A Wet Situation in the Present and Busy Situation in the Future

Dreams of firefighting glory and paychecks fat with overtime and hazard are slowly crushed into reality with the continued assault of rain on the land here in Southern Utah. Every morning at work we read the National Situation Report praying for an increase in activity or an elevation of the National Preparedness Level. Slowly, the amount of fire we're seeing in the states is increasing. I guess now it's just a matter of time before we start working fires on a regular basis.

My time here away from work is spent relaxing. As much as I love (and sometimes hate) it out here, I'm counting down the days till I can get back home and enjoy several months at home. While I'm here, I'm hoping for fires for more experience and to attend certain trainings to further advance my career with qualifications.

I'm looking, this coming fall/winter/spring, to pile on things to keep me busy. I have a job (hopefully) lined up with an interfacility ambulance transport service which will be my main source of income over the months. I'm already planning on returning to duty with Ashburn during the last week in August. I'm looking to volunteer for Shenandoah Mountain Rescue Group when I get back as well. Hopefully in November, Virginia's wildfire season will be busy enough to warrant a deployment out of me. With Zion Helitack's hopeful plans of putting up an aerial ignition module for the winter with the sole purpose to provide prescribed fire solutions to various government organization I'm hoping to possibly come back out west to do one or two two-week details with the crew and possibly work on some aerial ignition qualifications myself. And maybe, if I'm not busy enough as it is, I'm hoping to work part-time with Patagonia in DC to help with financing my addiction to climbing and (now) skiing. With work, obviously, comes play. I've been telling myself since I won't be going to Antarctica this season I'm looking to do a couple weekend Europe, Africa, and/or Central and South American trips this winter. For a while (before I even knew that I wasn't going back down to Antarctica during the 2009-2010 season) I had been planning on a trip to Iran to do some backcountry skiing and climbing. A lot of people (due to their ignorance) expressed their displeasure in the idea which fueled the urge to go through with the trip even more. With the current political upheaval and social unrest in the country I may put that trip off for a little bit longer. All of that on top of school means for a fun, albeit busy, winter...

Rain, Rain, and Lots of It

We're 3 weeks into June and it has done nothing but rained it's ass off. This time last year we were already well into our fire season with the Corn Creek Fire that grew over 2500 acres before being considered "controlled". Here we're getting rain on an average of every other day. For us firefighters here in Color Country (and probably everywhere), every day at work we see rain proves demoralizing for the fire season outlook (as well as that of our seasonal salary). It's like I explain to everyone that's not a firefighter: firefighters and EMT's don't wish death and destruction on anyone...but we damn sure want to be there when it happens. Anyways, our days have been spent trying to find things to keep us busy. Hopefully it picks up and we can get away from the base for a while...I think we all are getting pretty restless...

From Zion Helitack 2009

From Zion Helitack 2009

A Work Project on Top of West Temple

Monday was a project day at work for we spent all day in the park flying up to two of the several repeaters in the area. With fortune having me on the initial attack load on our helicopter for the day, I got to do the first flight of the day which took us up to West Temple in the park. The morning brought on flying repeater technicians up to the sight as well as slinging their gear up behind them. While we sat there for hours waiting for them to finish (and a while I was flying up too) I took in the scenery around me:

From Zion Helitack 2009

From Zion Helitack 2009

From Zion Helitack 2009

From Zion Helitack 2009

From Zion Helitack 2009

From Zion Helitack 2009

From Zion Helitack 2009

From Zion Helitack 2009

After 3 or 4 hours chilling on top of the plateau we flew back down to let a few other firefighters have some scenic fun this time at a repeater site called Timber Top in the Kolob District of the park. For the rest of us we hung out by I-15 handling cargo nets at our temporary helibase and just hanging out. All in all a fun day at work taking in the scenery of my office!

Keyhole Canyon - Zion National Park

Today, being the last day of my standard three day weekend, was spent in Zion with my friend Dan and his friend Sally (an Interpretive Ranger within the park) exploring a slot canyon within the park known as Keyhole Canyon. Keyhole was a very short and fun (and incredibly cold even with a wetsuit) technical slot canyon that we were able to finish in under two hours (before 1300 to be exact).

From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking

From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking

The route through the canyon required a few rappels...both of which required swimming when reaching the bottom.

From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking

From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking

Near the end (during which I left my camera in the dry box I had) was a windy section of the canyon nearly 50 meters long, less than 4 feet wide, and over 6 feet deep. Luckily since the canyon was so narrow at this point we made our way through by pushing against the walls. The canyon opened into a drainage less than a 1/4 mile from the trailhead and our car. After loading our wet clothing and gear in the car, we got lunch and then parted ways all before 1500. Not a bad way to spend the day....

A Month Hiatus...

It's been a month since I last made a post here and for that I apologize. I really don't have a glorious reason as to why I haven't posted an entry for so long. I would love to say that I was exploring the Sahara or skiing in the Pamirs or climbing some remote unknown peak. In reality I just got lazy over the past few weeks. The start of our crew was a blessing for me. Our first day was the 12th and we hit the ground running...literally in that sense as well. For the first couple of weeks we were PTing twice a day which I welcomed considering how out of shape I was yet still dreaded. We spent most of that time training: helitack operations, orienteering, NPS training, initial attack wildland firefighting, etc. Our first taste of fire came in our second week when we did a small prescribed fire within Zion National Park. With our helicopter coming on last Thursday, we started doing a lot of project work over the weekend which also led to our first fire! I don't have any pictures (considering I broke my camera skiing last month) but it really wasn't much. A single juniper tree that got struck by lightening. Considering that our first fire last year didn't come until 15 June, this is a very good sign as to what will come of this fire season. I'm in debt right now and I'm trying to buy a new truck (no one tell my mother!) this summer so hundreds of hours of overtime will definitely help!

I started working 4 10-hour days on Saturday which makes my particular work week Friday through Monday. I'm going to try to travel as much as I can between visiting Maleigha in Boise and being close to Las Vegas' Airport. Hopefully this is a premise to more exciting journal entries!