Mountain Rescue Training

We were warned that our SAR pagers would go off on Thursday evening to signal a mountain rescue training scenario. I anticipated where it would be staged and was pulling up to the parking lot as the page went off, so thanks to a lucky guess - I was the first one on site.

A hiker had fallen in the cliffs of Squaw Peak up behind the Provo Temple (about a 1/4 of the way up on the left of the photo above). I was assigned to go up with the 'hasty team' - which is the first couple of guys that are assigned to blaze up and locate, assess, stabilize the victim and then radio down to scene command in the parking lot to relay details. Two other teams followed, the medical and technical teams - both carrying more gear.

This was definitely my kind of gig.

Above is a photo I snapped of 'Cletus' - our victim with a fractured leg and concussion. We got to rig a pretty sweet belay system, load him into a rescue litter and haul his sorry butt off the mountain - mostly in the dark.

Below is a shot as he was lowered down the mountain.

I didn't get a lot of pics, since there was mucho action - but below is a shot looking over Provo as we finished taking down the belay ropes and headed down. Good times. . .

SAR - Ice Rescue

Our Search and Rescue field training in February was on a mostly frozen Utah Lake, where we learned some serious ice rescue skills. Not sure what knuckleheads are going to end up stranded in the water out there this time of year - but when they are we'll be ready. . .

We learned how to use this slick little 'Rescue Alive' sled that can shimmy quickly across ice or paddle through open water to reach a victim. Rescuers on shore pull the sled back in by the rope attached to the sled, once they're loaded and ready.

Then there were the hover-crafts. These bad boys can cruise along water or ice with power. They are propelled by a honkin' motor and fan attached to the back. Pretty fun stuff.

Search and Rescue dudes definitely have some sweet toys to play with.

Backyard Elk Tracking

There is a rumor that a herd of elk roam the field and golf course behind our house this time of year. Joshua and I decided to be adventurous and go see if we could track them down. Tracey and the girls said we are idiots - which confirmed for us that it was a good idea. Turns out there actually are elk down there! We found 'em.

Okay, so I learned that Joshua is not that great of a tracker. I turned around to see if he was keeping an eye on the herd while I adjusted lenses and above is what I saw coming at me. Punk. He's lucky his aim stinks or he would have been taken down.

Not sure what exactly is going on here, but the pond reflection is cool. Some sort of macho 'I just chased a herd of elk through the field' type of yell. I don't know what is up with the stick, either - but Josh said he wanted to be prepared if the elk charged us. Good to know we were safe in a worst case scenario, with the snowballs flyin' and all.

There was no Mr. Bull Elk with the lady herd today - so we may have to go searching again another day to see if we can track him down.

Search and Rescue - Avalanche Training

I have been fascinated with Search & Rescue for awhile. After looking into it towards the end of '08 I was asked to come in and interview with the team. They liked my climbing background and invited me to train with the team for a couple months and see if it was a good fit. It is.

It's a volunteer organization, but gives me an excuse to play in the mountains and train to do mountain, swift water, dive, open water, downed aircraft and cave rescue. We also do lots of emergency medical training - which will allow me to recertify as an EMT.

The other weekend we met up at the base of Mt Timpanogos for a winter - avalanche rescue training. After arriving I was informed that I was selected as the leader for this rescue. (I'm the nerd in the red pants and yellow gaters)

The scenario was that 4 victims were caught in an avalanche and 3 of them had beacons. So off we went with our probes, shovels and avalanche beacons to make the rescue. The 3 victims with beacons were easy to locate and uncover. I was surprised that they actually had live volunteers buried (wrapped in pads and with a strategic vent hole, but a good 3 feet under the surface). These guys don't mess around. We got to dig them out and provide emergency care for injuries.

Above and below I am leading the probe line in search of the 4th "victim". This one was a little tougher and was quite educational as to why avalanche rescues are almost always a body recovery if they are without a beacon. It took awhile, but we found #4. I guess nobody would volunteer to be the beacon-less victim, so this one was a large duffle bag buried at the base of the chute.

Saturday Night Sledding

The kids talked me into taking them over to the sledding hill across from our place last night. Here are a few pics of our chilly good times. . .

I love this shot of Megan. I wanted to create the look of an action sledding shot, so I slowed the shutter speed down to 1/4 of a second. Now it looks more like she is rippin' down the hill.

What is with the goofy arctic hat - you are wondering? Tracey had to buy that sucker for me. She says it is my new 'shoveling snow hat'. Apparently there will be no more excuses when the wind is blowing 80 mph.

A'right it's getting a little dark - everyone back to the house. . .

Spanish Fork Hot Springs

Last Saturday I went with Joshua and a group of deacons up Spanish Fork Canyon. We hiked a couple miles into the infamous hot springs. Rumor has it they are a nudey attraction in the summer, so we purposely took the young men in December. It was the same day of our first major snowfall - so by the time we hiked out it was snowing pretty heavy. Other than a few 12 year old boys mooning nature, there was no flashing up there that day. . .

The hot springs are hot tub warm, which is kind of cool up in the mountains - especially while it's snowing. A little bit of a sulfur smell in the air, which was probably partly created by the hot springs and partly from the deacons. I hiked around and took some pictures while the boys soaked. Good times.

"It is good for us to be here"

Sunday evening I heard that Elder Richard G Scott was speaking at a fireside for portuguese speaking members and returned missionaries. Our neighbor also served a mission in Brazil - so the two of us drove up to the Tanner Building at BYU to listen in. It was a cool thing to see an apostle in a small fireside setting - speaking portuguese and cracking jokes.

Afterwards he asked if everyone would take a minute to come over and shake his hand. That is when Larry snapped this photo of me and Elder Scott. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday evening. Laura and I went to a CES Fireside last month at the Marriott Center and saw Elder Jeffrey R Holland.

I've heard a number of good people say that they would not consider living in Utah. They have lots of reasons. However, I scratch my head when a Latter-Day Saint says they won't live here because there are "too many Mormons". That logic confuses me when I think of all the Mormons that will probably be in the Celestial Kingdom. I don't know. . .

We are surrounded by great mountains - with good hiking and awesome skiing. We are in the presence of prophets and apostles several times each year. Our kids go to school and play with friends that share the same values - although there are a couple in our neighborhood that need a good swift wedgie. We have season tickets to BYU football. In an hours drive from home we pass 6 temples and 17 places that serve fry sauce. Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems there are worse places we could raise a family.

Understandably, not everyone can live under the Wasatch Mountains, but to borrow a New Testament phrase, I am thinking - "it is good for us to be here". . .

First Fish

On Friday we were in the Uintas Mountains for a scout hike. Joshua insisted that I let him bring a fishing pole even though I knew he wouldn't be catching any fish. There are a bunch of lakes out there and we hiked into the area of Cuberant Lakes. It was nice - perfect weather, no mosquitos and lots of m&m's and beef jerky. Good solid guy stuff.

Joshua pulled out the fishing pole and baited his hook with a hunk of cheese from his pack. Grandpa and I took turns demonstrating how to cast like a man. Then it was Josh's turn. After a 1/2 hour of no luck I asked him if he really thought a fish would go for soggy cheese. His response was, "Isn't pretty much everything a fish goes for soggy?" Good point.

We could see trout swimming near the shore line, but our bait options of cheese and fish eggs were not getting any action. Along the shore we noticed lots of short red bushes with little blue berries growing on them. Grandpa was trying to convince Joshua that they are edible, although - depending on how many you eat - you may want to have a roll of toilet paper handy.

Joshua started picking berries and threw one in the lake. Instantly a trout surfaced and gobbled the berry. Our eyes suddenly got big and we looked at each other. "Try that again!" Same result. So, we ditched the fish eggs and baited the hook with 4 wild blueberries.

The first cast with berry-bait and Joshua had a fish on the line. The first fish he had ever hooked. He reeled it in, laughing and hooting appropriately. Since this was his first fishing experience that actually involved a fish - Joshua wasn't sure how to handle the wet and wiggly thing. He was actually kind of a pansy and didn't want to touch it, but I guess that's alright.

The other scouts and leaders on the hike were all quite impressed when Joshua landed the first fish of the day. Some of them had been unsuccessfully fishing with fancy lures and looked a bit suspicious when Joshua showed them what his bait was.

Josh Hits 12

Saturday was Joshua's 12 birthday - and it was a doosy. It worked out that most of his favorite activities were happening Friday and Saturday.

Friday afternoon we headed up Hobble Creek Canyon for the ward campout. It was a lot of fun with the smores and everything, but we froze our butts off in the tent. Just as we were settling into our sleeping bags, at almost 1:00A, we heard a yell from the little girls tent - "I have a wedgie! And I need to go to the bathroom!" Probably more information than needed to be screamed through the silent campground, but I got up to take care of business and lots of people got a good laugh. We broke camp early and, after a big breakfast at the campground, we were on our way home.

At 11:00A, Saturday morning, Joshua had to be at the football field for his game. He was excited because he had new cool football gloves and a sweet waterbottle. His team won, which made life good. I especially like the shot of Joshua on the offensive line. The big-eyed look on the kids face next to him is priceless. "Holy crap - that guy is going to crush me!"

BYU vs UCLA was scheduled to kick off in Provo at 1:30P. We pulled into town around 1:40 and had to park across from the MTC. As we got out of the car Joshua said, "I thought we were going to a football game, not on a mission." We actually stood about 10 rows from the field at close to the 50 yard line to watch the game (never even made it to our seats). Perfect place to watch the action from just behind the Cougar sideline. BYU embarassed the Bruins and we loved every minute of it. Cosmo came over at halftime to give Josh a noogie. By the end of the 3rd quarter BYU was up 59-0, the starters were sipping chilled beverages from the sidelines and we headed out.

Back at home with the family - he opened a couple presents and we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. Sounds like a pretty awesome birthday - camping, football and food. . .

BYU Football

Joshua and I went to the home opener at Edwards Stadium last Saturday. BYU handed Northern Iowa a healthy whoopin' - as expected. We had a good time watching from our season seats in the NW endzone bleachers. (The top photo is of the first play of the season, taken from our seats) This week the Cougs are in Seattle to take on the Huskies. We're jazzed for next weekend, when our 2nd home game is vs UCLA - on Joshua's 12th birthday. BYU sports is one of many reasons I love living where we do. Josh asked what he has to do to play basketball for BYU - which has been his dream since he was their ball-boy a couple years ago. I told him to just relax and watch a little football, we'll deal with basketball in a couple months. . .

Josh the Jock

Joshua wanted to be a Seahawk, but was drafted by the Bengals for his first tackle football league experience. His first real game was fun yesterday - even though they got whooped by an 'accelerated' team.

Joshua played offensive line and a little defensive end. The team was laughing in the half-time huddle because apparently a big guy on the other team stepped up to the line of scrimmage and tried to intimidate Joshua saying he was going to get him. Josh looked up and said, "Oh, shut up."

He made a couple impressive tackles in the second half and told me after the game that he likes tackling better than pulling flags. He and I have season tickets to BYU football this year and their home opener is this Saturday - so we're getting ready for a little football. Fall season rules. . .

Top of Timpanogos

A couple weekends ago I took Joshua and two knuckleheads his age up to Timpanogos. We had a fun day hiking up the 7 mile Aspen Grove trail to the 11,749 foot summit. We all came home with some serious sunburns and smelly feet.

When we got to the shelter at Emerald Lake there was a group of emergency rescue dudes looking up at the snowfield through a little telescope and talking on their radios. Turns out some BYU college rookies decided to strap on garbage bags and torpedo glissade down from the top, with no ice ax and no clue. One of them was suddenly stopped mid-glissade by a large boulder and a compound fracture to his leg. We watched the life-flight chopter come in and take the goofball back into town - before we headed on up to the summit.

We saw the usual herd of mountain goats and got pretty close to one of them near the top. Joshua, Ben and Johnny had a blast. Good times. . .