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ANNUAL ROCK PRACTICE - a trainee's perspective
by Matt Jarvis
We arrived to find most of CMRU on hand for this year's rock practice
- a good sign that this is one of our most popular training events. Promptly
at 10:00am Susan came running into camp, screaming like crazy that someone
had gone over the edge and was badly hurt. Myself (and Jon?) went at a
full sprint for the edge to assist before being called back by Don. Aha!
Realism is a good thing. Susan's performance was worthy of an Academy Award
nomination.
We quickly sent out the hasty team, while the rest of us mobilized
the remaining gear. Spencer went over the edge to triage the patient (Tim)
while the rest of the Unit set up a raising/lowering system with belay.
Don did a great job running things, and each station had an expert on hand
to see that things were done properly.
After the entire system was in place (under the watchful eye of Anne,
the Safety Officer) we practiced raising and lowering. Luckily Bob had
the foresight to go ahead and rig the raising system during some downtime
at initial set up - a real time saver when it came time to actually use
it. To add realism Bob had arranged for some dreadful amounts of
rain that morning which put our patience and raingear to the test. Safety
Tip: wet vertical rocks are slippery. After tearing down the system,
during a lunch break we all felt pretty good about how things had gone.
Consistent communication and safety were the highlights of discussion.
For the afternoon session, Tim took charge and now it was the Trainees
turn to rig the system. Oh Baby! Tim even saw to it that we had much better
weather. Way to go Tim!
Anne and I set up the Belay station, Bob and Keith were busy setting
up the raising/lowering system, while Dustin and others were edge attendants
and prepared the litter and rock. Jeff made his rounds as Safety Officer
- a job he seemed to relish with a vengeful glee.
Eric made his first run as a litter attendant and seemed to be having
a great time. Learning Note: as with rappelling, getting over the edge,
both going up or down, seem to be real issues requiring a lot of practice.
Another Learning Note: Don't let a 4 to 1 mechanical advantage fool you
- it takes A LOT of work to move something upwards.
After tearing it all down and a discussion about the job we had done
- dinner time! Everyone took off for Terrebonne for Mexican food while
Dustin and I stayed behind and enjoyed the solitude while building a fire
at our main campsite. When everyone returned, the evening's conversation
was filled with lively debate on various gear, stories of heroic deeds
and good camaraderie.
Sunday was rappelling/ascending practice which everyone seemed to enjoy.
We were joined by a few folks from Jefferson County SAR to see how we did
things. We also broke into groups and practiced setting anchors in the
rocks at the bottom of the cliff and each group shared what they had come
up with. All of them looked pretty solid!
After everyone was back up on top the real fun began. Highlines!! We
split into two teams and went about the complex task of setting up the
Anchor ends, Belay station and Tension system. A carriage was rigged up
with tag lines and tag line hangers. One of the J.C. folks 'volunteered'
to be a deadweight for the return trip on the carriage, and we learned
how much work it was to set up a system like this.
Participants:. Benson, Fitzpatrick, Freund, Gent, Greenwood, Harney,
Jarvis, Lacer, Leach, Mitsch, Sears, Vertanen, Wood
NEW MEMBER - Keith Vertanen
During its May meeting, the Executive Committee interviewed Keith
and extended an invitation for him to become a Trainee member of the Unit.
He has previous outdoor experience in Minnesota and will be finishing graduate
work at OSU in Computer Science next year. In addition to already
completing the SAR certification through Benton County earlier this Spring,
Keith has also completed a nine day "Wilderness First Responder" course.
Welcome to CMRU, Keith.
NEW EQUIPMENT - update
In the same manner that the four Bendix-King portables are "loaned"
to CMRU by Benton County, an aircraft band portable has been loaned to
us. We have configured it with a battery pack into which alkaline
AA cells can be placed. It will be stored without any batteries in
the pack, so it needs to be "batteried-up" whenever it might be used -
just like the avalanche transceivers.
MT. HOOD AVALANCHES - close encounters of the worst kind
The middle of May saw moderate snowfall at high elevations (>8000')
in Oregon and set the stage for a couple weekends of significant incidents.
On Memorial Day weekend, a climbing party was swept away by an avalanche
triggered by a climbing party above them. They stopped before being
carried into any crevasses and there were no injured climbers who required
evacuation. However, on the last weekend of May, a Mazama climbing
class was swept away by a slab avalanche which reportedly had a 1/4 mile
wide fracture line and ran about 100 yards. This accident resulted
in one death and two seriously injured climbers who required evacuation. |
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