Thursday, May 17, 2012

In which Rabbitman jumps off a tall tower...

This past weekend I was on an extremely successful outing with the Cadets (an "FTX" in Canadian milspeak- 'Field Training Exercise'). Our senior Captain always brings her camera along and shared some pictures with me so I thought I'd blog about it.
New tents
New tents

The facility we were at (Peacekeeper park) has lots of amenities; a selection of good tenting sites, some cabins, a decent meal hall and kitchen, an obstacle course, access to a lake, lots of woods, space to set up an air rifle range and best of all an abseil tower!

High tower
High tower
So this year we did a biathlon with the cadets running around the obstacle course and then shooting sets of five rounds on the range, orienteering through the woods and abseiling. Other years we've done canoeing but the paperwork and logistics for getting canoes,paddles, flotation vests, instructors, safety procedures etc to take some cadets canoeing seem to be even more difficult than arranging to throw them off of a 60 foot tower.

Cadet abseiling
Cadet abseiling
Biathalon
Air rifle range
Orienteering
Orienteering past a beaver lodge

Since it was the Mother's Day weekend we only had 30 cadets on the ground which was a nice manageable group so we had small teams rotating through each activity. Instead of getting only one chance to go down the tower some cadets went down 5 or 6 times, and they got the chance to do some extra target practice after the 'official' biathlon activity was done.

My friend and I got up early on Saturday to lay out the orienteering route. I'm glad to say that a couple of Junior Officers with compasses did NOT result in disaster. Although watching one of the teams come in from the wrong side of a marker (they had missed the marker they were heading for and went to a different one) and then go off on the wrong bearing was amusing. But they discovered their error, started over, made up their time and their team ended up with a perfect score.

One of my third year cadets, in charge of a team of younger cadets, was still pretty fuzzy on how to follow compass bearings, but I gave her a few minutes of extra tutoring and off she went to also get a perfect score and best overall time making her team the winners.

Getting over his fear
Overcoming his fear
This young fellow (picture above) faces a lot of challenges in his life and he was quite scared to go over the side, but the abseil instructor coached him through it and he was one of the cadets who went down 5 times. Another youngster lost her nerve right at the edge and apologized later, but the abseil instructor pointed out to her that she at least tried and got further than just staying on the ground. Things like that really make the lack of sleep, sun burn and constipation worth it.

Ready to go!
Does this harness make me look fat?
Since the line up at the tower was pretty short, I also took the opportunity to give it a go. I haven't abseiled in about 30 years. My last time as a cadet it was cold and wet and the edge was pretty slick, causing some anxiety, so I wanted to reassure myself I could still do it.
Me going over the edge
Over the side
Rabbitman goes for a hop
Trying a bound
DSC08814


All in all a pretty good weekend and a splendid tonic for the frustrations of the work week, as demonstrated by the grin on a fellow officer:
Making it look easy

10 comments:

  1. It's almost like I remember being there? That weekend is a total blur... lack of sleep, long hours, sun and fresh air did me some good though!

    Chris

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  2. Roger that!
    Be nice if we could find a way to do this full time eh?

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  3. Good stuff. Nothing is more fun than a rappel tour (well, maybe rappelling off a helicopter). Sounds like a good weekend.

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  4. After being off injured for quite a while, it was really great to get out on a weekend FTX, even though was against the physio therapist and doctors objections. When has that ever stopped me before. Great job organzing from Chris and James,BRAVO BOYS.

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    1. Thanks "Yogi"!
      It was good having you back in the field.

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  5. I used to love rappelling or 'abseiling'.

    We had a fireman's school tower that we used for our training at A&M. Went down backwards twice, then learned to assault rappel (run forward down the building) which was even more fun.

    Strange, I have a fear of falling but it doesn't baother me as long as I am properly belayed.

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    Replies
    1. According the to abseil instructor there is a technical difference: with abseiling the belay is on top of the tower, with rappelling the belay is at the bottom. We did rappelling back in the day as well.
      Remember your "ABC" "Anchor Belay Climber" or "Always Be Cool"

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  6. Green is definitely your colour.....it makes you blend from sight! Sounds like a great outing James. Great to see you mentoring kids and helping them to see their potential.

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  7. When I am on an FTX I am to busy to "PLAY" on the tower. Oh Ya I'm a CI and actually work at Cadets. Rico Da CI

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  8. That's why I only went down once, so the cadets that wanted too, could have more turns.

    Wanted to go again, but that would be greedy, and I had to get back to work.

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