This weekend is the annual Sdom Mountain Bike Race. According to the site, Volvo/Cannondale is taking a big sponsorship stake this year. I know the local Cannondale rep, so a huge thanks!
For some reason, I get roped into helping more and more at races as opposed to competing. Frankly, I’ve been riding so little in the last 6 months I wouldn’t want to compete anyway. So I’ll be there wearing my SAR team hat to help out with racers that get into trouble along the way and have an unplanned encounter with the ground.
Speaking of which, I was at work on Monday but apparently that exact thing happened to a group of riders who were out on a day ride in the area of Arad. One guy cut his stomach open rather nicely, apparently. Oh well. It’ll heal.
Let’s see…my climbing weekend up North was super! We took a rather long way up, getting in a few early climbs near Yokneam, then went for coffee in Yokneam before going for dinner in Rosh Pina. The original intent was to cook pasta for dinner at the camp site, but two things intereferred. First, it was late. Second, it was cold. By the time we’d get to Manara Cliff, it would be too late for dinner. We tried to see about stopping by a field not far from Rosh Pina to cook, but it was cold there and Ana vetoed the camp stove idea. It turned out in the end that it was actually warmer up by Manara where we camped (thankfully).
Last weekend was my SAR team’s November training. I helped out a friend who had to take over organizing the exercise at relatively the last minute. I was responsible for safety. That’s a nice way of saying I spent the entire day wandering around looking at rope systems but not actually doing anything physical at all. We were doing underground cavern rescues using tripods over holes in the ground, not something we get to do every day. Next year I’m going to have to make sure I have a more participatory role.
Nonetheless, what I did do isn’t something to shake a stick at. No matter how much you train, there’s always going to be safety elements missed. My experience with the army’s high angle rescue school has made me a bit more perceptive to these types of problems so I think I made a rather nice contribution.
[tags]climbing, israel, manara, sdom, mtb, cannondale, arad, search&rescue, sar, rescue[/tags]
