Vertical Caver Workshop 11/13/11

The NJIRT hosted a vertical skills workshop for area cavers. As before, it was hosted at the Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg, NJ. Photos available in the Photos section.

Technical Rope Training

held 8/30 at Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg, NJ. We reviewed haul/lower/belay systems and litter movement.

GSAR Awareness Presentation & Exercise

held 8/20 & 8/23 for Hardyston FD/PD/EMS in Stockholm, NJ. A follow-up to our January presentation to this group to expand upon initial actions for emergency services agencies to take during a search incident with an exposure to the field as a grid search task.

Technical Rope Training

held 8/16 at Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg, NJ. We reviewed anchor systems and haul/lower/belay systems.

Technical Rope Training

held 7/26 at Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg, NJ. We reviewed knots/hitches and anchor systems.

Hamburg Day

held 6/27 in Hamburg, NJ. A community event with public outreach/education.

Maybrook, NY Search

held 6/13. Team members support search efforts for female missing since December 2008.

Hopatcong Charity Hike

held 6/6. Team standby at 3rd annual charity event hosted by the Hudson Farm Club in Andover, NJ.

Sparta Mountain Day

held 5/17 at Ryker's Lake in Sparta, NJ. One of our regular annual public outreach/education displays at a community event.

Vertical Rope Training

held 5/9 at Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg, NJ. A follow-up to April's training with a focus more on personal vertical rope skills.

Personal Rope Skills Refresher

held 4/19 in Frankford, NJ. We reviewed knots/hitches, anchor systems, haul/lower/belay systems, and personal vertical skills.

GSAR Skills

held 3/29 in Branchville, NJ. A discussion of GSAR topics (team deployment, basic command post functions and organization, various field task assignments) that ended with a quick pack check.

SARCNJ "Winter" Technical Rope Rescue Day

held 2/21 & 2/22 at Hidden Valley Ski Area in Vernon, NJ.
This interagency training weekend provided members the opportunity to:
- work through a series of winter rescue skills stations such as snow/ice anchor construction and testing; snow/ice travel using crampons and snowshoes; self arrest using an ice axe; winter patient packaging systems and sled evac; and basic avalanche/avalanche search awareness.
- spend the night on the mountain in a winter bivy.
- utilize the previous day's skills to search for and rescue someone on the mountain.
Thank you to NJSAR and the NJ Ski Patrol for all their hard work!

Slippery Slope Rescue Training

held 2/8 at Lode Star Park in Fredon, NJ. This was a "patient-at-the-bottom-of-a-slippery-slope" type training that included all the associated issues (access, assessment, packaging, and transport - back up the hill). We played with various footwear traction devices, reviewed patient packaging considerations in snowy/icy conditions, and refreshed on the rigging and operation of raising/lowering systems.

GSAR "Cold Weather" Training

held 1/18 at Whittingham Wildlife Management Area in Fredon, NJ. We deployed our new GPS units to allow members to familiarize themselves with their operation. Two hasty teams were fielded and redirected to the patient's location. Upon meeting up, we hunkered down for a winter bivy exercise (are you carrying enough survival supplies in your winter search pack?) and rotated people's roles in a small group self evacuation back to the parking lot.

GSAR Awareness Presentation

held 1/15 for Hardyston FD/PD/EMS in Stockholm, NJ. One of our search incident preplan presentations for emergency services agencies.

Team Dinner

held 1/9 at Charlie Brown's in Hackettstown, NJ.

GSAR "Night Ops" Training

held 12/6 at the Whittingham Wildlife Management Area in Fredon, NJ. The world changes at night ... especially with heavy snow squalls. This was a follow-up session to November's training held in the daylight. We searched in the dark for more "clues"... found "Annie," the CPR mannequin ... and ended our training with several inches of fresh snow.

Patient Packaging Refresher

held 11/23 in Branchville, NJ. A review of basic patient packaging and medical issues with some field work moving the litter through the woods.

Red Ribbon Day

held 11/16 at Sussex Tech in Sparta, NJ. "The Sweetest Things in Life are Drug-Free!" One of our regular annual public outreach/education events.

GSAR Training

held 11/9 at Whittingham Wildlife Management Area in Fredon, NJ. We reviewed the basics of ground/grid search techniques and searched for "clues"...

Hardwick Day

held 11/2 at Camp Ralph Mason in Hardwick, NJ. A community event with public outreach/education.

Byram Charity Hike

held 10/18. Team standby at 4th annual charity event hosted by the Hudson Farm Club in Andover, NJ.

Wallkill River NWR Day

held 10/04 at the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge in Vernon, NJ. One of our regular annual public outreach/education events.

Cave Rescue Training

held 8/24. Mini-mock consisting of Command Post set-up, general organization, task assignments (commo, search, rigging, evac, demob) culminating in a rescue involving patient care, patient packaging into an OSS/Sked, and patient movement through the passageways to finally get out of the cave.