Sequoia Mountain Rescue

I'm on my lunch break here, so I'll try to keep this one short. Shortly after I moved, I was reading a book about survival I found at Borders. The book reminded me about Alpine search and rescue (SAR) teams. I've often thought about how cool it would be to be a part of one, and now that I live in an area that actually has real alpine wilderness, I decided to look into it. Turns out, there's an elite group of volunteers right here in my county, called Sequoia Mountain Rescue. They perform search and rescue operations in high angle and alpine environments, caves, and swiftwater throughout the Southern Sierra Nevada range. In short, this is every boy's dream (especially me), but here it's actually for real. Each team member is completely volunteer and even purchases their own equipment, and each member puts their own neck on the line in hopes of saving others'. They train one weekend a month, doing all the cool things like climbing and rapelling, caving, winter skills (snowshoes/skis), etc. This group pretty much rocks. So, after browsing everything on their website (check out the link, top right), I sent in an application (donated a pint of blood in the process just to find out what my blood type is, but that's another story).

Anyway, I've received a response to my application, which said (in relevant part): "Thank you for your interest in Sequoia Mountain Rescue. We are extending you an invitation to meet our members at the next upcoming team quarterly meeting on Tuesday, November 14 at 1730 to 2200." (They even use military time. how awesome is that! =). Oh, and the other neat thing is that my boss/job is flexible so work won't be a problem either. I'm pumped about this opportunity, and I'll certainly post further on this in the coming weeks.