Military

Video – Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam, Small Wars Journal
Don’t Believe All Those Stories About The Germans And Mission Command, Task & Purpose
New Report Says War In Afghanistan Is A Raging Dumpster Fire, Shocking Absolutely No One, Task & Purpose
Here are the rules of engagement for troops deploying to the Mexican border, Air Force Times
Can special camo netting hide Marines from eyes in the sky? Defense News
2001 CNN Documentary – Military Operations on Urban Terrain (MOUT), Small Wars Journal
Army holds off Air Force, 17-14, for its 11th straight win at home, Air Force Times
Top US Navy officer tells China to behave at sea, Defense News
General, five others reprimanded in connection with 2017 ambush that left four dead, Stars and Stripes
So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance: Observations from the Army Combat Fitness Test Pilot, War on the Rocks
Others May Have Succeeded In Finding Meaning After The Military, But I Haven’t, Task & Purpose
Bring the Tanks Back: It Is Time to Put a U.S. Armored Brigade in Germany, Task & Purpose
Fund drive for family of major killed in Afghanistan approaches $400K, Stars and Stripes
Army’s Soldier and Squad Performance Research Institute Will Increase Lethality, Resilience, Soldier Systems
On Drones and Tactics: How Unmanned Platforms Will Change the Way the Infantry Fights, Modern War Institute
Germany’s Military Is a Total Mess: No Working Submarines, New Equipment Is Defective., The National Interest

Homeland Security / First Responder / Wildlife Fire

Pentagon Doesn’t Want Real Artificial Intelligence In War, Former Official Says, Defense All
Good Samaritan Pulls West Virginia Trooper From Fiery Wreck, Officer
A Look at the Upcoming Film ‘Wildland’, Outside
What We Learned from the Yarnell Hill Fire Deaths, Outside
The wildfire within: gender, leadership and wildland fire culture, International Journal of Wildland Fire
Increase engagement with modern scheduling technology (white paper), Firerescue 1 Daily News
Controlling Crime Through Media and Public Relations, Law Enforcement Today
Chula Vista Police Demo Drones Assisting as First Responders Officer
Has Yellowstone “recovered” from the 1988 wildfires? Wildfire Today
Two-minute explanation of how wildfires burn, Wildfire today
Colorado Sheriff’s Deputy Seriously Injured in Jail Attack, Police One
Man Walks Into Florida Police Station, Confesses to Two Murders, Officer.com
Report: Reforming controversial first responder retirement program would save LA millions, Police One
Speaking your mind: What cops need to consider, Police One
Denver Police May Encrypt Radio Traffic, Officer

Mountain

North Face Explores The Lasting Allure of Chamonix, Unofficial Networks
Daniel Woods Makes the First Ascent of Box Therapy (V16) in Rocky Mountain National Park, Climbing Magazine
Beautiful Short Film Takes You on the Dramatic First Climb of Janhukot, Adventure Journal
Hikers Shouldn’t Have to Pay Trail Fees, Outside
What’s Up With Speed Climbing?, REI
Two Guides Killed In New Zealand Avalanche, Unofficial Networks
This Black Crows video will shift your perspective of resort skiing, Freeskier
Alex Honnold’s TED Talk Is Master Class in Preparation & Training, Unofficial Networks
How Hunting Can Deepen Your Connection to the Outdoors, The Outbound Collective Journal
Mount Hood’s Deadliest Disaster, Outside
How to Belay a Leader with an Assisted Braking Device, Americal Alpine Institute
Colorado’s Statewide Snowpack Is Currently Over 150% Of Average, Unofficial Networks
How Gear Brands Pick Colors, Outside
3 Exercises to Train for Carrying Heavy Packs, Backpacker
Should Ski Areas Offer Uphill Access?, Unofficial Networks
The Most Exciting Skis and Snowboards of 2019, Outside
5 Questions With Angela Hawse, Second Woman to Head AMGA, Adventure Journal

Fitness / Nutrition / Health

9 Myths About the Ketogenic Diet, Muscle & Fitness
Once Paralyzed, Three Men Take Steps Again With Spinal Implant, NY Times
The Top 5 Fitness Trends of 2019, Men’s Health
What Kind of Foods Make Us Fat? NY Times
10 Easy and Nutritious Low-carb Food Swaps, Muscle & Fitness
Physical Fitness and Blood Glucose Influence Performance in IndyCar Racing, JSCR
Maximal Upper-Body Strength and Oxygen Uptake Are Associated With Performance in High-Level 200-m Sprint Kayakers, JSCR
Comparison of Physical Fitness Parameters for Starters vs. Nonstarters in an NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Team, JSCR
Performance of Future Elite Players at the National Football League Scouting Combine, JSCR
The Injured Identity Crisis, Freeskier
The Only Chili Recipes You’ll Ever Need, Outside
Tennis elbow treatments provide little to no benefit, study finds, Science Daily
Drinking coffee may reduce your chances of developing Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Science Daily
Study: 1 Energy Drink Might Harm Blood Vessels, WebMD
9 Top Nutrition Myths Debunked, Muscle & Fitness
How To Best Collaborate Between Physical Therapy And Fitness, Mike Reinhold

Interesting

The Trick To Happiness After The Military: Find Another Weird, Underappreciated Job, Task & Purpose
Small Towns Offer Clues to Life Expectancy Drop, WebMD
State of the Art: How Mark Zuckerberg Became Too Big to Fail, NY Times
Austria Says It Won’t Sign UN Global Migration Pact, In Homeland Security
The 10 Best Used Car Models from 2007 to 2019, Gear Patrol
Tesla’s Summon upgrade turns vehicles into remote-controlled cars, Endgadget
‘Ecstasy’ Study Results Promising for PTSD, WebMD
Australia’s changing relationship with alcohol, Science Daily
250,000 Anchor Babies born in The US in  2016, Down from 390,000 in 2017, Pew Research Center
Elon Musk doesn’t care if people buy his ‘Blade Runner pickup truck’, The Verge
How America Became the Nation of Yoga Pants, Bloomberg
Spanking Is Ineffective and Harmful to Children, Pediatricians’ Group Says, NY Times
One Fork to Rule them All, Outside
Why women receive less CPR from bystanders, Science Daily
Study suggests childhood obesity linked to poor school performance and coping skills, Science Daily
America Is No Longer Attracting The Top Minds In Physics, Forbes
Suicides Among Japanese Children Reach Highest Level in 3 Decades, NY Times
Walmart Surpasses Amazon as Online Shoppers’ Most Popular Grocer, Bloomberg
Facebook Admits It Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar, NY Times
After Man-Eating Tiger Is Killed in India, a Backlash Against the Hunters, NY Times

By Thomas Biesemeyer

There is a quiet sense of positivity within yourself when you accept injury and commit to a surgical repair. Your self-belief and confidence are high because after surgery the ball is finally in your court and that is ultimately everyone’s goal: control. What no one ever thinks is that when signing that piece of paper before getting wheeled in for surgery there is a small risk for infection. But does anyone actually become concerned with that? The internal belief is, “that kind of stuff doesn’t happen to people like me”. But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

After four days of cancellations at the 2018 Olympic Downhill due to weather, the race organizers decided that an additional training run was needed to ensure a safe and fair race. It was on this run that I crashed and tore my Achilles tendon, and just like that my Olympic debut was sidelined. Injuries have been a sore topic of conversation when talking about my career so this was not a foreign environment for me.

I flew back to our team’s orthopedic surgeon in Vail, Colorado for an immediate surgery and was told I would be “back in no time, skiing in five months.”

Three weeks post-operation I started feeling that something was wrong with my rehab; I was having high levels of pain, weird bumps on my scar, and no progress when it came to my range of motion and strength. Unfortunately, I was right. I had an infection but it took five months for the doctor to accept it and treat it properly. At four weeks post-op, I went back in for a second surgery but nothing seemed “too alarming” so the doctors simply cleaned it out and put me on a PICC line (antibiotics intravenously), and I assumed I was fixed. As time went on, roughly three months, my scar kept opening through two distinct holes and oozing, which was disconcerting but my doctor assured me that everything was okay. Another two months passed and the holes were still very much there, but with no associated pain. With mounting doubt in my mind I decided to go back to the doctor for his assessment.

At five months post my initial surgery (which was February 19^th) I surrendered to a third surgery. The difference between the third operation and the previous two was an additional surgeon. Throughout this whole process, I started to ask for opinions from other surgeons and when going in for the most recent surgery I requested that another surgeon join because he had a keen sense of what needed to be done, and an aggressive approach towards my infection that I appreciated.  In this surgery, I had all of my hardware taken out, and two cultures came back positive for Staph.  I had an infection.

Since my health insurance is provided by the USOC (United States Olympic Committee) it was required that the staph be reported and I consult with an infectious disease doctor. For seven weeks I would meet this doctor in Salt Lake City to get my healing scar accessed and blood work done to make sure I had proper kidney function due to the prescribed high dosage of antibiotics.

It is safe to assume that most people are impatient and like control; I myself am very much grouped into this category and the Achilles rehab has tested both of these characteristics. During rehab, I went from thinking I was going to be skiing in record time to wondering if I would even ski race this upcoming season, or worse, ever again. That may sound dramatic, but when an infection presents itself efforts to rid it become seemingly desperate, and doctors once seen as confident and all-knowing now appear uncertain. It’s not a position anyone wants to be in when dealing with one’s health.

At this point, I realized that my mental resilience, much like my Achilles, was not as strong as I needed it to be. I believed I would get better and come back stronger than ever. But when time started to slip away and my recovery was eating into my scheduled time on snow, I felt doubt and negative energy from teammates, coaches, and sponsors.  At this low point, I became more patient and calm.  I had to.  Instead of succumbing to the self-doubt prolonged recovery I used rest as if it was training.   I worked my able body parts with purpose, I ate as well as I could, and I believed in my healing day by day. I had moments of weakness where I thought all was lost, but I never let it become enough to alter my overall outlook.

Currently, I am in Solden, Austria training on snow and feel great. My Achilles is not perfect, but the daily mileage is fueling my confidence that I will be able to compete again at a high level. I still randomly wake up in the middle of the night with a feeling that my scar is oozing and have to remind myself that it is fine. I guess that is the self-doubt and pessimism often affiliated with an injury. I have learned that this whole ordeal is a process, each step I have taken to this point has been important, and the coming steps will eventually lead me to my ultimate goal of standing on top of the podium. My understanding of being able to give a little to gain a lot has been extremely critical during this rehab. The ability to be patient and calm while sitting on a couch when I think I should be training with full intensity is hard -really hard- but looking back I am thankful I was able to do it because it got me to where I am today.

  Thomas is a downhill specialist on the US Ski Team.

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By Forrest Jillson

I work as a bartender, a sober bartender. Weird, I know. I will happily provide a bottle of wine for a social gathering, or make you your favorite drink while you dine at my place of work. I won’t badger you for drinking nightly, I might make fun of your mug shot on the inmate list on Sunday morning, but ultimately, you’re free to make your own decisions and as long as those decisions are made responsibly. Have that stiff drink at the end of a long day. I get it, we work our asses off to stay afloat in this world, especially in a ski town.

Alcohol has been a part of my life from early on. I remember having a sip of my Dad’s beer as a young kid, 5 or 6, it was Miller Genuine Draft. I remember liking it.

Skiing has also been a part of my life since I was young, so being a drinker was not only allowed but almost expected of me once I was older. I started really drinking in high school. I would drink anything put in front of me if it made me hurl, I’d hurl and go right back to drinking. I’d sneak out of the house on weeknights to go party.

Drinking provoked what I consider now to be, foolishness i.e. jumping out of trees into rivers, jumping bikes over bonfires, skiing off roofs, shotgunning beers while riding on top of moving cars, you name it. That kind of drinking and debauchery lasted up until Friday, April 6th, 2007. I got especially drunk that night at a concert at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. I remember jumping in the back of a Subaru some cute girls were driving and said, “take me home!”

At work the next day, while skiing on my break, I made a series of hangover-induced bad decisions that led to the shattering of my femur. I recovered from that over the course of the next few years and rarely drank that heavily again, but I did keep drinking.

Fast forward ten years to July 25th, 2017. Celebrating the reopening of our commercial fishing season in Alaska with a game of “rage cage”, I blacked out. I woke up to vomit only to fall down the stairs and hit my head on the concrete. Waking up with blood on the pillow and realizing I wasn’t just hungover, I was flown to the hospital in Anchorage where I stayed for 5 nights. CT scans showed bleeding in three parts of my brain.

A professional athlete losing his balance, while drunk, resulting in one of the worst injuries he’s ever had. Lame.

I know the occasional drink seems harmless and you think you’re a light drinker all the time, but you’re lying to yourself (and you know it). Here’s the fine print.

Any supposed benefits from drinking are known to come from drinking red wine, but these health benefits aren’t solely found through wine. Enter resveratrol. Resveratrol is one of the most revered components of red wine. Found in the skin of red grapes as well as peanuts, cocoa powder and certain berries and roots. It is a compound which may help diabetics regulate their blood sugar and has proposed anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. A study published in the journal, Nutrition, found that a group of participants who took 250 mg of a resveratrol supplement once daily for three months had lower blood glucose levels than those who didn’t take the pill. Sure, this compound, at high doses had health benefits, but studies with supplements are far removed from normal diets, you would have to drink a lot of Malbec (like a case each day) to get similar doses of resveratrol as seen in the study.

There has never been a controlled study to see if wine will do anything beneficial for a person with existing health issues and resveratrol is just one of hundreds of potential health-promoting components found in food, so painting wine as some sort of Holy Grail is a fallacy. The argument that drinking small amounts of red wine is advantageous to your health, is negated by the fact that drinking enough alcohol to benefit from resveratrol would then bring about risks from excessive drinking like, hypertension, stroke, and heart disease – which is the leading cause of death in America.

Skiing and social drinking go hand in hand and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. The presence of drinking in the ski culture is very apparent and I do like the vibe from a loosened up group of skiers having food and drinks at the end of the day with 100 of their friends at the Mangy Moose – that’s the ski culture.

While lots of aprés drinking is done responsibly, there’s plenty of it that isn’t, which is why I think that excessive drinking in the skiing culture is a problem, I don’t think it hurts skiing as a culture, I just think it hurts the skier.

I don’t think that the marketing of alcohol in skiing is as extensive as it is in other sports, (think commercial breaks in the NFL) and therefore I don’t think it’s the result of marketing that alcohol is so present in the ski world. Skiing is too much of a family affair and while I know some resorts are affiliated with certain beer companies and you will see more of those beer brand logos at the base areas in the spring targeting the spring break crowd, I think the marketing of alcohol to skiers is relatively sparse which is why I think the huge presence of drinking in the ski culture is pervasive.

I think the habitual heavy drinking in skiing is formed through social interactions and social pressure and ultimately will affect the skier’s life outside of skiing in a negative way i.e. alcoholism, and reckless behavior. This is what happened to me, twice.

Circumstances surrounding me drying up were unique, and I don’t think I would have quit drinking if it hadn’t been for my tumble down the stairs.

I was a candidate for being an excessive drinker and where that would’ve lead, we luckily won’t find out. Others professionals in the sport have gone down the long road, letting the recklessness of excessive drinking run its course until one day they realized that they need to get sober – a responsible and bold move that I respect immensely.

Dash Longe has been an influencer of free skiing since before the flip phone. His pedigree is full of appearances in TGR films, and events like the Red Bull Cold Rush, which is the pinnacle of invite-only big mountain free skiing completions. From a young age, Dash was among the party scene of the ski world and didn’t know any other way. He didn’t know what people did with their weekends if they weren’t spending it partying. He spent his rockstar years going straight from crushing the slopes to crushing the party scene and admits that he really liked it. Who can blame him? But even Dash saw the writing on the wall and has now been sober for 2.5 years. With a wife, a kid and a career outside of skiing (don’t think Dash still doesn’t find time to make ski films) it was only a matter of time before he got sober.

“As soon as I was able to 100% own the fact that I had a problem, and look at people straight up and say ‘no I don’t drink anymore’, that was one of the most freeing parts of the whole process for me.” Dash says, “It was so easy to not realize how problematic it was for all those years, hanging out with the crew that I did.” He said he just recognized it as being part of the territory. “The big problem for all those years was, I could not say no because I was so worried that partying was such part of my identity and that people expected it of me, and when I hung out with these people who I thought liked me because I partied, then it became tenfold harder to say no.”

While talking with Dash, he mentioned the physiological side of it. Skiers are adrenaline fiends, our brains have been wired to crave that rush, and for some skiers at a high level we, in a sense, get paid to suppress fear as our livelihood. It’s scary to push your limits on skis! So it’s no wonder skiers are unapologetically quick to pop more than one beer at the end of the day, we have to find a way to come down from that rush and suppress the high that our bodies and addict brains have been on all day with alcohol. When asked if he’s happier now that he’s sober than when he was drinking, it’s a quick “yes”, Dash notes it’s been a fun journey of self-realization and it hasn’t been without its challenges.

Drinking is not the only way to come down and balance the barrage of chemicals freeskier brains receive while charging every day. You can celebrate a big day in the hills with a La Croix instead of a heavy dose of booze and actually treat your body well by doing so.

For me, the clarity brought about by being without alcohol for over a year now is one of the best feelings ever, and guess what, I feel this way all the time! With all the unknowns ahead of me – being as vital as possible is going to be a major factor in keeping this dream alive for as long as possible. Having the ability to cut out the bad and make room for the good is crucial. I don’t expect to get anywhere in life by half-assing anything, by cutting out alcohol, I feel like I’m giving myself every opportunity to succeed on this incredible journey.

Forrest Jillson is a professional freeskier based in Jackson, Wyoming.

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By Garrick Hart

Mountain guides tend to think of mistakes that they make (the ones that don’t result in an accident) as “free lessons”… Taking those free lessons to heart, and not repeating them is one of the most important things we can do as guides to keep our clients, and ourselves safe and having a good time. Here are the biggest mistakes I’ve made, and the free lessons I’ve learned over the past decade guiding in the Tetons.

1) Clients are on vacation.

More often than not, mountain guides become mountain guides in part because they’ve mastered the art, and the joy of suffering.  Unfortunately, suffering is not high on the list of priorities for all clients who throw down for a trip to the Tetons. 

One season I was charging ahead on the Grand Teton with a couple in marginal conditions.  We were nearing the summit, and getting quite wet when I finally reluctantly pulled the plug.  At the time, I believed that we could have made it to the top and back safely, but it would have just been a bit miserable. 

When one of my clients started shivering and thanked me for turning them around when we were at the rappel, I realized my error.  Not only was suffering that much not on their agenda for this trip but pushing people past their limit has the potential to get dangerous fast. 

This group ended up happy with their near summit experience and returned the next summer to climb the rest of the mountain with me in more pleasant conditions.

2) If they are not safe while learning, they won’t be safe while climbing.

Prior to one Grand Teton trip, I was teaching climbing school to a couple of dads, with two kids each.  It was amazing how quickly the kids were able to learn the knots, rope work, and belaying.  Clearly, they were more used to learning new information than their dads were, as they were still in school.  The dads fumbled a bit but quickly insisted that they had it, and understood everything I had taught. 

While on the climb, we had reached the top of the Sargent Chimney’s on the Grand, and I transitioned from traditional pitched climbing to short-pitching / short roping.  I handed one of the dads a cow’s tail with a couple auto lockers to clip into, kiwied my rope and was off.  I took one step before noticing that he had clipped into a gear loop rather than belay loop, rendering the rope worthless.  Fortunately, the error was caught right away. 

In hindsight though, the real error was in me not creating a safe learning environment during the training a few days before.  The dad was embarrassed that he could not learn as fast as his own teenage kids, and as a result, tried to hide his lack of understanding from me so that I wouldn’t “shame” him in front of them. 

Turns out that there is little more dangerous than a client pretending like he or she understands your critical instructions when they have no idea what you are talking about.

3) The secondary hazard is the one that’s going to get you.

Prior to each trip, I like to think or talk through what the most significant hazards of the day are likely going to be.  While preparing for a trip up the Grand with a group of kids, it was obvious what that hazard was going to be: ice. 

There was a storm that laid a fresh blanket of snow on the climb several days before our scheduled climb.  We expected the Exum Ridge to be relatively dry, but the descent down the shady side to be covered with snow & verglass.  Kids were going to have to descend with the aid of crampons and ice axes, which would be new to them. 

But at least we had a perfect weather forecast… As we left wall street and gained the Exum Ridge there was not a cloud in the sky.  The clouds built slowly at first, but then gained strength fast as we climbed the friction pitch, high on the ridge.  The first lightning strike hit the top of the mountain at about 8:00 AM on what was supposed to be a 0% chance of thunderstorm day. 

In hindsight, the focus on the potential icy descent, caused us to forget about how a monsoonal flow in the Tetons is notoriously difficult to forecast accurately, but yet has the potential to blow up fast and early when moisture hits the Western front of the mountains.

4) If you don’t keep yourself safe, you can’t keep your guest safe.

Once your number of Grand Teton Ascents passes the century mark, it is easy for even the most diligent guide to become complacent.  I became very comfortable and at home while traveling on the Grand. 

That all changed after witnessing a friend, and far superior climber than I fall off the mountain. 

In the aftermath I mentioned to one of my mentors: “If he can fall off there, I’m not safe anywhere on that mountain”.  My mentor’s response was just as true as it was poignant: “you never were…” 

I now make a point to acknowledge my vulnerability, and take steps to mitigate it.  I carry and place more gear, take advantage of terrain, take more belays, pitch it out more, and short-rope less.  I’ve always provided great security for my clients, but if I don’t provide great security for myself, I put them at an even greater risk.

5) Don’t Interfere in other people’s epics.

You get to see a lot of interesting things if you are working on the Grand Teton every week, summer after summer.  The moderate grade of the trade routes lures all kinds of climbers, with a wide range of experience to the mountain each summer. 

It’s easy for a guide to become frustrated, or even hostile towards the seemingly reckless public that is out there climbing on any given day.  There is a fine line between lending a helpful tip to keep someone safe, and having a negative impact on other people’s experience. 

I’ve found that staying on the right side of that line has more to do with my mindset, than their skill set.  I’ve learned to take inspiration from inexperienced climbers that are laying it all out there rather than adopting an attitude of “they have no business being here”.  After all, it does remind me of my days as a beginning climber. 

I’ve seen that this mindset allows public climbing parties to hear my tip, or even learn from my modeling rather than rejecting me (and guides in general) as an arrogant prick.

Garrick Hart is a guide with Exum Mountain Guides in Jackson, Wyoming, and a long-term athlete at MTI.

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