Rappel Ops a go!

After much hair pulling and nail biting we found out today that the rappel program will stand up for the 2010 season! The program was stood down in the off season for several reasons and we were supposed to hear whether or not we'd be able to slide ropes in early May. Instead we had to post-pone the veteran and rookie academies and wait (not so) patiently to hear the verdict. With the good news in hand we'll start vet academy on Thursday and then rookie academy the following Monday or Tuesday. Let the games begin!

An Update

A lot has happened in the last couple weeks. Sunday of Memorial day weekend I got a call about a single resource HECM assignment to Alaska. I flew into Fairbanks the next day with two other guys from the crew and we were welcomed by a thick haze of smoke in the city. The Alaska Fire Service headquarters at Ft. Wainwright was swamped with people from the lower 48 and it was kind of a mad house. We got briefed that night and I traveled to the Toklat fire near Anderson the next day. After a day at the Clear helibase I got sent out to helispot 40 and stayed there the rest of the assignement. After a day or two it started raining a fair bit and the fire calmed down significantly. Crews started demobing but there were plenty of HECMs left spread out over the fire so we started doing structure protection and hot spotting, which meant lots of long boat rides. This fire's location, like most of the interior of Alaska, was in a roadless area and boats were the primary means of transportation. I filled out my assignment working out of H-40 and got driven back to AFS on my 14th day. Flights out of AK were pretty booked with firefighters heading back down south so I had to spend an extra day at Ft. Wainwright, which was fine with me. All in all a really lucky opportunity for me and a great experience. The photo above shows an awesome plumbed saw line that Chena IHC put in through some black spruce.