready," said EPCSR public information officer Steve Sperry.

When big winter storms hit, these snowcats and the people in them can be the difference between life and death.

If the storm is bad enough, the machines become ambulances and pick up patients no one else can get to. But they also get called to rescue motorists who decide to make ill-advised trips in the storm.

"Our response times are going to be delayed if the weather gets as bad as it's supposed to because it'll take us a while to get there," Sperry said.

And worse yet, they say there are people who want to play in the middle of a dangerous winter storm.

"Rampart Range Road has been an area of concern all winter because people are going up there four-wheeling and they get off on the forest service roads and they get stuck," Sperry said.

Then they confuse Search and Rescue with a towing service or a taxi.

"We will not pull your vehicle out. We do not have that capability. We’ll have other runs to do and we cannot take the time to haul you to where you want to go, so you are pretty much on your own and be a little more self-reliant if you are going to go up and do it," Sperry said.

Search and Rescue staff says in a bad storm it can take between eight and 12 hours for them to reach a stranded motorist. And they say people have frozen to death in their cars before they can reach them.