Gil, We had a nice group last night of 12 to 15 folks (some had to leave early). A good mix of cavers, BSA Venture Crew folks, and even the BSA Climbing Director for the Alamo Council. The instructors, Ms. Vicky Smith and Mr. Ben Marberry did a wonderful job as usual. Vicky teaches for the UTSHC and Ben teaches for the S.A. Fire Academy. They are both very talented, gifted, and patient instructors and we are so fortunate to have them in the community. We covered packaging using a litter and basic haul system construction and design. The presentations were outside under some nice trees, which also made for good anchors. This was pretty much ground school which allowed the practice of packaging and hauling concepts , building of anchors, and haul system operation without having to deal with edge safety. There was a little bit of a slope at the site which helped with some of the demonstrations.
There were short tests at the beginning and end of the class with good discussions. I would suspect that Vicky and Ben would travel to Austin for a similar class or offer a full day in the fall when people have more time to drive further. Then again, I think there are some excellent training sources in the Austin area in the form of Mr. T.J. Walker and Ms. Becky Jones. Anyway, great time had by all. Many thanks to Vicky and Ben - they did an outstanding job. All the more so in taking time from their busy schedules, after they've already put in a full day, to come teach us in the July heat. Participants - Rick Corbell, Bryan Scott, Tom Kroeger, Jill Orr, Aspen Schindel, Michelle Bryant, Steve Bryant, Joe Dantri, Kori Dunaway, David Daniels, Renee Skwara, Geary Schindel, sorry, I can't remember the others right now. Geary
