Volume 4, Issue 8
| Top of the Hill | by Larry Mervine |
While living in Colorado I did what you should not do: a solo over night in the Rocky Mountains. I parked my vehicle at a trailhead and walked about three miles up a dirt road, then 40' off the road pitched a tent. The night seems to be the scariest time. What to do until morning? This is the time your mind wanders. You start remembering stories about animals and crazy people. And now you begin to hear the sounds of the forest. The heart pounds faster, sleep is not an option.
On missions we do not want members to go into the field alone. We talk about this as a safety issue, if we get injuried, but have not talked about this as an emotional issue. Most of the time our searches are at night and we easily get separated from other team members. For short periods this is not a problem. There have been times in the field when individual team members have been separated for almost an hour. All people are different, but even after 10 minutes I have experienced a little heart pounding. What can we do? Always keep teams members within voice or headlamp distance. The terrain features may make this an inefficient search technique, but your team memebers may feel better. If team members become too argumentative, maybe they are frightened and do not want to admit it.
Keep this in mind when approaching lost subjects. They may have been out there for a long time and be frightened of you. Or they may be very excited to see you, but then collapse minutes later.
We also, need to remember that a subject should never be the last person when returning from the field. Even a team member may become too exhausted and lag behind or stop to sit without telling anyone. Look out for each other.
See you out there.
| Boots and Blisters | by Tom Russo |
Susan Corban set up a wonderful summer bivy which was very well attended. After what some would call a pleasant 6 mile hike (and others might call a grueling, muddy, oxygen-free 6 mile forced march) 12 Cibola members plus a few children, dogs and a pony convened at Pecos Baldy Lake for some crystal clear night skies, fresh (albeit thin) air, and a bit of camaraderie around a nice warm campfire. Three of our members passed their land nav evaluation up there, and several prospective members gave it a practice shot. As of this trip, Susan Corban is an alternate land nav evaluator. Thank you, Susan, both for the bivy idea and volunteering to help evaluate.
Congratulations to Susan, KD5HTW and Paul, KD5HUA, our newest licensed Hams. This brings the tally this year to seven new licensees since January, a little above our stated goal of five, and our total number of licensed Hams to 15. That means 44% of our current membership have Ham tickets! Look forward to a lot more communications training opportunities in the coming months. This will probably be done outside of our regular training events, perhaps during our now-weekly radio yak sessions.
Five new members passed the PACE exam on Sunday, 18 July: Eric Jaramillo, Brian Lematta, Richard Lloyd, Brian Murray and Chris Murray. Good show, folks!
We had a great turnout to the ICS-200 class in Albuquerque. 13 Cibola members and prospective members attended: Art Bisbee, Susan Corban, Curtis Crutcher, David Dixon, Terry Hardin, Eric Jaramillo, Mickey Jojola, Steve Meserole, Nancy O'Neill, Jeff Phillips, Melinda Ricker, Ella May Robinson and Tom Russo. In fact, during the introductions Rick Goodman paused to ask "Is anyone here NOT from Cibola?" As a correction to information previously stated in these pages, a Type-I team requires that one member have been through ICS-200; it had been previously stated that every member needed this, but the Resource Directory (and the Resource Officer, for that matter) says otherwise. Having 13 more members with ICS-200 training definitely increases our ability to field Type-I teams, but we'll still need some Wilderness First Responders and/or EMTs before we can do so on our own; the requirements for a Type-I team are that one member have WFR training or higher, one member have ICS-200, all members be equipped to stay in the field for up to 24 hours, and all members have a solid grasp of search techniques and navigation. That is to say, take two Cibola members who've passed our field certification, one of whom has ICS-200, add a WFR and you have a Type-I team.
We have signed the contract with Wilderness Medical Institute and paid the deposit as voted on in July. It's official: we will be sponsoring a Wilderness First Aid course on Saturday-Sunday, 30-31 October 1999. Members will need to pay $40 each, the team covering the rest; you need to pay in advance to reserve your space. Members spouses may also put $40 down to hold a place, but they will need to pay the remainder before the class. Non-members are welcome and must pay a $50 deposit in advance and the remainder of the $100 cost by the day of the class; this is a few dollars cheaper than the going rate for this same course. We will be inviting the members of other NM SAR teams to participate. The class is limited to 30 participants and I would expect that there will be considerable interest outside the team, so put your deposit down as soon as possible. We're still working on the question of where we can hold the course; if you work for someplace that has a large conference room, preferably with a large nearby patio (for doing the hands-on work), please let me know. We're working on getting a classroom at Kirtland AFB, but if that falls through it will be great to have a fallback position.
By the way, the composition of a Type-II field team requires one WFA trained person and one ICS-100 trained person. All members of a Type-II team must be equipped to stay in the field up to 12 hours, and have familiarity with search techniques and map and compass skills. Thus we will be able to field quite a few Type-II teams immediately upon completion of the WFA class, since Cibola's training standards meet or exceed all the other Type-II requirements -- in fact, they almost but not quite meet the Type-I requirements.
On the training schedule: For your reference, here is the complete training and evaluation schedule for the rest of the year:
| Saturday 7 August | Summer Bivy and Land Nav Eval |
| Saturday 14 August | 4WD training, 8am-noon(*) |
| Saturday 11 September | Land Nav training, 8am-2pm(*) |
| Sunday 19 September | Search techniques eval |
| Saturday 9 October | Litter eval |
| Sat-Sun 30-31 October | Wilderness First Aid (two 8-hour days)(*) |
| Sunday 7 November | Land nav eval |
| Saturday 13 November | Training subject TBD(*) |
| Saturday 4 December | Search Techniques eval |
| Sunday 12 December | Training subject TBD (*) |
Each month there is at least one person who contacts me asking me to move a training to accommodate his or her personal schedule, and I can guarantee that if more than one ask they're all asking for conflicting changes. Sadly, I cannot accommodate every request, I am unlikely to give much weight to individual requests, and I cannot possibly hope to make everyone happy with the schedule. The best I can do is lay it all out before you and let you pick and choose the trainings that fit your schedule and your interests, and fix the schedule far enough in advance so that if you need to set aside time to attend that the training will in fact go down as planned --- I know only too well how irritating it is to make room in a schedule for something only to have it moved without warning.
It is up to you to make sure that you attend two trainings every six months and all three evaluations each year. I believe I have structured the schedule and put it out there well enough in advance so that everyone should be able to meet the requirements of active membership and field readiness. If, given 5-8 months advanced notice of scheduled trainings and evaluations, you still cannot fit two trainings out of 6 and 3 evaluations out of 12 into your schedule, perhaps you should reconsider whether you can give search and rescue the priority it deserves.
Susan maintains a book of training and evaluation data for every member.
Please consult with her if you cannot check your own records on the website.
There is ample opportunity to get your requirements fulfilled if you plan
ahead now.
| Hike of the Month | Tree Springs to South Crest Trail | 0800, Aug 28, 1999 |
| Trailhead: Tree Springs | ||
| R.T. Distance: 8 / or as far as you want miles | Elevation Min/Max: 8450/9800 | |
| Hiking Time 4 hours | Hazards: none | |
| Topo Maps: Sandia Crest | ||
To get to the trailhead from Albuquerque, go east on I-40 to the Cedar
Crest exit (175). Stay to the left on the exit ramp. Drive north on
Hwy 14. Turn left on Rt 536 (Road to Sandia Peak Ski Area and Sandia
Crest). The Tree Spring Trailhead is about 4.5-5 miles up the road
and 1.5 miles before the ski area. There will be a parking lot
adjacent to the trailhead. Forest Service fee of $3 or annual pass
applies.
| Business as Usual | [highlights from July minutes] |
| Who's Who and New | by Susan Corban |
| Mini Lesson | by Susan Corban |
But, did you know that the Forest Service has a system to let you know just how bad the road is? To get a better idea of the state of the road you are about to drive, notice the signs posted along the roadside. The horizontal marker is used on forest service roads recommended for passenger cars. The vertical route marker is placed on unimproved roads that are maintained for high-clearance vehicles such as pickups and 4-wheel drive vehicles. Many of these roads can also be safely driven with a passenger car, however, considerable caution should be exercised. Another indicator of roads unsuitable for passenger cars is a painted road edge line on a paved road across a dirt road entrance. Obvious obstructions or cross-ditches also indicate unimproved roads.
| Coming Attractions | by Tom Russo |
| Public Relations | by David Dixon |
The next morning I played host to 25-30 hikers of all ages for a leisurely stroll up the canyon. I brought my box of compasses and after an hour of hiking we did some basic compass skills. Most people on the hike did not appear compass literate so they seemed to appreciate the short session. Both groups thanked us for our efforts. We even got some nice certificates from the city to add to Cibola's P.R. files.
Our P.R. event for August is UNM Day on the 27th. The university is a
good source of future members and this has proven to be a real positive event
for us. See me or Susan if you would like to help staff our table.
| Member Spotlights |
Paul Dressendorfer is the manager of the Advanced Microelectronic Packaging Department at Sandia National Laboratories (after having bounced around in other areas of microelectronics over the last 20 years). Outside of that endeavor, which
tends to be far too sedentary, he pursues backpacking, skiing (all flavors),
running, biking, whitewater rafting, and other sundry forms of locomotion.
In previous years (lives?), he's been into rock climbing, mountaineering
(cramponing up Mt. Rainier a couple of times), kayaking, flying, ...
(perhaps a hidden death wish somewhere?). In his spare time he still plays
in softball and flag football leagues. His wonderful wife Barbara thinks he
hasn't outgrown his adolescent years, but she somehow manages to put up with
all the potential (and sometimes realized) disasters - it's a good thing
she's a doctor!! However, at least their two "kids" (Labrador mixes) do
seem to enjoy all this brouhaha.
Art Bisbee is an Instructor Flight Engineer in the Air Force, teaching
Special Operations and Combat Search & Rescue. He's been doing Combat SAR for
a total of five years. Prior to his Albuquerque assignment, Art's been
assigned in North Carolina, Florida, and ten years in Germany (a real
'hardship' assignment). He grew up on the beaches of Florida (ah, that
explains his mountain skills). Art left home for the Air Force at 17 and was
assigned to Germany five months later. (Add it up, he was drinking German beer
legally prior to age 18.) He enjoys playing soccer and hockey. Art is married
to Sylvia, his only souvenir, he says, from Germany. They have one son, Kyle,
and two Samoyeds, Tundra and Coke. Art's also going to school for a degree in
computer science, in his 'spare' time.
| Web News | by Tom Russo |
| Statewide SAR Notes | Mike Dugger and Nancy O'Neill |
Topics discussed for the upcoming year are as follows:
Training: We plan on holding a winter skills training this winter, but a bit
differently. We are planning on having the classroom sections scheduled in
different places around the state on different dates, then, tentatively, hold
one bivy section. We hope to have the February bivy in Chama, where there is
almost always snow.
Philmont SAR wants to put on a mock search this fall up at the Boy Scout Ranch. NMESC will sponsor this.
We would like to get the "Hometown Trainings" going again. These are when NMESC helps bring trainings needed by the teams. We like to recruit instructors who specialize in the area needed and connect them to the teams.
ESCAPE: We are looking really hard at Philmont for next year. That will make a nice rotation of sites for ESCAPE and hopefully make it accessible and exciting enough to keep members interested in attending. Also, we are looking at recruiting instructors from out of state to do the advanced classes next year. Please let me know what you want for this coming year before the middle of September. This new board is out to revitalize ESCAPE and we are here to serve the teams.
The board is also looking into different frequencies to get FCC approval to reprogram all those 800 MHz radios that we had collected.
The next NMESC meeting is scheduled for October 15, 1999. The location is yet
to be announced, but the times are always the same. The board meeting is at
0900 hrs. Anyone is allowed to attend to listen. The general meeting is at
1300 hours. At the general meeting anyone has a voice on what we discussed
earlier that morning at the board meeting.
| Disclaimer and Copyright notice | the Editors |