Season Retrospective

So its been over two months since the last post although it doesn't feel that long. While a lot has happened in that time it has really been a slow season. I've only IA'd a handful of fires and gotten to rappel a few; thankfully though I've spent a fair amount of time out of John Day either boosting other bases or on helibases somewhere. Now we are in that awkward late season phase where we're not sure if we should expect more fire or not. Fuels are still dry but the days are cooler and there is more rain in the forecast.

All in all a good season though. We are rappelling after much uncertainty, R6 has rappelled a bunch of fires safely and we have a really solid crew.

Rookie Academy

Vet academy is over and I am finally a re-certified rappeller. Rookie academy started today with half of this year's rookies familiarizing themselves with the equipment and learning basic procedures. They ended the day on the low station on the rappel simulator and tomorrow should progress to the high tower. We launched our IA ship for a fire on the south end of the forest but got turned around after sizing the fire up. Looks like fire season is just around the corner.

Vet Academy

Veteran Rappel Academy started today with Frazier, Sled Springs and MRC vets getting briefed on the protocol changes this year and hitting the high tower. Everything went smoothly and tomorrow we'll head out to the machines for some mock-ups, then live rappels. Finally! Its hard to believe that we're actually doing it but everyone is pretty stoked about it.

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.

Aldrich Mtns.

We spent last week training in the Aldrich mountains west of town. It is a great opportunity to practice what we preach, or as the saying around the base goes, "Work like you train and train like you work." While it snowed and/or rained on us every day, it was a very successful week of experiential learning filled with saw training, PT, SAR and medical scenarious, PT, line digs, live fire training, and oh yeah, more PT. Camping in the woods for a week is also a great way to start the ever important crew cohesion process. The program is a great way to shake the cobwebs off, gain some valuable training and evaluate the rookies.

Day Two

Day two is over. Looks like a really good rookie class this year. Fit and motivated. It brings back a lot of memories from when I showed up not knowing what to expect last year. Its a lot different being the returning vet! I'm very much looking forward to the rest of the season.
Our first helicopter showed up today, a Bell 205A++, which is basically a souped up civilian version of the Huey. Looks like a great ship and I can't wait to fly in it.