Self Rescue Seminar

Climbing is dangerous. Accidents happen. We hear about them all of the time, yet too few of us have the skills to save our partners. Pretty scary.

This series of seminars will help prepare you to handle such emergencies. It is taught from a climber's perspective - offering practical solutions to real situations, involving the kind of gear you probably already carry. While we hope that you will never have to use these skills, we are certain that the knowledge gained will make you a safer climber (and better climbing partner). Happily, many of these skills are transferable to aid climbing and mountaineering.

The seminars are designed to build on one another in complexity, so we strongly recommend that you take them all. However if you are experienced in self rescue techniques, you may be able to skip one or more of the classes.

Session 1 - Belay Escapes and Silly Rope Tricks: This class will focus on the "foundation" skills of vertical self rescue. We will start with friction knots and then put them to use as we learn how to escape a belay and ascend / descend fixed ropes.

Session 2 - Rappel Rescue: In this course, we will learn how to swoop down on an injured climber, attach them to our system and lower them to the ground. We'll also learn how to execute counterweight and two person rappel rescues.

Session 3 - Hauling Techniques:  An in depth exploration of hauling systems (A.K.A. a weakling lifts a big dude) including 2:1, 3:1, 5:1, and 6:1's.  We'll go from a belay escape to a hauling system and back again.

Session 4 - Rescuing an Injured Leader: Perhaps the most serious rescue is that of an injured leader who is more than half a rope length from the belay. This is a complicated task involving many of the skills taught in the earlier seminars.

Participants should have the following equipment:

• Climbing Shoes.
• Harness with a belay / rappel loop and gear loops.
• Belay Device. A tube type belay device like an ATC at minimum, preferably a Petzl Reverso or Black Diamond ATC Guide.
• 4-5 locking carabiners, two of which should be HMS/Pear shaped lockers
• 4-5 non-locking carabiners
• Two cordalettes made from 20-22 feet sections of either 5.5 to 6mm high strenght tech cord (such as Sterling Pro Cord) or 7mm accessory cord tied into loops.
• Two sections of 6mm accessory cord 4 feet long (for autobloks/prussik).
• 2 high strength 48" sewn runners (double length runners)
• Nut tool (recommended but optional).