VERTICAL CHALLENGE

The backside of the aluminum stands at the High School is usually just a place for kids to hack around during home games. But over the weekend it was the perfect perch for 20 or so Nantucket and Cape firemen and women who practiced methods of defying one kind of invisible killer: gravity. Above (taken from the top of the press box) Firefighter/EMT Matt Dixon, left, and call EMT/Coast Guardsman John Dalen go hands-free during a rappelling exercise Saturday afternoon. The 18-hour course, known as "Ropes Rescue," was given by the Mass. Fire Academy from Stow, Mass.