SAR

Last weekend my Search & Rescue team had its advanced ropes training. I went, for a change. (The past few years, I've pretty much avoided the multi-day trainings. Scared to commit? Maybe a little.)

My conflicted feelings on this front come because in the twelve-plus years I've been on the team, I've never had occasion to actually use any advanced ropes skills—not that such skills haven't been called on, even when I was on scene, but . . . it was easy enough for me to duck out and "go do something else." And as with so many skills that don't come naturally . . . use it or lose it. I tend to lose it within twenty-four hours. So when the annual training rolls around, I'm definitely at ground zero. And yeah, I don't like feeling stupid.

So this time, I decided to go and just participate in the teamwork. And not worry about the advanced skills—someone else would take care of that (that's the "teamwork" part of the equation)—but instead focus on the basics: mainline and belay.

I confess, I am not especially analytical or physics-minded. If I can master mainline and belay, I will die happy. There are plenty of men, and no doubt a few women, on the team who actually enjoy thinking about forces and kilonewtons and vectors and where and when and how to pass knots in the system. Me: if I can reliably, and quickly, rig up a mainline (bearclaw, radium release hitch, short and long prusiks, pulley, and friction device—ladder rack or scarab), then man it—I will feel like I'm an asset to the team.

Here are some photos I took over the weekend, which ended up being super enjoyable. I love my team!

At our campsite, gearing up for the first day of exercises

Arriving at the worksite involved a little climbing

Matt and Jesse, our instructors at the guiding-line station

Z on the guiding line

Z ready to protect ropes as edge attendant

Ken overseeing the pick-off station

General scenery from our campsite on a snowy morning

Sam Owen on his bike

CHP's H-70 dropping in for an intro to helos

The rig for lifting a patient in a litter

Officers Bainbridge and Ontiveros describing
the helicopter's safety rigging

This is what you look like if you forget to bring sunscreen