By Dave Clarke
This year’s conference was held in Eagle County, Colorado from June 17th to 19th. MRA members from all of our regions came together for a weekend of fun, education, sharing and problem solving. From the beginning, this year’s event was billed as a return to our roots. The theme was incident management and the activities were designed as simulated incidents managed by an “area command” structure.
The pre-conference this year was a class on managing multi agency/jurisdictional incidents taught by Dan Hourihan. After two days we were ready to practice our newly learned management skills.
Meanwhile other early arriving participants were treated to a variety of hikes organized by members of Vail Mountain Rescue.
Although the theme was incident management, if anyone thought that this would be a bunch of rescuers sitting around drawing org charts on a white board they quickly found out that there was a more hands-on agenda in store for them. Friday began with a mock mission to rescue a paraglider who had crashed on a cliff. While that seems straightforward enough, the rescue was complicated by the fact that the cliff was above a long scree slope and across the swollen Eagle River from the access road and we had to conduct boat operations and build a highline to get rescuers in and out. An incident management team was formed the night before from the pre-conference participants and they assigned 50 rescuers to various tasks.
The weather forecast called for 85 degrees and sunny so we prepared with sunscreen and extra water. Not to worry though, turns out we got temps in the 50s and intermittent rain. Other glitches in our plans popped up here and there, and in true MRA
fashion, everyone adapted, improvised and overcame to complete the rescue and get everyone safely back to our area command base right on time.
The next activity was a visit to the National Guard’s High Altitude Aviation Training Site or HAATS, where pilots from all over the world come to learn “power management” techniques for flying helicopters into thin air. We were fortunate to receive a great tour from the unit commander, Major Josh Day and the executive officer, Major Tony Samoji. In addition to training pilots, this base also flies missions for local MRA teams.
Friday concluded with one of my favorite conference activities, the chance to visit with other MRA members and partake in some well earned food and beverage. Meeting other rescuers, exchanging ideas and information and catching up with old friends is something I look forward to at every MRA conference.
Saturday morning was another early start; we met at the area command base where new incident management teams gave assignments for two new incidents. Today’s missions: rescue a stuck climber with a guiding line and locate a simulated crashed aircraft ELT with L-Per locators. The group split into two teams, tackling one mission in the morning then switching places to handle the second mission in the afternoon. Everyone got hands-on experience and for many it was with skills they had never used before. By late afternoon we all arrived back at incident base, tired but looking forward to the Saturday evening banquet.
This year’s banquet included a moving presentation by our Honor Guard recognizing our members who have passed in the last two years and installing “Line of Duty Death Banners” on our MRA flag. Rocky Henderson officiated the MRA awards presentation.
Several members received well deserved recognition for their work but one in particular deserves mention here. That is a lifetime achievement award to Arnold “Al” Green of China Lake MRG (California) for 50 years of service in mountain rescue. Another highlight was an appearance by Marilyn Monroe to sing “Happy Birthday Mr. Past President” to Monty Bell. No kidding, you can check it out for yourself here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJoBPKnLZdM
Yup, it was another fun and worthwhile conference. I hope to see you all next year at Lake Tahoe, NV.