Introducing, The Big Ernie Cup: What Crew Do You Think Will Take Home The Title?

And a workout.

There is a saying in wildfire that “pull-ups don’t put out fires,”… but there was always healthy competition when it came to doing them. For a number of years we had pull-up bars mounted on the back of our buggies so we could rack out a set anywhere we were. Grocery store pull-ups, gas station pull-ups, and a couple of dead hangs in camp after a shift to pop the lower back and hips back into place.

They are also a requirement for both Hotshots and Smokejumpers if you want to be hired. Physical standards are extremely important, in my opinion, but it shouldn't be something that’s intimidating or loathed. It should be a healthy competition. When I trained with my coworkers before fire season, we always tried to go just a little further than each other. We would rotate who chose the run each day, and new hills were found on each one. We would do pull-ups on tree branches mid-run just because we could.

It was healthy competition.

So with that, I would like to introduce The Big Ernie Cup. It will be a nationwide pull-up competition for Hotshot Crews. It’s pretty straightforward: The Hotshot Crew that can do the most pull-ups wins the Cup. Every crewmember gets one max set, add up your crew total, and have someone send in the results. One rule: They need to be dead-hang pull-ups with no kipping.

I will present the 2025 Big Ernie Cup to the Hotshot Crew with the highest total this June. It will be a Stanley Cup-style trophy. Then you can do whatever you want with that Cup… it’s yours. You’re the 2025 Big Ernie Cup winners. Carry it around, have it in the office, pour coffee in it, and take it to morning briefing at a fire, put it in a PG bag, and fly it into spike camp.

Until the following year, when a new crew will be crowned the winner, or maybe your crew goes back to back… maybe there will be a Big Ernie Cup Dynasty. We will find out. Every year, a new plaque will be added with that year’s winner.

If some crews have 20 or 23 crewmembers, we will pull out the middle crewmember total to make manifest numbers equal.

Crew totals can be submitted to Thehotshotwakeup@gmail.com before June 1st, 2025. What Hotshot crew do you think will win the 2025 Big Ernie Cup?

I will look to expand the competition next year to other resources unless there is feedback that engines, helitack, jumpers, and other crews want one of their own. Let me know.

So, on that note, let’s get a workout in to start the week off right. Stretch and get loose before you dive in.

Round 1: Three Times

• 20 weighted walking lunges