Post B5ibnhNkkKyLOvLUUS by msbellows@c.im
(DIR) More posts by msbellows@c.im
(DIR) Post #B5ho59DhVHxaxAlpzc by ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org
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Partial load out from this morning's ham radio event. Fully loaded first aid kit (my son's tactical backpack choice, I eould have gone full neon), Weed whacker (unnecessary, there was a nice clearing for me to park), water (definitely handed a few out to the desperate walkers at the end...), jump box, duct tape. In the "auto" box a full kit for offroad ie strap, jumpers, tire repair kit, fuses, multimeter, zip ties... folding shovel, axe. In "health" the most important thing being toilet paper, lol. Also paper towels, etc. #preparedness
(DIR) Post #B5ho59WqM7GxuXj7pY by ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org
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Secondary radio setup, was backup if I had any issues with the handheld. #hamradio
(DIR) Post #B5ho59jFbzCIX1X2Aa by ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org
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Maybe I am just old, but black tools and black radios and black bags inside other black bags with black things inside those black bags is NUTs. I mean, it's trendy among first responders and the "bros" but WE ARE NOT INVADING AFGHANISTAN IN TACTICAL BLACK AND FAST ROPING FROM HELICOPTERS, people. We're trying to find stuff fast. YOU WANT TO SEE YOU STUFF. Stupid CAMO and all black tacti-cool stuff is... stupid. #random #rant
(DIR) Post #B5ho59w0qXPDAbVE3s by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@ai6yr My SAR unit is switching to black radios because that's what was readily available (our previous generation radios were bright orange 1990s vintagr BK wildland firefighting models).But we have a general prohibition on excessively military looking gear including anything camo. Red is common but blue is growing in popularity because according to the local navy SAR crews it's very visible from the air... Red and orange don't contrast well against fall leaves but if you're looking down from the sky very few things are bright blue.My helmet, pack, and chest rig are all various shades of blue for this reason
(DIR) Post #B5hu1qLBq5MvFz55n6 by ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org
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@azonenberg Bright blue, ha! Great to know!
(DIR) Post #B5huvW9W5N9IrQAVqy by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@sarae @ai6yr yep and a lot more gear is available in blue than hot pink
(DIR) Post #B5hvUcr1A2t3mTFylM by msbellows@c.im
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@azonenberg @sarae @ai6yr Though all my climbing gear is marked with pink electrical tape or pink nailpolish. (Climbers code their carabiners etc. so at the end of the day people can figure out which is whose, and in my circle only this daddy of daughters used pink.) I even own a pink rope.
(DIR) Post #B5i2K0TDiR8rWE0d5E by sarae@ecoevo.social
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@msbellows @azonenberg @ai6yr dudes don't steal your shit when it's pink! also one can get a surprising array of things at a steep discount when they're pink, I used to have some great pink low top hiking shoes and now I have a raspberry pink down jacket that I got for about 1/3 of retail great belay jacket, I am like 90% less likely to get the fuckin rope dropped on me when I'm wearing it 😆this is also why I've got turquoise hiking shoes now -- easy to see and half price at Sierra
(DIR) Post #B5i2K0o8Sfs8Z5nKgS by UkeleleEric@mstdn.social
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@sarae @msbellows @azonenberg @ai6yr Also, I have still not decided whether, when walking down the street, if I see someone wearing camouflage clothes, whether to bump into them deliberately, or whether it is kinder to tell them it isn't working! :)
(DIR) Post #B5i2K10BjrVtATQxTE by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@UkeleleEric @sarae @msbellows @ai6yr Lol.Yeah when I'm out with SAR I'm trying to be seen so I dress more like... this (I'm the one in the red raincoat and blue pack/chest rig, just behind the folks carrying the subject in the litter. This was from a rescue we did last June and is the most recent on-duty photo of myself I was able to find in our press releases)
(DIR) Post #B5i31pfZEaPclJgM2i by ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org
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@azonenberg @UkeleleEric @sarae @msbellows That looks wet!!
(DIR) Post #B5i3DVVK2APBhCSOae by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@ai6yr @UkeleleEric @sarae @msbellows It was, lol. This was like 9AM and I'm pretty sure was raining most of the night (we deployed some time around 11PM the night before) but stopped around sunrise.But we're in the PNW, rain is just something we expect on any call and are trained and equipped to deal with.
(DIR) Post #B5i3MMy190Z5pB6Z2O by ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org
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@azonenberg @UkeleleEric @sarae @msbellows How do you not end up soaked after an hour? Apparently the rain gear we're buying/using here is just not cutting it. (rain pants/rain jackets... soaking through, even though waterproofed--and not sweat).
(DIR) Post #B5i3fvB2B17tQWW4au by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@ai6yr @UkeleleEric @sarae @msbellows You gotta get the right stuff and set up your layers properly (wearing synthetics so you can stay warm even if you sweat or some soaks through).One of the biggest things we do during our winter training season is just giving trainees the opportunity to be out in the woods being rained on and slogging through soaking-wet brush. Sure, we have land navigation and first aid etc problems for them to do during that time.But we need to absolutely douse you in water for hours on end and make sure you can stay warm, dry, and mission capable if you take ten hours of searching before finding your soaking wet, hypothermic, hopefully still breathing subject. If you're just as cold and wet, you're no good to them.
(DIR) Post #B5i451V1o5fSH7q0mm by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@ai6yr @UkeleleEric @sarae @msbellows Every year out of a class of 20-something trainees, we have to pull a few out of the field because their gear isn't performing and it's no longer safe to leave them out there.This doesn't automatically fail/DQ the trainee, we're testing the gear just as much as them. Depending on the nature of the issue and how far along in the weekend we are we might send them home, give them a few hours to follow training staff around in a truck and dry off then put them back out in the field, or swap some of their wet gear out for loaner gear brought by the training staff.Of course, we expect this to be a one-time issue, you have until the next training to buy something better. If you come back to the next training in the same inadequate rain gear folks won't be happy with you.But one of the big points of training is to be a safe environment to fail - you're never THAT far from a road if we need to evacuate you because you're getting dangerously cold and wet, there's not a real person out there in danger expecting you to come save them, etc. We want to push you and your gear to the limit and find and fix problems before they cause issues on a real rescue.
(DIR) Post #B5i4BklQQZYeOjiUjo by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@ai6yr @UkeleleEric @sarae @msbellows And if you *do* manage to stay reasonably warm and dry in the toughest weather and environments we can find, you now have the confidence in yourself and your gear to push through when things get tough and lives *are* actually on the line
(DIR) Post #B5i5bTCkR2ZtQEK6JE by sarae@ecoevo.social
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@ai6yr @azonenberg @UkeleleEric @msbellows in recent years I've bought Grundens bibs and jackets for woods worklearned during my last trip to Forks that my five year old (blue) jacket isn't good enough any more, I need to go down to the marine supply and replace itand I wear wool and synthetics under and expect to be wet, which is part of why as I've gotten older I've found some work where I'm not doing that most daysit does wear you down and I've got that Reynaud's syndrome
(DIR) Post #B5i5bTQvaJv88CxQPY by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@sarae @ai6yr @UkeleleEric @msbellows a lot of the marine oriented stuff isn't very breathable though, it keeps water out and sweat in and you get just as wet
(DIR) Post #B5i5hYoiTtxKZ9zFKa by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@sarae @ai6yr @UkeleleEric @msbellows I had a Grundens outfit that I got rid of pretty quickly because I got so hot and sweaty running around in it
(DIR) Post #B5i72AICxPM4XaAblw by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@sarae @ai6yr @UkeleleEric @msbellows Yeah in SAR we're beating the hell out of our gear off trail slogging through blackberries and swamps.Usually the tradeoff we go for is to buy solidly built (not ultralight) recreational-type gear and just accept that it will have a relatively short lifespan. I had a pair of heavy nylon hi-vis construction rain gear that I used for a couple years, it was tough but super hot and didn't stow well when not in use (very bulky).When it wore out I mostly replaced it with Black Diamond and REI stuff, but I did buy a second construction jacket that I use here and there mostly in urban environments.
(DIR) Post #B5i88inhfbp9Fzalua by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@sarae @ai6yr @UkeleleEric @msbellows yep they all have a purpose and if they fit your use case, great. I found the fishing stuff durable but it was like being in a plastic bag and I'd be swimming in sweat within a few hours of heavy exertion
(DIR) Post #B5i8OygoMbFNAW7V7A by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@sarae @ai6yr @UkeleleEric @msbellows the stuff I'm thinking of was like a solid vinyl material with no visible fabric weave
(DIR) Post #B5i98FtdEgN9Z8hsJ6 by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@sarae @ai6yr @UkeleleEric @msbellows ah OK, interesting. I had a Helly Hansen bib style rain pant set that I still use for yard work and working on the roof when I don't want to abuse my other gear, but I moved to a set of REI zip-offs for SAR so I can more easily get in and out of them as conditions change.
(DIR) Post #B5iahRWGi7CgVomXDM by msbellows@c.im
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@azonenberg @ai6yr @UkeleleEric @sarae +1 on having gear that doesn't require you to stay dry. My go-to SAR pants were some early North Face thick softshells that turned iut to be surprisingly bulletproof as well. Those + a choice of different hydrophobic underlayers and unless it's a flat-out blizzard I didn't need shell pants, and honestly I couldn't even tell if they were dry or soaked; it didn't make any difference. Wetness mattered more on top, but even then a snug synthetic base + softshell + good GoreTex (ie, good moisture transport) made wet not matter so much.Now, if it's below freezing it's different... but even then, it matters more that sweat/leakage be efficiently wicked away from your skin before it freezes than it does that everything be "kept dry."(Also, I was spoiled: mountain rescue does plenty of ground pounding in brush but at least we got out in the open away from the blackberries more than our straight SAR colleagues did.)
(DIR) Post #B5ib7Cr3r7kGYlnBqK by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@msbellows @ai6yr @UkeleleEric @sarae lol yeah we don't get to play with cool rope stuff much since we don't do high angle (but we'll belay a litter on a steeper hill if it seems necessary for safety).We spend a lot more time in swamps and blackberry thickets. My unit has earned a bit of a reputation for being willing to go pretty much anywhere no matter how nasty, as long as it's not unreasonably dangerous... We can and will refuse assignments or bail out partway through an assignment if we hit a steep cliff or swift water or something similar that we can't safely cross. But if it's just uncomfortable we're gonna embrace the suck and plow through.
(DIR) Post #B5ibHxa6yxVUNLzZWi by msbellows@c.im
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@azonenberg @ai6yr @UkeleleEric @sarae Praise, laud, and honor to you. That's God's work. _/\_
(DIR) Post #B5ibKH85H4eLa7zDpg by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@msbellows @ai6yr @UkeleleEric @sarae i remember one of my first missions we found a deceased subject after slogging through knee deep swamp water overtopping our boots for hours.Then had to stay in the area soaking in swamp water until the FBI showed up since it was an area under federal jurisdiction and any death required a federal investigation. It was a long day.
(DIR) Post #B5ibnhNkkKyLOvLUUS by msbellows@c.im
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@azonenberg @ai6yr @UkeleleEric @sarae FBI??? So not just federal land, but a federal facility or something? We were in federal forests most of the time but the sheriff still had jurisdiction.
(DIR) Post #B5ic102KhV2T1OfX8q by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@msbellows @ai6yr @UkeleleEric @sarae Indian reservation
(DIR) Post #B5icBGV2LXtoyazRBI by azonenberg@ioc.exchange
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@msbellows @ai6yr @UkeleleEric @sarae tribal police were present as was the county sheriff but FBI was in charge
(DIR) Post #B5ikZmenElA3IHkurg by CliffsEsport@mastodon.social
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@azonenberg @ai6yr @UkeleleEric @sarae @msbellows One of the things the better hiking/ultralight hiking reviews used to do to test/review gear was get in shower with gear on. I don't have anything new gear wise (~decade old is newest) since health issues (allergies/breathing) pretty much eliminated hiking as practical activity for me, but IME goretex and equiv gets cold when wet because outer protective shell gets soaked after a bit. Having an outer full water barrier like cape/poncho can help
(DIR) Post #B5ipjPzuq1yJgT36Zs by ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org
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@azonenberg @sarae @UkeleleEric @msbellows Completely off topic, but I bought a pair of Helty Hanset rain pants (ostensibly in my size) and they were extra tiny, couldn't fit my rear end into the pants. 😂