Physical Demands: The Pack Test & Fitness Requirements

Mar 4

Wildland firefighters carrying chainsaws and hiking in a burned area of a wildfire — *You will hike up and down very steep hills carrying lots of things countless times in fire*

Excerpted from a BLM fire job announcement:

Physical Demands: Duties involve rigorous fieldwork requiring above average physical performance, endurance and superior conditioning. Work requires prolonged standing, walking over uneven ground, and recurring bending, reaching, lifting and carrying of items weighing over 50 pounds and shared lifting and carrying of heavier items, and similar strenuous activities requiring at least average agility and dexterity.

All of the above is true in my experience. Days are long and can be exhausting.

Pack Test/ Fitness

The Arduous Work Capacity Test (commonly called the Pack Test) that every wildland firefighter needs to take every year to stay current and fight fire, is not a big deal.

You walk 3 miles carrying 45 pounds in under 45 minutes (some high elevation duty stations will have an adjusted time. Usually no more than 46:30). You have to walk, no running is allowed, and the course is generally flat. I’ve done it on tracks, trails, and roads. None had anything more than slight elevation changes.

When I first heard about the fitness test I assumed it had to be in my fire boots, but it’s not. I’ve worn running/hiking shoes every time.

I’m 5 feet tall and 110 pounds so I had never carried weight that far in such a fast time before and I was stressed about passing. I trained for my first pack test on a rolling hill course with 45 pounds of dumb bells in a giant backpacking backpack. This was awkward and probably hilarious to anyone who passed me huffing and puffing up the trail in shorts and tall leather boots with an enormous, poorly packed backpack. I did what I thought was 3 miles a few times and always came really close to 45 minutes.

When it came time to actually do the test, I was by myself with no one to pace off of and it was dead flat. I finished in 42 minutes and change. I was so excited! This isn’t particularly fast. In the years since, I’ve had coworkers blow me away in the pack test, finishing in 35 minutes or less. However, it’s pass/ fail. Tests don’t determine how good of a firefighter you are and as long as you pass the test easily, no one really cares how fast you did it.

During fire season, every crew I’ve been on makes time for physical training (called PT). We do hikes with our packs and extra weight, long runs, sprints, calisthenics, weight training, body weight exercises, and wildland specific training like line digs and hose lays (putting hose out from a water source to get it to a fire).

Fitness is incredibly important because a crew can only move as fast as its slowest member and you don’t want to be that person when fire is coming at you over a ridge or you need to get to a safe area NOW.

In order to stay fire fit, I do a lot of work in the off-season. I frequently backcountry ski, skate ski, do body weight and weight training, yoga for flexibility and core strength, downhill ski, and run.

I’ve found that there will always be someone who is a faster runner or stronger hiker, but as long as you can hold your own you will find your place on your fire crew and be a valuable and contributing crew member.

Other Fitness Tests

Another good way to test your fitness before your first fire season is to do the BLM Fitness Challenge and see what your score is (there are separate scores for males and females).

It consists of:

Pull ups/ or flexed arm hang (Max reps or flex arm hold until fatigue)
Push ups (Max completed in 3 minutes)
Plank (Perfect score is 5 minutes)
1.5 or 3 mile run (Score depends on finish time)

Some crews use the following US Hotshots Association Standards for their minimum fitness standards and each crew member has to do these tests in addition to the pack test at the beginning of fire season.

These standards basically correspond to a 300 score on the BLM Fitness Challenge which is what was required of all crewmembers on the hotshot crew I was on.

1.5 mile run in a time of 10:35 minutes or less
25 push-ups in 1 minute
40 sit-ups in 1 minute
Pull ups based on body weight:
- Greater than 170 lbs. = 4 pull ups
- 135-169 lbs. = 5 pull ups
- 110-134 lbs. = 6 pull ups
- Less than 109 lbs. = 7 pull ups