Small Party Cave Rescue Class 2014

As a precursor to the upcoming epic Zion adventure post, I thought I better do this post.

 At the end of September I spent a long weekend in Garden City, Utah to help teach a Small Party Assisted Rescue (SPAR) class, sponsored by the National Cave Rescue Commission (NCRC). My friend Andy had asked if I would be a part of it, and since I enjoyed the previous one we had taught together so much, I said yes. Andy had found a huge vacation cabin that slept 26, so we had 20 students, 5 instructors, and 1 very awesome Bonny who did everything under the sun (or clouds) to keep us going.

It turned out the cabin had some great rigging opportunities, which we took advantage of for the Thursday night check-ins and Friday exercises.

Friday we also had a half-day of classroom activities, including learning about pre-planning, what to take in your cave pack, using your vehicle as your mini rescue cache (even if it's a horizontal cave, you can keep some vertical gear in your car just in case), hypothermia, improvised splinting (see below), suspension trauma, and a review of haul systems.

Then the afternoon was time to get on rope. The students rotated through different stations, such as the diminishing loop counterbalance (a super small party rescue technique).

 We also taught how to get a person stuck on rope down to the ground quickly by converting to a lower. Of course, the best way to make this quick is to rig a contingency anchor (for example a munter tied off), so if someone gets stuck, it takes about five seconds to start lowering them.

Students (and instructors) loved doing the rebelay course, a rope course that included switching to different ropes, a deviation, and a J-hang. You really learn to tune your system so you don't expend too much energy.

In the evening we enjoyed a good rigging/bad rigging lecture. You need to know your gear. And test your anchors. Every time.

The next day we headed to a nearby cave under the threat of massive rains. The rains did come, but we went anyway. It's not always good weather for rescues, after all. The cave was ten minutes away by car and then a ten minute hike. The 30-foot pit provided us a variety of scenarios, expanding on what we had taught the day before, like how to use a diminishing loop counterbalance when you have to dangle it over the edge. We also did some in-cave movement and traveling hauls, where the haul system moves up the rope with the patient instead of being at the top (or bottom).

Here's the rigging for a contingency anchor, along with a canyoneer rappelling down on his piranha. We had a bunch of canyoneers in the class, and it was fun trading techniques.

By lunchtime everyone was soaked, so we headed back to the cabin to practice some other techniques, like how to get a patient through a rebelay (below).

 That evening we had a presentation from a local caver who had shattered his scapula (shoulder blade) in a caving accident this past summer and how he had self-rescued out of the cave. It was a great story and a good lesson for us all.

Then on Sunday it was time for the mock scenarios. We drove in the rain up to Paris Ice Cave, a place we had visited previously. This time I saw it with very different eyes as we set up three scenarios for the students. They did great.

It was a super weekend despite the unfavorable weather, and I had a super time. I learned a few new things, which I greatly value, and met and got to know some folks a lot better. In fact, I met up with one of the students a couple weeks later for our epic Zion adventure. 

If you go caving and have a chance to take a cave rescue class, by all means take it! I have become a much safer caver knowing what would happen if I get hurt deep in a cave--or even not so far into a cave. You can find a list of upcoming classes on the NCRC website.

Cave safely and softly!

Our Little Zion Adventure--Sand Digging Canyon

 Over the weekend we went to Zion National Park to meet one of my brothers and his girlfriend. The park was packed! I couldn't believe how many people were there. In fact, the park is on track to have more than 3 million visitors this year. That's a lot of people for a park that has few roads through its 232 square miles. All the parking lots were full and the highway through the park was very busy. 

Nevertheless, it is possible to find a little quiet. We lucked out into one spot. We parked right before the second, smaller tunnel. A social trail led down to Clear Creek, the canyon that the road parallels for a long section. I figured we would hike in it. But then Desert Boy noticed a side canyon. In particular, he noticed a long tunnel. It was a tunnel that had been carved through the sandstone to allow the canyon to drain. He asked if we could go in.

You already know what I said!

The tunnel was nice and cool and easily walkable. On the other side we popped out to some pools.


I admired some of the fall colors. The maples had a few red leaves.

We spotted a lizard.

We continued hiking in some very nice terrain, the kids leading the way. They were so happy to be exploring. I was so happy to have a little piece of the park to ourselves. They kept telling me I needed to touch the sand because it felt so great. When they found some wet sand, they said it was perfect sand-castle making sand. I could tell they wanted to stop, but I told them we were going to keep hiking.

Then we rounded a corner and found this sweet spot, and I knew we had found our little mecca.

 Not only did we have wet sand, we also had water, colorful rocks, and a little bit of shade. I quickly claimed the shade and laid down on the nice sand and took a little snooze.

 The kids quickly started digging and constructing their sand castles. Everyone was happy!

When I felt refreshed, I wandered up canyon a little.

I found more pools with some stained water in them. The canyon opened up a bit.

I didn't go far, and found the view coming back down was great.

I even found some flowers in bloom.

Desert Girl was happily throwing sand into the puddle. The beauty of desert canyons is that rearranging the sand causes no harm--floods will rearrange the sand much more than two little kids could do in an hour.

Because they're kids, they couldn't resist the water. They asked if they could go for a swim. I said sure, as long as they took all their clothes off. And so they did, quickly discovering that the water was rather cool. 

No one came the whole time we were there. 

 When we scrambled back up to the road, we were back to the highway, with one car after another.

I suspect that there are a lot of sweet spots in Zion, just off the highway. So if you're there, take a chance and see what you can find. We couldn't have been more than a quarter-mile off the highway, but we had it all to ourselves. Even better, the kids keep asking when they can go back. Since they led the trip, they feel ownership in the hike. (See this post for tips for visiting Zion with kids.)

That was our little Zion adventure. Coming soon: our epic Zion adventure.

Mountain Biking at Sacramento Pass Recreation Area, Nevada

 When I was reading my friend Jenny's blog about their trip to the recently-opened Sacramento Pass Recreation Area, I was inspired to go for a visit.

They have a really nice sign with lots of information.

While my husband and Desert Girl tried their luck at fishing, Desert Boy and I decided to try one of the hiking/mountain biking/equestrian trails. To make it a little easier, we biked up the road to the equestrian trailhead, which also has three very nice campsites. Then we started down the trail.

It was fun mountain biking!

We reached some obstacles where we had to walk the bikes.

The trail was well marked in some places and in others we had to do a little searching. We rebuilt a couple rock cairns that had fallen over.

A little bit of the trail was flat and smooth.

A lot of the trail had rock obstacles.

I was quite impressed with how Desert Boy handled his bike.


























Here's a video that shows Desert Boy going over a particularly rocky section.


We were getting a little tired after mile two, and the aspens sort of took over the trail. Nevertheless, we persevered, as we knew we were close.

It turned out to be a great ride, and we look forward to going back and trying out some of the longer trails.

Meanwhile, Desert Girl had learned to cast well.

We had forgotten the worms, so we only got two trout in about 2.5 hours, so we'll have to go back and work on that too!

Sac Pass is definitely on our list for camping next year. The BLM did a really nice job renovating this area, and we'll be back!

A Night Under the Moon

 My friend Jenny had the great idea to take the kids for a moonlit hike. During the summer, Great Basin National Park offers full moon hikes to Stella Lake. Now that it's October, those hikes are over, but there was nothing to stop us from going ourselves! We decided that we would try Strawberry Creek instead of Stella Lake. One of the reasons is that we wanted to hear elk bugling, and indeed we did. In the photo above, we stopped to listen to the eerie sound.

 As we hiked, the nearly full moon rose over the ridge. We tried to have the kids keep their flashlights off. It wasn't easy for them, as they were not comfortable hiking at night with just the glow of the moon. Gradually, though, they got used to it.

 We've hiked the Strawberry Creek loop before, but in daylight. The kids fondly remembered the bridges.

It didn't take long to get to the top bridge. We stopped for snacks and photos. It was hard to get everyone to sit still! Can you see the Big Dipper in the background? (It's on the left.)

We decided to play around with long exposures and some flashlight writing. I set the camera to take a 30-second exposure, then keeping the headlight covered, ran over and wrote the word "moon." Then I illuminated us for a couple seconds. Again it was hard to keep everyone still, and I look like a ghost, but you get the idea! We'll have to work on this technique some more.

After the bridge we were out in the meadow, and it was so bright! The kids walked really fast, and by now it was no problem to hike in the moon light without flashlights.

I was amazed how bright everything was with just the moon. I dragged behind experimenting with photos.

We got to the bridge at the end right about bed time. It was the perfect length hike for the kids.

Later that night I woke up to go check out the lunar eclipse. I took a ton of photos but wasn't very happy with how they turned out. It reinforced my desire to do a 2015 Moon Photo Challenge. I'll have more up on the blog about that later, but basically the idea is to take a photo of the full moon each month, experimenting with different locations and techniques. I hope you'll join me!

Here's the full moon from under the fall colors.

The blood moon during the full eclipse.

And finally, the eclipse ending.

I was exhausted the next morning, but it was worth it.

Lifeflight Training

Last week the Life Flight helicopter from Provo came out to provide an orientation and training for the services they provide. We (the local volunteer emergency squad) actually called Life Flight a few weeks ago to respond to a motorcycle wreck, and it was so good to know that advanced medical help was coming, as it's about an hour ride in an ambulance to the nearest hospital.

For our training, they landed in a parking lot and then we proceeded to a classroom, where we learned lots of useful things. They fly Agusta helicopters, with a 150 mph cruising speed in the summer, and 130 mph in the winter when they add the skis (they get a lot of ski resort business in the winter). They have hoist capabilities, but that takes some extra time to set up before they start the mission. It took them just under an hour to fly to our location, and it takes about 5-8 minutes to get into the air from the time they get a call. They have enough fuel to get to our location and part way back, but have to do a refueling stop on the return flight.

Life Flight flies day and night. At night they use night vision goggles, so they gave us some guidance of what lights they want on the ground when they come so they know where to go but aren't blinded. We also went over the landing zone criteria, especially for the backcountry.

They gave us a tour of the helicopter. The usual crew is the pilot, a paramedic, and a flight nurse. They have room for one patient on a gurney. Because of the high level of training of the crew, they are essentially operating a mobile intensive care unit.

The crew talked about how to approach the helicopter and other safety precautions. I've heard most of it before, but a refresher is good because I simply don't deal with helicopters that often.

After a couple hours they lifted off and headed back. They had been surprised on their way out here about the vast stretch of "nothingness." When you travel at 150 mph and think that, it gives you a good idea how remote we are! It sure is nice to know that even though we are remote, we have access to top-notch medical care, although it will take a little while to get here.

Here's a link to Life Flight's website if you'd like to learn more about their bases, aircraft, history, and more.