Basic recovery gear & techniques, WFA, basic survival gear

[Cactus Red]

When/time: 06 Oct 12 - starting at 9:30 AM at the location specified below.

If you wish to travel as a group to the location, please set that up in the post.
_____________

Where: A large gravel pit south of FS 354 near William's AZ.
_____________

Directions from Williams, AZ.

Head south on 4th St (County Road 73, 35.249748,-112.190586) approx 9.2 miles to:

FS 354 (left turn at 35.13075,-112.145852 ), follow it approx 2.6 miles to a right turn at (35.102911,-112.144205)
_____________

Directions from Prescott, AZ.

Head north on 89A to the right turn onto Drake Rd. (35.003689,-112.389611)

Stay on FS 492 to a left turn onto County Rd 73 (34.966023,-112.263595)

Stay on County Rd 73 approx 15 miles to a right turn on FS 354, and follow it approx 2.6 miles to a right turn at (35.102911,-112.144205)
_____________

Time:

First session will start at 9:30 AM, and go until 12:30. It will be on Recovery gear and basic techniques.

Second session will start after lunch, 13:30 or so, and go until 16:30, and will cover WFA and survival gear.

_____________

This will all be done by volunteers, and any information you get should be followed up by professional training if you wish to further your skills.

_____________

We had a great discussion on our lunch break on Wilderness First Aid gear a few weeks ago. It showed me some short comings in my current WFA kit. I'd really like to get a group together to go over recovery/repair, WFA, and some basic survival skills like fire starting and short term shelter.

My time in the USCG taught me a lot about rigging lines and winch safely, and I've taken Kristina Hall's class on WFA. Both are what I consider to be essentials, but without practice or review, neither are current or up to date. My recovery, WFA, and survival skills are limited to what I carry in the truck, and that's my focus for this meeting. Bug out packs or other short term solutions would be welcome as well.

Can we get some of you that are well versed in these areas together to teach us all what we need for basics in a day? It will not be a trip per say, but just to meet somewhere that will offer a place to learn something about these skills, review equipment, and perhaps put some of it to use.

While not an expert by any means, I can offer insight into solo vehicle recovery since I've had my own experiences in that over the years, including recovering my flopped '87 Toy trail rig with one arm using a Hi-Lift jack, chains, tow straps, and a come-a-long. I did that with a separated left shoulder on Smiley Rock trail in 2003 by myself as the sun was setting. It was an interesting experience...

I've also done some emergency repairs using 12V welding, and carry the needed gear for that too.

Thanks,

Mark

If you are interested, please sign up on the Expedition Portal:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/t ... orthern-AZ

[Cactus Red]

The date and location have been locked in.

[Cactus Red]

What, no love from my PW Bros? Where's the ???

Looks like we'll have a good group show up. And, preparing for this has required me to go over my gear, and I've replaced items found to be in less than stellar condition. One of those was my snatch strap. It was over ten years old, and had several places where it had been chafed. Also upgraded my extension, and added a couple ARB tree straps, and two cinch bones to my gear.

With a Jeep in the stable now, I've also had to re-arrange my junk. To avoid the expense of equiping two vehicles, I used a Viking gear bag to split up stuff so that I can carry the items needed for both rigs in one heavy bag. Some of the PW specific stuff is still stored in the PW - I don't have a clue where I could put the 14K PulPal in the Jeep.

[ldgregory]

I don't have a clue where I could put the 14K PulPal in the Jeep.

Make the passenger hold it in their lap!

[Cactus Red]

I don't have a clue where I could put the 14K PulPal in the Jeep.

Make the passenger hold it in their lap!

Hey!

Uhhhhhh, that won't work, I'm the passenger!

[verdesardog]

Getting ready for this has also made me upgrade some stuff in my recovery gear, new 10k(swl) snatch strap, some new 6.25 ton shackles and I put my extension line in my tool box. First aid and other non recovery stuff has always been good though.

Yeah where is the winch mob??? I guess this diesel guy will have to take their place LOL. I'll have a Jeep guy coming along as a passenger.

This should be a good weekend, I might camp out Saturday night.

[RustyPW]

Wrong part of the country for me. You go and have a good time. When you're done. Tell us on what you learned.

[OFF-ROAD RESCUE]

I'll try and make it. Have some dumb utv thing in Mesa they want me to go to for an hour at 1530. I have some medical, WFA. FAR, CPR, and own an off-road recovery company in Gilbert AZ.

[VA_Wagon Man]

I'm with Russ, to fer of a piece for me. If there was something on the east side, I'd be in. Have fun and report back.

Sent from the middle of nowhere.

[Cactus Red]

Had a great time, learned a lot, and met some great folks too boot. Took me over an hour to get all the crap out on Saturday morning, took 3 to put it all back yesterday. Hearing about practical first aid from a veteran Green Beret corpsman certainly puts everything else in perspective.

[Cactus Red]

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/t ... ost1203888

Photos! There are more in the main post as well.

[Cactus Red]

We're considering doing this again if there is any interest. Date/place is still up in the air, but we'd like to see if it's worth the time and effort to do the planning and logistics.

The medical portion is going to be longer - I have the same guys willing to participate for that. They are all super qualified - a 16 year veteran Green Beret Combat Medic, a local Fireman/EMT, and an ER critical care nurse. Between them, they can answer pretty much anything that you can think of on emergency care.

[BlkWgn]

We're considering doing this again if there is any interest. Date/place is still up in the air, but we'd like to see if it's worth the time and effort to do the planning and logistics.

The medical portion is going to be longer - I have the same guys willing to participate for that. They are all super qualified - a 16 year veteran Green Beret Combat Medic, a local Fireman/EMT, and an ER critical care nurse. Between them, they can answer pretty much anything that you can think of on emergency care.

If it is in SoCal, I am in. There is a large Expo Portal group in Socal, you could probably get a decent group

[Cactus Red]

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on where you're at, it will be in AZ again, probably near Flagstaff this time.

[BlkWgn]

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on where you're at, it will be in AZ again, probably near Flagstaff this time.

I actually just posted in the expo thread that if it is near flagstaff I may be able to make it a "visit family" trip

[Cactus Red]

We're looking for a location closer to Flag (perhaps east of I-17 near Munds Park) this time to hopefully get a few more participants. Provisional date is Sept 28th. Stay tuned for more info!

[BlkWgn]

Sounds good. you may also want to post this over at http://www.americanadventurist.com/ This is the new site for the Rendezvous group from Expo

[Cactus Red]

Sounds good. you may also want to post this over at http://www.americanadventurist.com/ This is the new site for the Rendezvous group from Expo

Probably won't - I hesitated even posting it here, but I have to keep my PW bro's in mind. With a small group of volunteers doing the instruction, the group size needs to be limited to roughly 5 or 6 per instructor.

[Cactus Red]

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/t ... 29-Sept-13

Firmed up the dates and location