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.

Another Season

After another successful season of prescribed fire with The Nature Conservancy of Arkansas (and a consequent 6 months of blog neglect) I'm back out in John Day, OR for another season on the Malheur Rappel Crew. Do I still have any readers? Probably not. Oh well. I'll try to keep the blog up to date this summer with fires etc. but if you want more info check me out on Facebook. Yeah, I finally gave in and signed up this fall. Work starts tomorrow! PT test, pack test, paperwork and more. Looks like rain so it should be interesting.

Crater Lake

We filled out our 14 day detail in CA and stopped by Crater Lake on the way back. Really neat. My days off lined up nicely so I got a block of 3 days off and headed up to Spokane. Spent the night at a hot spring on the Umatilla NF and then met up with a buddy in the city. I went to the Whites Boots factory and got fitted for custom boots. The guy was amazing! He knew so much about their boots and about feet. Really impressive!

Down in California

Well I guess its been about a month since my last post. In that time I rappelled a fire in the Strawberry Wilderness just outside of John Day. It was about 30 ac. at the bottom of a steep south facing slope when we got to it and despite our best efforts it got away from us. I returned later in the week with our national helicopter for 6 or 7 days and staffed helispots, did cargo and crew shuttles. I got another operational rappel on that same fire to extinguish a hot spot near the retardant line high up in the rock cliffs but then we promptly got pulled off due to lightning and had to leave our gear on the hill, paving the way for my 3rd operational on the same fire to retreive our gear! About the same time I rappeled a fire on the Umatilla NF and spent 2 days there, including a grueling 110 lb. packout through blowdown. On Aug. 15th I got dispatched with 5 others to CA. We've been
moving every couple days and are now on the Red Rock Fire where I saw this cool Fire Cobra.