The Baker to Vegas Problem Cup Relay pushes individuals to the sting; Verizon Frontline is there not simply with tech, however with belief
DEATH VALLEY—It was me, Dan Jones from Fierce Community, Eric Durie who’s the affiliate director of communications for Verizon Frontline, and Guadalupe Vicon, a senior supervisor of communications on the buyer aspect of Verizon’s enterprise. We loaded into Eric’s rental SUV and left the Rio in Las Vegas for Dying Valley to check out Verizon Frontline’s area operation and deployables for the Baker to Vegas relay. Vicon—that’s what she goes by—fired up “A Horse With No Identify” by America, and we have been off. However let me again up a little bit bit.
The Baker to Vegas Problem Cup Relay is a 20-stage footrace from Baker, Calif., to Las Vegas, Nev. Greater than 200 groups—every with 20 runners—grit it out over 120 miles of blistering desert highways and steep mountain passes. They do it for 3 causes: to win, to boost cash for the college in Baker, and to win. Behind them are lots of of volunteers, medical employees, race coordinators, and Verizon Frontline’s pop-up infrastructure—and the crew that sweats (or freezes) it into place.
The day earlier than we headed out into the sphere, I chatted with Paul Wooden, disaster response senior supervisor on Verizon’s Frontline Disaster Response Workforce. This isn’t his first relay and he’s well-versed within the complexities of delivering an out there, dependable community largely to help the potential medical wants of the racers. He recalled a Baker to Vegas a couple of years again when he was organising a manual-aim satellite tv for pc dish to feed capability to an eFemto-cell and create a bubble of connectivity the place none existed earlier than. That was at stage 9 of the race, a 7.5 mile stretch that begins about 15 miles south of Pahrump, Nev.
Wooden instructed me that, as he was organising his bubble, a volunteer got here as much as him and mentioned he wanted to make a name, which Wooden facilitated. The volunteer made the decision, got here again and instructed Wooden his spouse had had a cardiac occasion. However he was in a position to discuss to her, discuss to her medical doctors, perceive the state of affairs, and keep on together with his volunteer duties. “The subsequent 12 months, working on the similar stage, he comes as much as me and introduces his spouse to me,” Wooden mentioned.
“All this expertise, all these things we now have out right here, when it comes right down to it on the finish, there’s individuals in entrance of it, there’s individuals behind it, and it issues to them.”
“We discover that numerous the time, what we’re offering protection for, the reality of it’s it’s rather a lot much less concerning the public security comms and much more concerning the morale-boosting of speaking to somebody at residence…It’s a fairly highly effective factor to offer folks that peace of thoughts, that consolation.”
Consolation is difficult to come back by out right here. You may discover a little bit of it on the Crowbar Café and Saloon in Shoshone, Calif.—inhabitants 20, give or take. However not like most weekends, one factor yow will discover on this a part of Dying Valley throughout Baker to Vegas is tech. Numerous tech. We noticed loads of SPOTs—Satellite tv for pc Pico-cells on Trailers. There have been COLTs—Cells on Mild Vans. There have been COWs—Cells on Wheels. And there was at the least one STUD—Satellite tv for pc Trailer, Common Design. That one’s new.
A Verizon Frontline STUD–Satellite tv for pc Trailer, Common Design.
It has two satellite tv for pc dishes—an on and an off—that observe medium-Earth orbit (MEO) satellites, then beam sign by way of high-powered radios. The previous Marine setting it up took a minute to elucidate onboard energy, the cooling system, and the 100 gallons of diesel gasoline it carries to remain operational. “They named it after me,” he mentioned, because the solar beat down and dirt whipped round us.
Again on the Rio the day earlier than, I met with Race Coordinator Rick Santos of the Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Membership. That is his fourth 12 months within the prime spot for Baker to Vegas. “It went to shit the primary 12 months,” he mentioned. “Coming again after COVID, it was extraordinarily sizzling and a few of the groups, I feel, forgot concerning the hydration half.” Ultimately, he needed to make the decision to pause the race—there simply weren’t sufficient medical assets.
Along with working the race, Santos additionally runs within the race; even on race day he’s taking up an early stage. Speaking by way of the connection with Verizon Frontline, he mentioned, “They’ve jumped up huge time. Our major line of communications throughout the complete race course is with Verizon…Working with Verizon Frontline has ensured that we’re positively one of many most secure races…This kind of footprint, with medical doctors at each stage, with Verizon Frontline on the market, there’s protection in spots the place we thought we’d by no means have protection.”
Verizon Frontline crew members prep a SPOT, and different gear, at a staging space in Pahrump, Nev.
We met up with Curtis Mentz, affiliate director of Verizon Frontline Disaster Response Workforce for the West area, on the Vacation Inn Categorical in Pahrump. He’s been with Verizon for 37 years—since earlier than it was Verizon. He’s an authorized emergency medical technician and volunteers doing search and rescue in San Mateo County, Calif. He hopped into his white Suburban and instructed us to observe him out to the medical base. We pulled off the freeway a couple of instances to talk with a few of the Frontline crew. He knew everybody’s identify, he stored issues gentle, and he stored issues going.
Following Curtis Mentz alongside the race route–he knew precisely the place he was going.
One in all our stops was close to Chicago Valley, stage 8 of the race, a 6.6 mile stretch. “This might be my stage,” he mentioned, encouraging me to go stand out within the highway and take all of it in. Working that may induce a “catatonic” state in him, immediate him to speak to a better energy, Mentz mentioned. I’m not a non secular particular person but when something would do it, it’d most likely be working down that stretch of Freeway 372.
Like Wooden, Mentz additionally had a narrative of a Baker to Vegas previous. He was out pre-flighting the route when he encountered a disabled motorist with a flat tire. Mentz helped them change the tire, however the spare was additionally low on air. With a SPOT in tow, he adopted them to a nearby-ish Chevron station to ensure issues have been all sorted. “We like layers of redundancy…PACE,” he known as it. “Main, alternate, contingency, emergency.”
Baker to Vegas is objectively attention-grabbing—and within the narrower context of what Verizon Frontline does, it’s much more so. They clearly ship a big impact by offering end-to-end comms, nevertheless it’s additionally a possibility for them to check out new gear and architectures, practice up new crew members, and in any other case do one thing that’s good for individuals. That’s the kind of factor you are able to do on bluesky days. However they’re not all bluesky days; there are numerous darksky days too.
Speaking concerning the relay, Wooden mentioned, “We don’t view it as an incident. It’s a coaching train/expertise. Nevertheless it additionally has actual life and demise prospects on race days.” Verizon Frontline responded to round 1,500 incidents final 12 months. In 2023, Mentz’s crew mobilized for the devastating Hawaii wildfires that killed greater than 100 individuals, and leveled the city of Lahaina on Maui.
A part of the restoration effort there concerned utilizing drone-based cells to determine connectivity whereas terrestrial infrastructure was introduced again on-line. That course of was repeated down the coast till communications have been restored. Mentz recounted how his colleagues needed to constitution a cargo airplane out of LAX, load it up with the forms of property we noticed in Dying Valley, get it to Honolulu—the runway on the Maui airport isn’t lengthy sufficient to accommodate the plane—then get it on a barge over to Maui.
The power to shift mindset, to reply a name at midnight and roll out, sort of explains why so most of the Verizon Frontline crew are former army and former regulation enforcement. That put issues into perspective for me—what was occurring within the desert was actually critical, however most of Verizon Frontline’s day-to-day is far, rather more critical.
The entire Baker to Vegas Problem Cup Relay embodies that bluesky/darksky distinction. “This entire weekend,” Santos mentioned, “what it gives for coppers is simply an outlet…360-something days out of the 12 months, numerous these guys are pushing a black-and-white, and answering the calls, and coping with peoples’ worst days of their lives…These cops carry that. They’re human beings and so they carry that weight of all the things all year long.”