WFR/Guide Training

So after waiting for all the photo's in the last post to upload I didn't really have the energy to actually write about what has been going on up here so here's a little update.

So after only 2 days in Haines I hopped on an hr long ferry ride over to the town of Skagway where I was taking a Wilderness First Responder course. I didn't get to see any of the amazing views on the ferry ride over there since it was already 10:30 when the ferry left... that and two of the managers for Chilkat Guides bought a few rounds of drinks in the bar on board...

All of the guides who work in Skagway live in an 8 bedroom house together which is set up sort of like a hostel. Tiny rooms, 3 Bathrooms, and a fairly large living space. All that being said it is much cleaner and new then most of the guide housing I've seen or lived in... even when there where close to 20 of us living there for that week taking the WFR...

Skagway is one of the main stops for cruise ships in the area and when I was there the town was just coming out of hibernation. With product being moved into stores, new coats of paint being applied to buildings, people slowly starting to trickle back into town. The population swells in size like most seasonal towns and it's always a fun time to be around. Even though I didn't really know any of the people who kept showing up it all felt really familiar..

As far as the WFR course goes it was pretty intense. We practiced everything from splinting broken bones, tractioning bones back into place, carrying people out on a litter, to injections and survival techniques.. The Scenarios where all pretty real and set up a like a triage scene with multiple serious injuries (complete with fake blood and screaming patients) and we'd have to decide what was the most critical and what conditions required the most care. At one point some of us even hopped in the ice cold river and actually made ourselves hypothermic and it was really awesome to see how well the hypo wraps really work to reheat the body. It was all really fun.

So after about 13 Days in Skagway we all got back on the ferry over to haines... which we almost missed because of misplaced tickets but I won't get into that.. The weather for the ferry ride was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining and the water was a teal-blue color.. We saw Mountain Goats, Countless Eagles, Otters, and dozens of waterfalls created by the melting now up above...

Our arrival back in Haines was celebrated with a BBQ and a bonfire where I met a bunch more of the senior guides here... most of which have 20+ years of boating experience and I'm sure I have a lot to learn from.

In haines most of the guides camp out behind the Warehouse and it's a bit crowded at the moment due to the amount of snow that is still sticking around in the trees and the fact that all of the new guides from all 3 outposts are currently living here for the first week of training.

Training here has been really fun so far... We get to do Yoga for 45 minutes in the morning before we get on the water and the weather has been perfect. I've been told not to get used to it though since Haines usually see's a bit of rain during the summer but I'm just going to ignore that and think positive for a sunny season..

The rivers we run here are all glacially fed which makes them really really dynamic. They can change which channel they are running down in a matter of hours... so you really have to always be on your toes and make sure the river didn't decide to suddenly run into a grove of trees which can be a really dangerous situation. Yesterday we went up and ran a new section of river and that turned out to be just the situation. I was acting as the Trip Leader for the training run and as we came around the corner a couple of times I'd have to nail a must make eddy... hop out on the under cut ice banks and get my raft stopped and run down and scout around the corner. The day was complete with a section we had to line the boats through and even take them out and portage around some log jams. It was my favorite day up here soo far... it was like a puzzle and you had to figure out where the pieces go and do it without putting peoples lives in danger. At one point Ramsey, a guide with 30 years of boating experience and who is our head trainer, told me he was so impressed with my boating skills that he would trust me to take his own mother down the sketchy section we had just ran. That was one of the best compliments I think I have gotten.

Spring here in the valley is absolutely amazing.. We are already getting over 16 hours of sunlight a day and its putting spring into overdrive. Things are turning greener by the minute, the mountains are weeping down in avalanches and waterfalls.. dozens of species of birds are arriving daily, and yes the bears are now all awake and walking about town... I personally haven't seen one yet but I have seen the prints of a large grizzly a couple hundreds feet from where I have my van parked. There is a really powerful energy in the air here with everything coming back to life..

I think that is all I have for now... today is my day off so maybe I'll get back on later and upload some more photos...