Busy May

The moment we got back from our Kokanee trip we dove into a hectic schedule for the month of May. I'm wrapping up my documentary film class with Andy for a "premier" on June 8th, trying to fit in as much helicopter flight time as possible and, the kicker, taking Snohomish County's "Rigging For Rescue" class, with Mica and Anastasia.

The class covers techniques for rigging "rescue load" raising and lowering systems for high angle terrain (cliffs, etc). These systems are supposed to have a 20:1 safety margin, so they can get pretty complicated and it's (of course) important to set them up correctly so you're protecting the people on the team and the people you're trying to help. The class meets 1-3 nights a week and 1-2 days per weekend for every week in May, so we've been very busy, getting less sleep than usual and bumping off other training/commitments (climbing, puppy SAR stuff, etc) to get it done.

The material is really cool and the class has been a lot of fun so far, but there's always a broad mix of folks and there's a lot of "hurry up and wait", which can get tiring. Still, a fun time and it's been great taking it with Mica and AP, as it helps to have someone to pass notes to in class.

A couple of pictures, the first two from Wayne Orvik, one of the instructors, and the last from Greg Hobbs, who was kind enough to be the subject, strapped into the litter, while being lowered over the cliff's edge with me.

[caption id="attachment_432" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mica working edge safety at Mt. Erie."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_433" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Marcus plays attendant and manhandles the litter (with Greg) over the edge."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_434" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Greg (the subject) looking up at me standing on the litter rails to mess with my gear."][/caption]

And a couple more, of rigging training and Andy and I at HRT training.

[caption id="attachment_439" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="First day of training, practicing a familiar task (climbing the rope) with a new setup (Purcell prussiks)."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_440" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Saturday\'s scenario training that Andy was on while we were rigging -- the snow and storm system created a huge amount of static discharge in the hoist cable. Sporty."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_442" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="As the litter (top right) gets hoisted up, the Tech monitors the tagline to keep it from going into a spin in the rotor wash. Andy had already gone up, to pull the litter into the heli when it got there."][/caption]