It wasn't an official Search and Rescue week this time, but last week certainly seemed like it for me! I've had busier weeks with SAR before thanks to long, complex search/rescues, but never with so much diversity.
On Monday, I got a call from a television producer friend who just began pre-production for a SAR documentary. So much for saving the best for last, that's actually my favorite announcement, and it'll be fun to contribute and see the finished product, possibly sometime this fall.
On Tuesday, we had a short rescue mission. It actually came Wednesday morning at 1:00 a.m. A motorcycler somewhere above Cedar Hills called in with possible head injuries. Due to a kink in the notification system, we got paged 20 minutes later than we should have been, and we had scarcely begun sending out search teams to comb the foothills when a team member watched the rider roll slowly out of a canyon on his own. I would have arrived home by 2:00 had a few of us not hung around talking for another hour.
On Wednesday night, I gave the keynote address for the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce Great Kids Awards ceremony, where a pair of 7th graders from every junior high in the valley was recognized for being generally awesome people. They received some awesome prizes, and you can watch my presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH5xf1RLiCg
Thursday night was our monthly team training and business meeting. It went quickly and it was nice to see everyone. I replaced my 200' rope and prussiks since my old ones were showing some wear.
Lindsey and Rob had their baby with them, who has better attendance than some of our team members, so when I got home, I photoshopped this picture of her, making her an official member of BSAR (baby search and rescue).
On Friday, I finished working out the details between the Mountain Rescue Association Education Committee's Webinar Training Subcommittee (which I founded and chair) and PMI (awesome climbing rope manufacturer) for monthly training that we'll create for members of the MRA. The rest of you can watch them on our websites afterward.
Saturday brought our monthly team training, which was swiftwater rescue this month, despite low river flow levels so far this year. I covered the foot entrapment station where groups practiced retrieving people from the river by capturing them with throw bags (and ropes) from the river banks. You can see some footage of our training on this news story: http://www.kutv.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_11048.shtml
And on Sunday, not to be outdone by the other days of the week, NPR's All Things Considered played an interview they recorded with me on Thursday afternoon. Listen to it here: http://www.npr.org/2014/05/04/309075885/calling-off-the-search-the-emotional-toll-of-search-and-rescue
Now let's see if this week can somehow top last!!!!
Thursday night was our monthly team training and business meeting. It went quickly and it was nice to see everyone. I replaced my 200' rope and prussiks since my old ones were showing some wear.
Lindsey and Rob had their baby with them, who has better attendance than some of our team members, so when I got home, I photoshopped this picture of her, making her an official member of BSAR (baby search and rescue).
On Friday, I finished working out the details between the Mountain Rescue Association Education Committee's Webinar Training Subcommittee (which I founded and chair) and PMI (awesome climbing rope manufacturer) for monthly training that we'll create for members of the MRA. The rest of you can watch them on our websites afterward.
Saturday brought our monthly team training, which was swiftwater rescue this month, despite low river flow levels so far this year. I covered the foot entrapment station where groups practiced retrieving people from the river by capturing them with throw bags (and ropes) from the river banks. You can see some footage of our training on this news story: http://www.kutv.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_11048.shtml
And on Sunday, not to be outdone by the other days of the week, NPR's All Things Considered played an interview they recorded with me on Thursday afternoon. Listen to it here: http://www.npr.org/2014/05/04/309075885/calling-off-the-search-the-emotional-toll-of-search-and-rescue
Now let's see if this week can somehow top last!!!!