Zion Grass RX

On short notice, Helitack was invited down to the park in order to support the annual grass burn. I am pretty sure that most of the crew was glad to be free of the training for an afternoon, as we loaded the trucks to head South.



The backdrop for the grass burns was spectacular. It seemed as though the number of people on the burn was a little excessive for some of the units, but it paid to have the additional hands on other larger units we burned during the day.



Despite the lack of fast paced action, which usually comes with the suppression side of firefighting, the crew was enjoying the time out in the field doing something that resembles what they signed up to do... Thea had a hard time wiping the smile off of her face!












Most of the crew spent some time on the torch... a good refresher. No one likes the smell of a grass burn, the smoke stinks and burns the eye's and nose in a very noticeable way. It was good to stand in the smoke and break in the lungs for this 2009 season!

Just a little perspective on the beautiful grandier of Zion National Park... the picture below shows several members of the crew standing below the stone of Weeping Rock. You can't beet this... we get paid to do this stuff!


I'm sure that Thayer (Senior Lead) is sick of the photo sessions. The look on his face seems to say that once again he is wishing that the camera hadn't found his mug... The crew always seems to like the end of the year when we go through the pictures of the season... I'm sure Thayer will forgive the impromptu photograph.

















Suerig (Lead Crewmember) enjoyed a moment of contemplation. Reality is... he too knows the camera is on him, and chooses to act as if he doesn't know he is being photographed. Both Leads enjoyed the opportunity to observe the crew and put into practice a few of the things that we have been training on for the past 10 days.











It was a great day... we enjoyed the work, the veiws, and each other! I think we are ready for the season... helicopter arrives on Monday and is on contract by Thursday of next week... Here we go!


Tom Green (Zion Engine Crew)... capped off the day with the ultimate pose of satisfaction. He is sporting the always fashionable weed eater... I am of the opinion that he enjoyed using that weed eater a little too much! Forget burning the grass... just set Tom loose with that machine and watch the progress made in mowing down the cheat grass! I appreciate Tom and his attitude towards having fun... he puts a smile on my face every time I'm around him.
Tom will be one of our first detailers to join the crew for a two week period this season... we look forward to him running with the crew for a couple of weeks!

Week 2... More Training!

Week two of train-up was absolutely packed. We had the final member of the crew join our team. Thea arrived on Monday, and we introduced her to the park with the Fire Orientation Meeting and Bar-B-Que down at the park.

Tuesday, we did our fire refresher which included the Fire Shelter drill. Here are a couple of pictures of the crew during the Fire Shelter drill.

Each crew member takes the opportunity to practice deploying a practice fire shelter. The day cooperated well, winds were gusting at about 15-20mph which made for a more realistic deployment practice.

The crew gathered around one particular crew member that not only successfully deployed in a decent amount of time, but had a great seal... he set a great example of how it should be done.


We're glad to have Paul Damron back on the crew once again. He did a fabulous job during the shelter deployment drills...

We understand that deploying practice shelters on a lawn is not nearly realistic to what conditions will be like if it becomes necessary to utilize our shelters in the field, however the more repetitive the action is for the crew... the better prepared they should be to use the shelters if ever necessary. This is only the first of the shelter deployment practices we will have... these drills will be revisited throughout the season.


We followed shelter deployment with a team building P.T. The weight chase is a simple game, with simple rules. Two teams of equal size are created. The team members are bound together with a rope, which they are able to disconnect from if necessary. Each team member is handed a bag of weight... for this particular exercise it was 20 lbs per bag.

Each team starts on an opposite end of a course... then moving in the same direction they chase one-another until one team catches the other team. Simple.... right?


In the picture above you will notice that the teams have reduced in size... that is part of the rules and strategy of this game play. Each member has the option of dropping off the rope line if they feel their team will do better without them. They can do this but before doing so, them must hand their weight to another team member increasing that team members burden. In the picture above you will notice that team 1 is down to three... team 2 is down to two and moving in fast.The final shot of the race.... as one team catches the other... in the background you will see that those who have dropped out from exhaustion or strategy, are rooting their team on!


It was 50 push-ups for the losing team... but as you can see, on Zion Helitack we are not a group of teams... we are one team!

The season is off to a great start... the crew making it through week 2 of train-up! Only one more week to go prior to the ship coming on. The projects are starting to stack up, and the weather is looking promising for a busy season. As always, we'll be ready!

Week 1 Photo's.... Enjoy!

Paul Damron, pictured above, moves in for the kill! He is sporting the ever popular Tri-Max 3 Compressed Air Foam (CAF) Extinguisher... all joking aside, it was a great day to light up some barrels and put out some fire during extinguisher training. The guys had a lot of fun... That is pretty evident by the look on Norman "Iceman" Allen's face in the picture below...

Paul and Ice decided to get into an extinguisher war... Tri-Max CAF against the tried and true ABC Purple K extinguisher... This was the next best thing following nailing each other with the extinguishers... which the boss (me) put a stop to early on! My dad used to have a fabulous saying,"A boy is a boy, two boys are only half a boy, and three boys aint no boy at all" These guys definately became half a boy while playing with "big boy" toys... but having fun is the best way to learn!

Ben Suerig (lead crewmember) had to jump in and have a little fun himself... you can only watch the fun for so long without having to join in with this crew!

We also did some time staring at maps and trying to orient compases... not an extremely exciting picture... but for the record, we did do some mentally stimulating math during our map & compass training!

The "Cap" to the whole 1st week was a friday full of Physical Fitness testing... of the morning we did our 1.5 mile run, pull ups, push ups, & sit ups... The afternoon brought us the Pack-out! In my opinion both Ben Suerig (below) and Ben Thayer (2 below) are way to happy as they wait to begin the Pack-out...

I was hoping to wipe those smiles off their faces as we began the Pack-out... but as you can see below, they still had their smiling faces about them as they motored through the 3 mile timed event.

The two leads led the day... finishing with a time that is near Pack Test pace... only 50 minutes for them to go 3 miles with 85 pound packs on their back! They liked wearing the packs sooo much that they even lingered in the parking lot for a minute or two before dropping the packs after the testing....

Even the boss seemed to be smiling as we powered through... although if you look closely you'll notice it is more of a grimace than a smile! Let me just say that the thumbs up on my part was simply a mind game I was playing with myself... the pain had definately set in by this lap... was that lap 8 or lap 9... I think I've lost count!

Speaking of losing count... the picture below is the crew rallying around me to see me across the finish line. It wasn't until later that I was informed that either by mistake or for the joke of it all (stories seem to differ on this point) I was given the wrong number of laps starting on around lap 8... I was just tired enough not to pay attention... and thus did an extra lap! So I may not have been the fastest... but I went the furthest!


Some may be asking about the track thing... as a crew we like to do the first couple of pack-outs on a track where people can monitor their pace... and we are close enough to respond if someone is having trouble medically... by week three of train up we will be doing typical terrain pack-outs where we don't time the event, but rather just look for everyone to complete it. Typical terrain is difficult... navigating various elevation changes, brush, and loose footing... I am looking forward to torchering the crew with that one.

Side Note - the bags we are packing are not the typical pack-out bags that most rappel crews utilize... however they are Metoleous haul bags that we use in our Cargo Let Down... I wanted to see if they would work for our long pack outs... we came to the conclusion that they are not the most comfortable thing to wear, however would work in a pinch to get your gear off the hill! My butt is very sore this morning as I sit writing this... the damn pack rubbed me raw! (no pictures will follow that commentary :)

Until next week... I am going to enjoy a couple of deserved days off!

Cheers,

Week 1 - Train-Up!

Just keeping you informed -

P.T. (physical training)

Monday - Pack Test & 2 mile run

Tuesday - Fire-Fit training which included 1.5 mile run / push-ups / sit-ups / various planks / stretch testing / grip testing / vertical leap / and more & Hose Pull Circuits (we did 3 rounds)

Wednesday - Power Hike

Thursday - C-Trail Power Hike (4 miles & 2,000 feet elevation gain)

Friday - P.T. Standards (1.5 mile run, push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups & 85 lb timed pack-out)

Training

Monday - Gear Checkout & SOP's

Tuesday - PPE (care & fitting), Tool Maintenance & Driving Training

Wednesday - Map & Compass, Lat / Long's & GPS Use

Thursday - Fire Extinguishers, Radios, I.A. / Dispatch Procedures & Crash Rescue

Friday - Sand Table Exercises, Facility Maintenance, & ????

The crew is definately feeling the pain, but doing well! We haven't confused anyone too badly and no injuries with the P.T. We hope to amp it up next week to another level... I'm sure the crew isn't looking forward to that! It's all for the good of being safe, efficient, and injury free!

I'll post again next week!

Cooper Knoll RX

We were invited to assist the Forest Service in accomplishing some more acres on the Cooper RX, which has been an ongoing prescribed burn plan for many seasons now. On the day we went out, there weren't a lot of resources available. Two heavy engines off the Dixie N.F., several members from the Cedar City Shot crew, some miscellaneous overhead, and myself and the two leads off of Zion Helitack.

We accomplished approximately 30 acres. It was a slow go burn... the idea being that we wanted to get rid of the ground litter and dead debris, take out most of the sage brush, however leave the Ponderosa and other trees in place. We had to take it slow... as you can see from the pictures, even taking it slow wasn't enough to avoid the occasional tree torching out.



Overall it was a successful day... with relatively few resources we accomplished a decent number of acres, given the terrain and fuel type we were dealing with. We enjoyed getting back into the swing of things... Helitack spent the day on torches lighting, and occasionally helping to hold what fire we had on the ground.
At the end of the day we were tired... smelled like smoke... and were anxious for the fire season to begin.

Since the burn (May 4th), most of the crew has come on. We have spent the last 3 days pounding out the miles in P.T. I am sure I speak for most of the crew when I say there are some sore muscles and plenty of blisters, and everyone will be glad to see the 1st week of train-up behind them as we head into the weekend.

Only one crewmember still remains to join up with us... She will be here on Monday! That will complete all of the crewmembers that are returning this season. I hope that this Cooper Knoll RX is a good sign of the type of fire season we have ahead of ourselves...

Cheers,

Welcome Back

Crew starts tomorrow... May 11th! I'll report back soon enough to let you know how things are progressing. Sounds like we will be spending some time down at the park completing grass burns for several days, week 1. Stay Tuned...

The Drop Zone 2008!

It is great to see the various methods by which aviation helps to conquer our wildland fires today...

I wished to post this video in order to remind all of us firefighters that there are a group of men and women that pilot these aircraft, whom take their job as seriously as we do... they often don't receive much in the way of "Thanks" from us, as they are hear and then gone again! In light of the recent crash of a firefighting Tanker (P2V) in Utah... and to the many other men and women who have lost their lives in aviation incidents, I say "Thank You" and God Bless!

Another Crew Update!

We are only a week away from the crew arriving at the base in numbers! The Lead's have been frantically preparing for the first three weeks of train-up that will begin on May 11th! We are down in numbers this season... Alicia Tanrath (Assistant Helitack Supervisor) is still battling medical issues resulting from her Helicopter crash nearly 3 years ago. She will be working with the heavy helicopter from HTI... a part of the Big 34 exclusive national ships... it is a skycrane that will be based in Cedar City, but be available for National deployment! Lacey Crawford will also not be joining us this season. Unexpected to her and us, she needed to decline her position this season due to some personal issues... She hopes to rejoin the crew as an A.D. if needed towards the end of the season, or possibly next year when life challenges finally allow her to do so. So below is the updated list of crewmembers that will be joining us this season... what is not listed is the names of those who will be filling our two detailer slots throughout the year. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we have two slots for detailers each pay period. The applications for those slots are coming in fast... so if you are interested, please contact our Senior Lead Crewmember (Ben Thayer) his contact info is listed below...

Michael Reid (Supervisor)
Ben Thayer (Senior Lead)
Ben Suerig (Lead)
Norman "Iceman" Allen ( Senior FFT)
Thea Hamm (Senior FFT)
Chris Jensen (Crewmember)
Paul Damron (Crewmember)
Todd Bevans (Crewmember)

We are excited to invite Hillsboro Aviation back for their 4th season with Zion Helitack. We are also excited to have Nicole Ludwig back as our Pilot and her sidekick Randy Tatton as our Fuel Driver. Helicopter 420RL will return as well, completing the team!

Zion Crewmembers!...
a note of warning to those of you returning to and joining our crew over the next couple of weeks. Come ready to work! I expect that you will start on day one with Physical Training... you should arrive at work in your P.T. clothing ready for a solid 3-4 mile run... needless to say we will "hit the ground running" right off the bat! You can expect two-a-day P.T.'s for the first three weeks that you are on... prior to the ship arriving on the 28th of this month! If you haven't started getting in shape already... I feel for you, but it doesn't change that we will push you and push hard... So drink plenty of water over the next week... and prepare yourself mentally, It's time to step up to the challenge of getting ready for another season.

Cheers,

Ben Thayer / Senior Lead Crewmember
435-865-4642

First Fire!

We always wait for that one defining moment to give us hope that fire season is just around the corner. This year that moment came early! Late April brought us a 35 acre fire just south of the Park. It was located in the newly designated wilderness area of the BLM land which is above an area called the "Eagle Crags". Very rough country that is difficult to get into unless you truely know where you are going.

We brought in a helicopter from Sundance, out of Las Vegas, that assisted in delivering firefighters to the fire. It was intense on day one, but quickly fizzled in the cool evening temperatures (understandable for April). The burn was due to low moisture levels in the dormant brush models. Most of the grass is in green-up now... so I don't expect too many fires until a dryer weather pattern hits us (probably in June). However, this could be foreboding of a very good season for Color Country!

Stay Tuned...

Side Note: If you are a member of Zion Helitack or simply have an interest in how our season is progressing I urge you to become a fan of this sight... there should be a link below our "followers" application that will allow you to follow what is happening. I would encourage anyone who is on the crew and has a family member that would like to know what is happening with you during the season, that they too become followers of this sight! I will update the sight nearly weekly (as fires allow) once the season begins!

Cheers,