Snow and Ice and Ropes, Oh My!

This Saturday I will be, hopefully, at Squaw Valley Ski Resort for our teams recertification in Snow and Ice Rescue by the MRA. We should be there with all the teams from California. I say hopefully because, earlier this week a ski patroller for Squaw Valley was killed in an avalanche (http://www.sacbee.com/latest/story/1669456.html?mi_rss=Latest%20News), and with avalanche danger being as high as it is, they may decide to not put us in harm’s way just to recertify. 

Either way, it’s been a busy winter as I co-led the January training and taught Avalanche Safety and Rescue, and then in February led the training teaching Winter Technical Systems, basically rope systems and team operations to protect the patient and attendants during evacuation from the back country. This was quite an eye opening weekend for me from a command standpoint, especially when we start looking at team briefings, continuity of care, team communication, control hand-offs, and individual comfort levels in different environments. 

My First Blog Entry

Well, here goes nothing. My First Blog Entry...Ever! I was recently thinking that I wished I had a mechanisim to capture all those random thoughts that make up my mind. Lately, those thoughts have centered around a few subjects near and dear to my heart; my family, my church, my work, my unit, and my team.  Who knows, perhaps a pattern will emerge.

My family... My lovely wife whom I never thought I would find and who has been such an amazing supporter of, and blessing to, me and our dog Sophie, a 9yo Portie, or portuguese water dog. We live in the Silicon Valley (San Jose), although my wife grew up outside Dayton Ohio and I grew up (although some would argue whether I actually grew up) over the hill in Santa Cruz. We both love the outdoors and are both project managers. 

I feel like I could write alot more, but we'll start there.