HAI/Ground Ops

Another phase down. High Altitude Indoc in Winnipeg was pretty easy. The purpose of it was to understand how your body reacts under thin atmosphere and to recognize the signs and symptoms of hypoxia(shortage of oxygen), there are a lot of signs and people tend to have different one's which is why we all had to do it. Winnipeg sucks as far as I could tell, the only cool thing was taking limo's to and from the airport and hanging out in the executive lounge(it's good to be a SAR Tech). It's too spread out and it was just a boring phase so I imagine that had some impact. It was pretty cool though going to 30Kft (higher than Mt. Everest) in the hypobaric chamber and getting all fucked up.
After a week of that we took another plane to Edmonton, got on a private bus and drove to Jarvis Lake, the same place we did selection. We were told it would be a relaxing phase and a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun but relaxing........ hells no. The days start at 0700 and end anywhere between 2200 and 2230. And these aren't normal work days as most people would call them. SAR Tech work days differ slightly. For example, one day we spent building improvised stretchers and carrying people through swamps and bush for hours on end. Not cool, but extremely valuable training. Another day we had to search for a 17 year old boy with special needs who was also an insulin dependant diabetic. We started from the highway and worked our way in towards the lake. Once we got to the lake we received info that he was spotted on the island in the middle of the lake. Now Jarvis Lake is a high altitude, glacier fed lake and it's September, so it's effin' COLD. So we strip down and pack everything in our bivy bags and hit the water. Once on the other side we get dressed again, ruck up and continue the search. I happened to be in the front and found Johnny, a heavy mannequin. So now we have to construct a raft capable of keeping Johnny out of the water. It's kind of funny to see a group of axe wielding men on a beach with huge packs on, making a raft in their underwear. Everything worked out okay though and again it was an extremely valuable exercise. These are just a couple examples of what the week was like. Good training but it was a loooooong week and my body is feeling it now.